WWE Almost Brought Back Hall of Famer to Wrestle John Cena on His Retirement Tour

With John Cena announcing his plans to retire at the end of 2025 late last year, speculation immediately began on who the icon would face during his final few months in WWE. He’s since wrestled again some of his oldest rivals, including Randy Orton and CM Punk, while also facing key figures at the top of the company today in Cody Rhodes and Logan Paul.

There’s some disappointment among fans, though, that Cena hasn’t faced more of his historic rivals. Some are off limits, such as Edge who is now wrestling in AEW under his real name, while the likes of Triple H and Shawn Michaels are long since retired and unable to step into the squared circle again.

There is one man who faced off against Cena in one of the most infamous matches of his career and the company actually wanted to bring him back into WWE to wrestle the star again before he called it quits. They even opened talks on a possible return, but according to the former world champion himself, it didn’t pan out.

WWE Wanted to Bring a Former World Champion Back to Face Cena

With just a few months left of Cena’s wrestling career, there’s a match with Brock Lesnar on the horizon, but outside of that, it’s unclear who he is still yet to face. One man that he could have wrestled, though, is Rob Van Dam. The former WWE Champ squared off with Cena at ECW One Night Stand in 2006, winning the title from him in a match that fans still talk about to this day due to the electric atmosphere surrounding it in the audience.

Van Dam is a WWE icon and one of the greatest high-flyers in the history of the industry, but he hasn’t stepped into a WWE ring since 2014. That could have changed, though, as he revealed that the company reached out to him about returning to be one of Cena’s final opponents. Unfortunately, it all fell through after he picked up an injury and they pivoted in a different direction.

Speaking to TMZ about the situation, he said:

Fans would have loved to see Van Dam back in WWE taking on Cena before the GOAT retires for good at the end of 2025, but it wasn’t meant to be. Still, that doesn’t mean there won’t be an opportunity for the Whole F’in Show to come back and do something with the company again in the future.