John Cena retired on December 13th, 2025. John Cena put up a fight against Gunther in what is probably the best match storytelling wise out of the disaster that was his retirement tour. Throughout the match he keeps giving FUs to Gunther, and time and time again Gunther keeps kicking out of them. Gunther over and over again gets Cena in the same submission hold until Cena finally taps out, the first time since the 2000s, as he smiles, not giving up, but letting go as he has nothing left to prove for his career. Hiroshi Tanahashi retired on January 4th, 2026. Wrestle Kingdom 20, Tanahashi turns 50 years old this year. His retirement tour was better than Cena's, though the match quality ranged from just ok to good, as to be expected with someone with as bad knees as Tanahashi has. It seems Tanahashi was holding one more 5 star classic, his last match against Kazuchika Okada. Tanahashi fought as hard as he could for 30+ minutes. Mid-way through the match Okada does his pose with the middle finger as the camera zooms out. Some time later when it's time to cap off the match, Okada once again does the thing with the camera zooming out, but this time it's his normal pose, which I took as him showing respect for Tanahashi for fighting til the very end. Okada hits his last rainmaker and Tanahashi doesn't kick out, and much like Cena, Tanahashi has nothing left to prove in his career, and takes the loss to Okada. Tears were shed afterwards as Shibata, Ibushi, Naito, Omega, Ospreay, Mutoh, Fujinami, Jay White, amongst others showed up to say their goodbyes. Two aces of the biggest promotions for their country let go of professional wrestling as competitors to pursue other ventures, as Cena resumes his acting career, and Tanahashi resumes his president position within New Japan. Obviously I've never reached the heights either one of these guys have, my Sumo & Pro Wrestling careers never went anywhere other than winning a few times, but a few days ago, I've been informed that because of my spine injury there is a good chance I may never be able to step into a ring or onto a mat ever again. I turn 21 years old in a little over a month, I'm still very young, I can still recover and make a name for myself in either sport, but as of right now, I've come to terms with letting go of this dream for the time being. Instead, much like Tanahashi & Cena, I'm pursuing other ventures, which is writing in this case. I've been hired to write for something I can't talk about just yet, but it does have to do with combat, and I'm very excited about it. The point of this post being, if two aces of pro wrestling can let go and do other things, so can I, and hey, who's to say writing for this big project won't lead back to pro wrestling in another role in the future. Unlike Cena & Tanahashi, I'm not saying goodbye, I'm saying see you later, and even if that "later" doesn't come, I won't let myself dwell on it. There is no shame in letting go, because letting go is ok. -🍔