The Undertaker believes WWE icon John Cena ‘deserves’ another world title run with the company seven years after his last reign.
Undertaker memorably performed in WWE across three decades, amassing numerous championship runs of his own.
Arguably wrestling’s greatest ever character creation, the Deadman is uniquely placed to comment on the longevity of Cena who, like him at the tail end of his tenure, has wrestled only sporadically in recent years.
He last featured in a match on the Raw after WrestleMania XL, where he’d teamed with tag champs The Awesome Truth to defeat The Judgement Day.
The outing continued an historic run of Cena having competed in at least one WWE match each year since his formative debut for the company in 2002.
That, too, came on the back of a fleeting appearance – alongside The Undertaker – at WrestleMania in Philadelphia in an Avengers Endgame style ending that saw Cody Rhodes win the Undisputed Universal title.
With 16 world title reigns under his belt and multiple other championships and accolades besides, could the Pacemaker star really make it 17?
Fellow veteran Undertaker is adamant Cena deserves it, discussing the issue on his Six Feet Under podcast recently.
What is likely a greater threat to that happening, he accepts, is Cena’s packed schedule of commitments.
“I think it probably depends on him, whether [he] has the time,” Taker explained, aware Cena would be less than willing to ‘phone in’ any title run at this stage of his career.
“[He] obviously deserves it but I think it basically it just depends on him
“I don’t know.… I mean he’s put a lot into it and, I think, whatever he wants to do.”
Talk on the podcast then shifted to how Cena might make any potential run with the gold work, the idea floated he could mirror Roman Reigns‘ part-time schedule or the recent four-month stint in WWE for Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Nonetheless, Cena isn’t blessed with many years in which to take another crack at a stretch in WWE – at least according to his own prediction.
The 47-year-old outlined earlier this year he plans to draw a ‘line in the sand’ once he turns 50, saying: “I would like to try and do it before that, but at 50, I’m just gonna Tweet out: ‘Peace out, see ya.’ That’s it, I’m good.”
Cena added: “I was very much driven where WWE was my passion 24/7, and I’m very grateful, but I’ve grown and there’s a lot of other avenues I’m curious about in life.
“Being a great husband and partner is one of those. I just want to try do what I can in those [years].”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Cena is equally as adamant that stepping away from the ring – whenever it happens – won’t see him winding down his conditioning and physicality.
He told People he plans to be ‘active’ for decades yet, insisting: “My goal is to be physically active until I can’t.
“I put a number in my head of like, I’d like to be physically active into my late 80s or 90s, to do a parallel squat in my late 80s.
“My training used to be based on every single day, be the strongest you can for that day. Now I have my eyes set 40 years down the road.”