John Cena spent more than two decades building one of the most decorated and recognizable careers in WWE history, but when asked to single out his favorite match, he did not choose a major championship encounter, a celebrated rivalry, or one of the biggest events on the calendar.
Instead, Cena selected the match that started everything.
During an appearance at Tampa Comic Convention, Cena was asked which bout stands as his favorite from his professional wrestling career. The question had once been easy for him to sidestep. While he was still active, Cena regularly answered that his favorite match was always going to be the next one. Now retired, he acknowledged that the familiar response no longer works.
“That’s a good question. You know, I used to have a trick to get around this question that I no longer can use,” Cena said. “So while I wasn’t retired, if I would hear a question like yours, like ask your question, (What was your favorite match?) I would easily be like, ‘no problem, that’s my next one.’ That was my cheat code.”
For more background on this topic, read Kevin Nash Says His First WWE Title Win Was the Only World Championship Goal That Mattered.
Cena’s old answer fit the mindset he carried throughout his time in the ring. It kept the attention on what was ahead rather than what had already happened. For an active WWE performer, particularly one whose career was defined by longevity at the highest level, the next match represented another opportunity: another crowd, another opponent, another chance to add to a body of work that kept growing.
Retirement has given Cena a different perspective. Asked to provide a genuine answer, he explained that his first match carries a significance no later contest can duplicate. The choice was not presented as a dismissal of the many high-profile matches and opponents that followed. Rather, Cena viewed the beginning as the essential foundation for all of those moments.
“But now I have to actually answer your question, and I’ve been thinking about this, because it’s a serious question, right?” Cena continued. “I think I’ve had a bunch of fun with a bunch of matches and a bunch of opponents. But I don’t think any of those matches happen if I don’t have the first one.”
That logic ultimately made the decision clear for Cena. His favorite match is not necessarily the one associated with the grandest setting or the largest accomplishment. It is the first one because it made every subsequent match possible.
“So as much as I’ve had wonderful moments,” Cena said, “I think my first match is my favorite match because you can’t have any of the rest of them without the first one, right?”
A Retirement Answer Replaces Cena’s Familiar “Next One” Response
The response is especially notable because Cena openly framed it as an answer that could only come after his in-ring retirement. His “next one” line was more than a convenient way to avoid ranking the enormous number of matches from his career. It also reflected an active wrestler’s forward-looking approach.
As long as another appearance remained on the horizon, identifying one match as the definitive favorite could be unnecessary. There was always the possibility that an upcoming contest, an unexpected opponent, or a new chapter could become the answer. Retirement closes that particular door and changes the nature of the question. Cena now has a completed in-ring career to consider rather than an unfinished list of future possibilities.
Even with that finality, Cena did not frame his answer as a conventional greatest-hits selection. He made clear that he had enjoyed “a bunch of fun” matches with “a bunch of opponents.” The wording matters because it recognizes the breadth of his experience without attempting to construct a ranked list of career highlights.
Instead of naming one of those later marquee moments, Cena focused on cause and effect. The first match was the event that created the path to everything after it. Without that opportunity, there are no later memories to weigh against one another.
Why the First Match Means the Most
Professional wrestling careers are often remembered through signature rivalries, title wins, defining promos, and appearances on the industry’s biggest stages. Those are the moments most likely to be revisited by fans, debated for years, and placed in highlight packages. Cena’s answer looks beyond that traditional measuring stick.
By choosing his initial match, Cena placed value on the moment of arrival. A first match is not simply another entry on a career record. It is the beginning of a wrestler’s ability to test themselves in front of an audience and begin turning preparation, training, ambition, and opportunity into a real career.
For Cena, it also represents the point from which an extraordinary number of later experiences flowed. His explanation did not depend on match quality, stakes, or a particular result. It centered on gratitude for the opportunity itself. That first contest became the gateway to every opponent he faced and every memorable moment he later experienced.
There is a simplicity to the answer that makes it resonate. Fans can debate which Cena match was his best, which rivalry was most important, or which performance captured him at his peak. Cena did not attempt to settle any of those debates. He answered a more personal version of the question: which match matters most to him when considering the complete story of his career?
His answer was the one that allowed the story to begin.
Cena Looks Back on a Career Built Over More Than 20 Years
Cena was one of professional wrestling’s leading names for more than 20 years, competing with many of the most prominent figures of WWE’s modern era. That scope naturally gives a question about a favorite match considerable weight. A career lasting that long contains countless settings, opponents, and turning points, making any single selection difficult.
His comments at Tampa Comic Convention also show that he has not forgotten the basic significance of getting the first chance to perform. Rather than treating the earliest chapter as something overshadowed by the accomplishments that followed, Cena gave it greater importance precisely because of what came next.
That perspective can be applied to the way audiences look back on long careers as well. The matches that receive the most attention are often the ones with the biggest immediate impact. Yet a performer’s first match can carry a distinct personal importance that is impossible to recreate later, regardless of how much larger the stages become.
Cena’s selection does not reduce the importance of his other matches. He specifically acknowledged having many wonderful moments during his career. His point was that all of them trace back to the same starting place. Every later opportunity existed because the first one happened.
A Personal Choice Rather Than a Debate Over the “Best” Match
There is an important distinction between a favorite match and an objectively “best” match. Cena was asked for the former, and his response remained firmly personal. He did not claim that his debut was his most technically impressive contest or the largest match of his career. He said it was his favorite because of its place in the larger journey.
That makes the answer less about comparison and more about appreciation. Cena’s career included many opponents and many enjoyable matches, but he chose the event that gave him the opportunity to have all the others. It is an answer rooted in perspective gained after retirement rather than in the competitive focus of an active performer.
Elsewhere during the same convention appearance, Cena also discussed how he prepared for his heel turn. However, when it came to identifying the match closest to him, his answer was centered on a much earlier moment: the first time he stepped into the ring for a match and set the rest of his career in motion.
For years, Cena could answer the question by looking toward the next challenge. Now, with his wrestling career behind him, he has looked all the way back to the beginning. In his view, no later match could exist without that first one, and that is why it remains his favorite.
Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.