The John Cena WWE retirement tour continues, with his career set to officially end on December 13.
Few would argue that the 48-year-old isn’t one of the biggest and most famous WWE stars of all time.
As such, his place in the WWE Hall of Fame is guaranteed – and could even come as soon as next year’s ceremony.
The only real question is: who will be chosen to induct the legendary star? Here are five potential options.
5. Triple H
Could WWE’s Chief Content Officer, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, be the one to induct John Cena into the Hall of Fame?
Not only does Triple H ultimately hold the power to decide who inducts Cena, but he was also one of Cena’s career rivals.
The two clashed in the main event of WrestleMania 22 in 2006 – Cena’s first-ever WrestleMania main event – and were the company’s two most heavily pushed stars throughout the first decade of the new millennium.
If Cena’s induction does come in 2026, few would be surprised to see Triple H deliver the honours.
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4. Randy Orton
In terms of John Cena’s career rivals, Randy Orton stands out as his longest-standing antagonist.
The pair first met in 2001 in WWE’s developmental system OVW, and would go on to feud on and off for the next 24 years, trading world championships back-and-forth.
For much of their near quarter-century rivalry, Cena played the clean-cut babyface opposite Orton’s despicable heel – until this year’s short-lived Cena heel turn reversed the roles.
As Cena’s most enduring rival, Orton is certainly in the conversation to induct him into the WWE Hall of Fame.
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3. Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes and John Cena clashed twice this year over the Undisputed WWE Championship – first in the highly polarising WrestleMania main event, and again at SummerSlam.
The WrestleMania bout divided opinion, thanks to Cena’s ill-advised heel turn and the involvement of Travis Scott; however, their SummerSlam rematch was widely celebrated as a classic.
That match may well go down as Cena’s last truly great bout, and a genuine passing-of-the-torch moment between the two top WWE stars of differing generations.
Poignantly, Rhodes could even be seen whispering “thank you for everything” to Cena after the SummerSlam match, a gesture that would make him a fitting choice to induct Cena into the Hall of Fame.
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2. Kurt Angle
John Cena’s very first televised WWE match came against Kurt Angle in June 2002 on SmackDown, when ‘The Prototype’ answered Angle’s open challenge.
Not only his debut opponent, Angle was also Cena’s first great career rival.
Inexperienced at the time, Cena was pulled to some of his earliest standout matches by Angle – their singles bouts at No Mercy 2003 and No Way Out 2005 still hold up today.
Given their shared history, Angle would be an ideal choice to induct Cena into the Hall of Fame.
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1. The Rock
Could John Cena’s WrestleMania 28 and 29 opponent, The Rock, be the one to induct him into the Hall of Fame?
The Rock and Cena stand as two of WWE’s biggest mainstream cultural icons.
Their careers mirror each other in many ways – both grew so big that they leveraged wrestling into Hollywood stardom – and together they delivered one of the biggest matches in wrestling history: their first clash at WrestleMania 28 still holds the record for the highest buyrate in WWE history.
It would be fitting, then, if the only man who can truly match Cena’s cultural appeal were the one to induct him into the Hall of Fame.
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