John Cena came within 37 seconds of a WWE Royal Rumble landmark as 38-year record may never be broken

Jan 31, 2026 - 11:30

Saturday’s Royal Rumble is WWE’s first since the emotional retirement of John Cena.

Cena formally stepped away from in-ring competition earlier this year, tapping out to Gunther in Washington back in December.

Royal Rumble has been kickstarting the WWE year for almost 40 years

As a result, for the first time since his WWE debut, Cena is no longer even a theoretical part of January’s biggest WWE night.

A focal point of the 2025 Rumble, where he was outlasted only by winner Jey Uso, Cena had been a sporadic feature in the multi-man melee in more recent years.

Even as his Hollywood career blossomed, Cena continued to wrestle sporadically, return for marquee moments and leave the door ajar for one more appearance.

Retirement now closes that door entirely, marking a clear break between the event and one of its most familiar figures.

The Royal Rumble has followed Cena’s WWE career more closely than almost any other match. He first appeared in the event in 2003 and went on to win it twice, in 2008 and 2013, becoming a near-constant presence through the Ruthless Aggression and PG eras.

Cena’s iconic Rumble comeback

His most iconic January moment came in 2008, when Cena made a shock return at number 30 just four months after tearing his pectoral muscle. The comeback stunned the crowd, fast-tracked him straight back into the title picture and remains one of the most replayed moments in Royal Rumble history.

Across his Royal Rumble match appearances, Cena amassed a cumulative time of 3 hours, 19 minutes and three seconds. It is a total that places him comfortably among WWE’s most productive January performers in an era on which he was heavily relied.

Despite that dominance, the Royal Rumble record books show that one WWE name towers above Cena in almost every meaningful category.

Kane’s Royal Rumble résumé is unlike anything the company has produced before or since.

Dating back to the 1990s, across multiple eras and even multiple identities, Glenn Jacobs appeared in an astonishing 20 Royal Rumble matches, a record that has never been matched. Eighteen of those came as Kane, with earlier appearances under the Isaac Yankem and the infamous Fake Diesel moniker.

Brock Lesnar has been a dominant Rumble figure but even he’s been dwarfed by one figure

Kane has topped many a Rumble chart and still looks unstoppable in the record books

Kane holds the record for most total eliminations in Royal Rumble history with 46, combining 45 eliminations as Kane with one as Yankem – proof, if ever it was needed, that his brief ‘Diesel’ run was a disaster.

He also cleared out 11 opponents in a single Royal Rumble, a total surpassed only by Braun Strowman, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns.

The 2001 Royal Rumble saw Kane last 53 minutes and 46 seconds, earning Iron Man honours and cementing his reputation as the match’s most reliable enforcer.

When the cumulative numbers are laid out, the gap between Kane and Cena is remarkably fine. Kane’s total Royal Rumble time comes in at 3 hours, 19 minutes and 40 seconds, just 37 seconds more than Cena managed across his entire run.

Hidden WWE landmark looks untouchable

While that margin is slim, another Kane record feels far more resistant to modern WWE booking. His 20 Royal Rumble appearances stand alone at the top of the list, with the nearest active challengers, The Miz and Kofi Kingston, currently sitting on 16 each.

To surpass Kane, either man would need to wrestle in every Royal Rumble from now through 2030. By that time, The Miz would be months from his 50th birthday, with Kingston barely a year further behind.

Cena (right) missed out on Kane’s impressive accumulative time by a matter of seconds in 2025

Kane’s last Rumble was in 2021 and another looks a long shot

WWE ploughs ahead without Cena with Royal Rumble setting the stage for the first WrestleMania since his retirement

It’s possible both remain under contract in 2030 but, in an ever-shifting WWE landscape that favours the raw and young, it looks less likely they’ll still be a factor in Rumble action at that point.

If that ends up being the reality, it leaves the Big Red Machine as the all-dominant figure in the Rumble’s epic 38-year history.

As Royal Rumble 2026 takes place this weekend in Saudi Arabia, the search begins once again for WWE’s next WrestleMania standard bearer.

Cena will not be part of that conversation this time, not even as a possibility – with Kane arguably only slightly more likely to turn up in Saudi Arabia this weekend given he hasn’t wrestled since 2021’s Rumble, nor worked a singles match since 2018.

Kane, like Cena, may be long gone from the upper echelons of WWE, but the Royal Rumble records he holds look set for immortality.