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John Cena on the 1 thing he wants to achieve before retiring from the WWE
John Cena is known for his loud and in-your-face personality, both in the wrestling ring and on screen.
As a child in small-town Massachusetts, Cena was bullied and started weightlifting at age 12 as a way to cope. He described how his unique style—complete with a high-top fade, polka dots, and airbrushed overalls—made him stand out and led to him being picked on.
Despite never planning to become a professional wrestler, Cena pursued the sport as a hobby in his early 20s, even though it meant living in his car because he couldn’t afford rent.
“I had avenues. It was a conscious choice to be like, ‘Nah, I like this wrestling thing, and I wanna do it as a hobby.’ I will work whatever B.S. job I can Monday through Friday so Friday night, I can dress up as a hero,” he said.
Now, Cena is preparing to retire from WWE, with his final performance scheduled for December 2025.
“I feel great,” he said about his decision to retire.
Before his retirement, Cena has one more goal: If he wins another world championship belt, he will become the most decorated champion in WWE history.
Whether rapping, wrestling, or making surprise appearances at the Oscars, Cena often reveals a more reserved side and admits he still gets nervous before he acts.
Cena on his latest movie role
In his latest movie, “Jackpot!,” wrestling icon Cena takes on the role of a bodyguard hired to protect a woman, played by actor Awkwafina, who accidentally ends up with a winning lottery ticket that makes her a target for murder. The action-comedy film showcases Cena’s tough-guy persona—something he is very well attuned to.
“Stereotyping’s okay. We’re humans. We judge. And the easiest way for us to judge is to put people into categories. We’ve grown as a species, so that’s not cool anymore,” Cena said.
In the movie, Cena plays a tough guy trying to be a nice guy—a character who struggles with his past. Reflecting on his own life, Cena said, “I think struggle’s part of life. If you meet somebody who’s not trying to climb some sort of hill, they could take a more honest look at themselves.”
Beyond acting and wrestling, Cena also speaks Mandarin, plays the piano, and writes New York Times best-selling children’s books. He also holds the record for granting the most wishes—over 650—for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
As he looks toward the future, Cena remains open to new possibilities.
“I’ll know what’s next when it comes up,” he said. “But I know if I wake up every day and say, ‘How can I earn the sunset?’ I’m gonna do something useful, and that’s gonna lead to something to be done.”
The House Ethics Committee, which has been conducting an investigation into sexual misconduct and obstruction allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, scheduled a vote for Friday on whether to release its report, according to three sources with knowledge of the committee’s work.
Hours after President-elect Donald Trump said he planned to nominate Gaetz to be attorney general, Gaetz resigned his congressional seat, effective immediately.
“I do not intend to take the oath of office for the same office in the 119th Congress, to pursue the position of Attorney General in the Trump Administration,” Gaetz said in his resignation letter obtained by CBS News
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that there was about an eight-week period during which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could fill his seat by setting the date for a special election.
Now that Gaetz has resigned, it is unclear whether the panel will vote on releasing the report, since Gaetz is no longer in Congress.
There is precedent in Congress on the Senate side for an ethics committee report to become public after a member resigns from Congress, however. In 2011, this happened when Sen. John Ensign of Nevada resigned amid allegations that he tried to hide an extramarital affair.
But it’s not clear that that would apply to the House, leaving open the possibility that the report on Gaetz would not be released.
In June, the House Ethics Committee released a statement saying it was investigating a range of allegations against Gaetz, including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and bribery.
Multiple sources at the time told CBS News that four women had informed the House Ethics Committee that they had been paid to go to parties that included sex and drugs, and that Gaetz had also attended. The committee has Gaetz’s Venmo transactions that allegedly show payments for the women.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has called the committee’s investigation a “frivolous” smear campaign.
Some of the allegations of sexual misconduct under review by the committee were also the subject of a previous Department of Justice probe into Gaetz. Federal investigators sought to determine if Gaetz violated sex trafficking and obstruction of justice laws, but no charges were filed.
The House Ethics Committee resumed its investigation into Gaetz in 2023, following the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue charges against him.
Gaetz has long blamed then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, also a Republican, for the probe. And Gaetz later led the movement to sack McCarthy as speaker.
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