5 things John Cena should do before his WWE career ends

Very few Superstars can lay claim to having a better WWE résumé than John Cena. The 16-time world champion has achieved almost everything there is to achieve for the company and is unquestionably the biggest star of his generation.

“The Face That Runs The Place” has swapped the squared circle for the silver screen for much of 2017 and, now that he's working a part-time WWE schedule, he admitted in September that he doesn’t know how long he has left as a pro wrestler.

He said after losing to Roman Reigns at No Mercy: “I have 15 years of track experience here in the WWE. And not at a normal level. At an elite level. And I don’t know how [much] longer I can keep it up.”

With those words in mind, we take a look at five things that Cena should do before he calls time on his WWE career once and for all.

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#1 Put his World Championship record on the line

John Cena is a 16-time world champion

John Cena defeated AJ Styles at the 2017 Royal Rumble to win the WWE World Championship for a 16th time (WWE title x13, Heavyweight title x3), equalling the long-standing record set by Ric Flair.

He quickly lost the title a little more than two weeks later to Bray Wyatt, and we’ve been left to wonder since February 2017 if and when he’ll challenge for the gold again, and whether he’ll ever break the record that Flair solely held for two decades.

The next time he challenges for the title, it’ll already be a high-stakes affair and the match will almost certainly close whatever pay-per-view it’s on, but to make the outcome a little less predictable, why not have Cena put his World Championship record on the line?

If he wins, he will regain the title and break Flair’s record. If he loses, he will forever be on 16 reigns and never be allowed to challenge for the championship again.

#2 Win tag titles with a future star

John Cena is a four-time Tag Team champion

When you look at any veteran of the WWE roster, you’ll notice among their Tag Team title reigns that they’ve held the championships with some unlikely allies at various stages of their career – and John Cena is no different.

He held the World Tag Team Championship on two occasions (with Batista and Shawn Michaels) and he also won the WWE Tag Team Championship on two occasions (with The Miz and David Otunga).

As is almost always the case with dysfunctional Tag Team champions, all four of those title victories were part of a storyline where the two would eventually lose the titles and end up competing against each other.

Instead, maybe Cena could win the titles with an up-and-comer, just like Hulk Hogan did with Edge in 2002, and help build a younger talent up and legitimise them as a future star.

#3 Main-event WrestleMania

John Cena hasn't main-evented WrestleMania since 2013

There was once a time when John Cena main-eventing WrestleMania had gotten so tiresome that fans wanted anybody but the 16-time world champion to close WWE’s biggest show of the year.

“Big Match John” headlined the event five times between 2006 and 2013, facing Triple H, Shawn Michaels, The Miz and, most notably, The Rock, who he traded victories with at back-to-back WrestleManias.

However, by the time WrestleMania 34 comes around in April, it will have been five years since Cena went on last at “The Shows of Shows”, which seems far too long for someone who has been one of the company’s biggest names for close to 15 years.

You’d imagine he’ll main-event another WrestleMania by the time his career finishes, either against Roman Reigns in a rematch from No Mercy or in a retirement match against The Undertaker (more on him shortly!).

#4 Lose clean to Braun Strowman

John Cena loses clean more often than some people think

John Cena has lost clean to Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose and Alberto Del Rio in the last two years, which is quite a lot of people considering he’s very much a part-timer – or “all-timer”, as the man himself would say – these days.

While “The Franchise” surely has a few high-profile victories left in his locker, there’s an ever-growing list of current and future main-eventers whose careers could benefit from a big win over the 16-time world champion.

At the top of that list is Braun Strowman, who has annihilated almost everyone in his path on Monday Night Raw in the last 18 months but, for whatever reason, his only pay-per-view singles victories have come against Reigns.

The list of names Cena has lost clean against since 2015 is alarming when you consider the directions that Bray, Del Rio and, to a lesser extent, Ambrose have gone in since those statement victories, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt Strowman’s career trajectory if he earned a win over the five-time WrestleMania main-eventer.

#5 Face The Undertaker

The Undertaker & John Cena's only PPV meeting was at Vengeance 2003

It just has to happen, doesn’t it? Throughout the 21 undefeated years of “The Streak”, The Undertaker vs. John Cena was the one blockbuster match that fans never got to see at WrestleMania.

WWE has tried to avoid babyface vs. babyface matches in recent years, especially at WrestleMania, so it’s no real surprise that we’re yet to witness two of the company’s most iconic Superstars go head-to-head on the biggest stage.

If ever there was a time to do it, that time is just around the corner at WrestleMania 34 – the last realistic chance that we’ll ever get to witness the match and quite possibly the last time we’ll ever see “The Phenom” compete inside the squared circle.

Rumour has it that ‘Taker requested to face Cena at WrestleMania 33 but, in what could still turn out to be his final WWE match, Vince McMahon made the decision to have him lose clean in the main event to Roman Reigns instead.

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