John Cena's final WWE match was surprisingly inDecember and not at WrestleMania, and that decision was one requested by Cena himself, who outlined the reason for it.Cena said on the "No-Contest Wrestling" podcast that December is a lull period for WWE and he wanted to change that by having his final match during the month."There is a lot of stuff going on in December and in the WWE calendar, like, Survivor Series is the last one and then everyone waits for the Rumble. December is like a month in limbo. They've never really been able to crack that code. And with people on holiday, there's until the holiday season is over until like the 26th, tickets are tough to sell because people are spending on holiday presents," he explained.Cena took his idea to both Triple H and Nick Khan, and described to them why it was best for him to retire in December. He asked Triple H to choose his opponent, asserting how he never chose his opponents, while he explained to Khan why he had a desire to have his final match inDecember."[I told] Nick, from a business perspective, the data that I've gathered over 23 years of doing business is December is soft. WrestleMania is going to sell itself. So, retiring at WrestleMania is selfish. It doesn't do anything for the business. We retire in December, our weakest month, and we take the middle of December the dry zone, that that desert from the end of Survivor Series to the beginning of the Rumble we put it like right in the middle of December because I know once you do the holiday tour, the houses will come back. You guys will make money. Let's show a profit in Q4," Cena said.The 17-time world champion feels that the decision to have his last match at Saturday Night's Main Event in December was a success, evidenced by the show breaking the largest live gate for a WWE event in an arena.
