John Cena wasn't universally popular when he was a regular performer at WWE. He had his fans, sure, but he was constantly booed at arenas across the country and was criticized by the “smart” marks for constantly burying young, ascending talents, from the Nexus to Alberto Del Rio.

And yet, in a twist of fate no one saw coming, at least no one who spent good money to see The Marine, Cena became, like, really popular. He embraced his goofy side in movies like Blockers and Trainwreck, became a superhero on both the big and small screen, and even transformed into a purple, anthropomorphic cow in an incredible piece of filmmaking magic for Experian Boost commercials.

Sidebar: Okay, that's not actually Cena in the Experian commercials; he's just lending his voice to an animated cartoon.

So naturally, now that the Cena haters have come around and he's just too financially valuable to risk his health and new hair in something as potentially dangerous as wrestling in your mid-40s, it was only right for the WWE Universe to get him back in a ring, albeit without an opponent to celebrate his efforts both as a performer and as a person. RAW committed what felt like a third of its TV time to celebrating Cena – as the name would suggest – and when he was given the mic, Mr. “You can't see me” returned the favor with a speech for the ages and enough crowd work to make the fans in attendance feel like they too could do anything.

If that was the last time Cena steps in a ring at least for a very long time, an admission he made in the ring, this was one heck of a way to go out.