In an interview with SK Wrestling, John Cena Sr. reflected on his son’s long-awaited match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 34, and why the short, one-sided finish was exactly what it needed to be.
The elder Cena explained that while some fans were disappointed to see his son defeated so quickly, the moment made perfect sense from a storytelling standpoint.
“It was good storytelling,” Cena Sr. said. “You had the loudmouth on one end, and then The Undertaker finally shows up, and boom – it’s over.”
He drew a parallel between that WrestleMania moment and a segment from years earlier on SmackDown, when The Undertaker first confronted a young John Cena.
“Taker told him, ‘Kid, you’re writing checks your a$$ can’t cash,’” Cena Sr. recalled. “And that’s exactly what happened all those years later. The story came full circle.”
Cena Sr. said that, in hindsight, the squash match was a fitting end to a rivalry that had been building indirectly for over a decade. He pointed out that while the two icons had parallel careers, they rarely crossed paths – which made the sudden payoff even more effective.
“Fans waited years for that confrontation,” he continued. “When it finally happened, it was short, shocking, and it made sense. That’s good storytelling – knowing when less is more.”
He added that the bout served as a symbolic moment for both men – a passing of eras where Cena was nearing the end of his full-time WWE career while The Undertaker was preparing for retirement himself.
Cena Sr. praised both legends for knowing when to let the story dictate the outcome rather than ego. He also noted that WrestleMania 34 marked the end of an era, as it was the official end of Cena’s full-time career (as his appearances became rare after that):
“John always said, when he can’t give the fans what he used to, it’s time to move aside. That night was part of that transition.”
