Why did John Cena retire and what is his role at WrestleMania?

John Cena is making his first return to WWE since retiring in a major role at WrestleMania 42 this weekend.

The record-breaking 17-time world champion called time on his illustrious in-ring career with a defeat to Gunther in December.

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The 48-year-old, who had built his WWE persona upon a mantra of never giving up, symbolically tapped out for the first time in 21 years.

However, just five months later, Cena is stepping back onto The Grandest Stage of Them All in Las Vegas, but all is not what it seems.

What is John Cena’s role at WrestleMania?

Cena has been announced as the host for both nights of WrestleMania 42, but won’t be competing as an active WWE performer.

“It’s incredible,” Chief Content Officer, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, said on Cena’s comeback to Joe Tessitore.

“In any sport or business or anything else, certain legends that transform the business or the sport itself, John is one of those, right?

“John has become a household name globally, and there’s a period of time where your body just can’t do what you want it to do anymore, and I think for John, to have the moment where he gracefully bowed out in the way that he wanted to was phenomenal for him.

“But he loves this, and still has this incredible passion for it. It’s funny, he can be on a movie set somewhere and he’ll call me and I’ll talk to him for five minutes and the intensity and the emotion of which he will talk to me about what he wants to talk about — there’s oftentimes where I think to myself, I wonder if he’s that passionate about the movie he’s making?

“That can be an arduous task, and is he in this moment, like, when he goes back to talking about the passion for this, it’s a different level.

“I don’t know that answer, but I just know that he loves this.

“I do believe in his commitment that he will never wrestle, perform in-ring again.”

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Why did John Cena retire?

In the main event of night two of Mania 41 last year, Cena dethroned Cody Rhodes to win the Undisputed WWE Championship.

In doing so, he became WWE’s first-ever 17-time world champion, but hung up the jean shorts mere months later.

Since 2018, the Peacemaker actor has transitioned to wrestling part-time as his acting career in Hollywood has taken off.

And Cena has stressed that he could feel himself getting ‘a step slower’ and wanted to leave before Father Time caught up with him.

“It’s something I wish I could do forever,” Cena told Entertainment Tonight in February.

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“I think the reasonable approach is to understand when it’s time to step away, and this was a process that took like three years.

“I had the idea, pitched the idea – 15 months later we announced a tour and then a year we had the tour.

“So I did have plenty of time to get into a space that like, ‘Ok, my in-ring performance from WWE is over.’ I’m happy that we did…

“I thought we did an incredible year of business, and certainly the audience has talked about it, and I’m very grateful for that.”

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WrestleMania 42: Date and how to follow

WrestleMania 42 will take place on Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19 from 12am UK time on each night.

It will be held at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the home to NFL side Las Vegas Raiders.

It will be broadcast live on Netflix for fans in the UK as a continued part of the company’s historic £4billion ten-year deal.

WrestleMania 42: Fight card

Subject to change

Night 1 (April 18)

• The Vision (Logan Paul and Austin Theory) and IShowSpeed (with Paul Heyman) vs. The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) and LA Knight
• Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre
• Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan – for Women’s World Championship
• AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch – for WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship
• The Irresistible Forces (Nia Jax and Lash Legend) (c) vs. Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley and Lyra Valkyria vs. The Bella Twins (Brie Bella and Nikki Bella) – for WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
• Seth Rollins vs. Gunther
• Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton (with Pat McAfee) – for Undisputed WWE Championship

Night 2 (April 19)

• Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar
• Penta (c) vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Dragon Lee vs. JD McDonagh vs. Rusev vs. Rey Mysterio – for WWE Intercontinental Championship
• Jade Cargill (c) vs. Rhea Ripley – for WWE Women’s Championship
• Sami Zayn (c) vs. Trick Williams – for WWE United States Championship
• “The Demon” Finn Balor vs. Dominik Mysterio
• CM Punk (c) vs. Roman Reigns – for World Heavyweight Championship