Add as a preferred source on Google Triple H doesn’t agree with fans who see John Cena’s retirement tour as a creative failure.
In Season 3 of WWE: Unreal, Triple H, WWE’s head of creative, acknowledged the negative reaction to some of the decisions made during Cena’s final year, but defended the tour’s overall outcome. Triple H said:
“Some people view John Cena’s farewell tour as a failure, I think it was a massive success all around.”
Cena made 36 appearances in 2025, though he had originally hoped to work around 220 dates and follow nearly the entire WWE schedule. The company, however, decided a much smaller schedule would be enough to tell his farewell story.
The tour delivered some of the biggest achievements of the Cenation Leader’s career. At WrestleMania 41, he defeated Cody Rhodes to capture his 17th world championship, a reign that lasted 104 days as Undisputed WWE Champion. Months later, he won the Intercontinental Championship for the first time to complete the Grand Slam.
Not everything went according to plan, though. Cena revealed in the documentary that Triple H scrapped the plan to deliberately make him “annoying,” since the approach was hurting the WWE product. The company also swapped a planned match against Drew McIntyre for one final match against AJ Styles, in response to fan requests.
The biggest backlash came on December 13, 2025, when Cena lost to Gunther in his final match. Triple H was booed after the show, while part of the audience questioned the approach used to end the career of a character associated for decades with the “Never Give Up” motto.