John Cena Drops Hints About His WWE Retirement

Could John Cena's latest return be the start of his final victory lap through the WWE? On Tuesday night's Talking Smack, the 16 time World Champion dropped a few serious hints that point towards the Cenation leader hanging up the jorts sooner than later.

"I know that there is a sunset in the horizon. I'm very self aware of what's going on. I'm not saying I can't hang anymore, as a matter of fact, I'm saying I know every day gone is a day closer, so I'm going to make the most of every day. And that's dangerous to those guys out there. That's dangerous to those guys who are maybe trying to coast to next week, or don't give their all every single time they step in the ring. I have always left it all on the canvas, but now as I can see the sunset, I'm driven even more so to let every single person know that I still belong. I still can go, and I will still be the best."

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On Tuesday night's SmackDown Live, Cena teamed up with his former rival, AJ Styles, to push back the anti-American threat of Kevin Owens and Rusev.

Last week, Rusev interrupted Cena's grand patriotic return on Independence Day, reigniting the oldest feud between any of these four top talents, as The Bulgarian Brute and the o.g. "Face Who Runs the Place" have a storied history-- that story being the classic "Proud American" vs "Evil Foreigner Heel" angle that some see as outdated, but is still in heavy use by the WWE today.

Cena and Rusev will face off in an old-school flag match at WWE Battleground on July 23rd. After that, we have to assume Cena will move into the WWE title picture with Jinder Mahal, perhaps with a SummerSlam match in their future. Cena would be a likely candidate to dethrone the Modern Day Maharaja, but he could also be used to add even more validity to Mahal's current reign.

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With Cena's 'free agent' status looming, it can't be too long until he shows up on Raw. Otherwise, the tag is rendered meaningless. Many reports have Cena set for a date with destiny at next year's WrestleMania. If the rumors are true, Cena could be passing the WWE torch to Roman Reigns and going on a quest for his 17th World Championship at the same time.

The only thing we know for sure is that only John Cena will decide when it's time for him to hang it up, as WWE will want to push his sunset as far away as possible.