Booking John Cena's WWE Retirement Tour, MITB Cash-In Fumbled and More Quick Takes

John Cena announced his intentions to retire from in-ring competition at WWE Money in the Bank 2024 with an official tour set to kick off at the onset of 2025 with Raw's arrival on Netflix.

The soon-to-be Hall of Famer has left an indelible mark on the industry and therefore deserves a swan song of epic proportions, starting with a star-studded string of matches to kick off WrestleMania season next spring.

Meanwhile at Saturday's show in Toronto, Drew McIntyre managed to emerge victorious in the men's Money in the Bank Ladder match before going on to unsuccessfully cash it in for the World Heavyweight Championship that same night due to interference from his heated rival CM Punk.

Not only was it the most predictable path possible, it was also a compete waste of what could have been a massive opportunity for a star on the rise. McIntyre was the only former WWE world champ involved in the matchup and didn't benefit from winning it in the slightest despite it being used as a storyline device to further his feud with The Voice of the Voiceless.

This installment of Quick Takes will discuss WWE's poor execution of the angle and how it could have been done differently, AEW's MJF and Mercedes Moné being back in their element as heels, potential roles for Seth Rollins at SummerSlam, and more.

John Cena simply having one more match before calling it quits wouldn't have sufficed. For a star of his caliber, a full-blown, year-long retirement tour was the way to go.

Announcing it six months in advance wisely generates buzz and builds anticipation. Kicking it off in January perfectly coincides with Raw's grand premiere on Netflix and could allow Cena to wrestle a match on one of the first few shows on the platform.

Putting him in the Royal Rumble match and Elimination Chamber are no-brainers, especially considering the stakes in both bouts, but the amount of exciting matchups he can have with familiar foes and fresh faces is limitless.

CM Punk has already expressed interest in rekindling his rivalry with Cena one last time, so it'd be ideal for them to run it back early on in 2025. The same can be said for a possible WrestleMania match with Randy Orton, someone whose career has closely mirrored Cena's over the last two decades.

Cena vs. Cody Rhodes leads the list of box-office attractions Cena can have in the latter half of the year, potentially with the WWE Championship up for grabs. Cena chasing his record-setting 17th world title is, of course, the easiest and strongest story that can be told during this run.

One-on-one matchups with Bron Breakker, Logan Paul, LA Knight, AJ Styles and Jacob Fatu should all be considered top priority as well. Cena's retirement tour should be special if he does indeed wrestle as much as he claimed he would during the Money in the Bank post-show press conference.

Seth Rollins has long been synonymous with SummerSlam. Between contesting instant classics and capturing championships, he's widely considered to be among the best performers in the pay-per-view's recent history if not ever.

That's why him being excluded from the event this year would come as quite the surprise if WWE can't find a logical spot for him on the card.

With his loss to Damian Priest at Money in the Bank, he can no longer challenge Priest for the World Heavyweight Championship as long as he holds the gold. Rollins winning would have set him up perfectly for a marquee match with Gunther at SummerSlam, but now he's left without an obvious opponent.

Bron Breakker is bound to be busy with Intercontinental champion Sami Zayn, Chad Gable and The Wyatt Sicks have their own story going on, and he has no reason to continue fighting The Judgment Day.

The sole solution would be to somehow incorporate him into the ruthless rivalry between CM Punk and Drew McIntyre, both of whom he has history with from earlier this year. Expanding it to a Triple Threat would be unnecessary, but it's possible Rollins gets involved to attack Punk and cost him the victory out of retaliation for what went down at Money in the Bank.

Either way, Rollins' presence must be felt at SummerSlam in some form or fashion.

AEW has been severely lacking in the heel department for some time now, but on the Beach Break edition of Dynamite, MJF and Mercedes Moné seemed to solve that issue in one fell swoop.

Moné's AEW stint got off to a rather rough start when she was relegated to doing nothing but commentary and cutting subpar promos before finally wrestling at Double or Nothing, where she captured the AEW TBS Championship. She struggled to find her footing as a babyface, but getting booed at Forbidden Door seemed to be the catalyst for her turning heel again.

That was made apparent during her face-off with the returning Britt Baker on Dynamite where both women excelled in their respective roles. Not only is Baker vs. Moné a massive attraction for All In, their feud will benefit greatly from its current dynamic.

As for MJF, his attack on Daniel Garcia at the end of the episode was much-needed. He has been beloved as a babyface since returning from injury, but he lacked the edge that made him such an exceptional main-event player for so long.

Now, the stage is set for what should be a must-see program between him and Will Ospreay heading into All In at Wembley Stadium.

For as much as Money in the Bank 2024 was about who walked out winners and with briefcases in tow, there were several Superstars who shined in defeat across the card, namely Bron Breakker and Chelsea Green.

The 26-year-old son of a Steiner unsuccessfully challenged Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Championship but dominated a majority of the match and had the crowd captivated with his innovative offense.

Despite being beaten in clean fashion, he did more than enough damage to Zayn to prove himself as a future champ. In fact, it's fairly likely he'll capture the championship as soon as SummerSlam if a rematch is in order—and it should be.

Everyone involved in the women's Money in the Bank Ladder match put forth a commendable effort, but Green in particular boosted her stock considerably with the performance she had in front of the Toronto faithful.

Green's character work has been a recurring highlight on WWE TV over the last year and should eventually be rewarded with a title run of some kind. Although she failed to become Ms. Money in the Bank, she cemented her status as a star ready to break through to the next level.

The Money in the Bank Ladder match has a history of making new stars dating back to its inception in 2005. The concept has lost a lot of its luster in the last several years due to being overexposed and a number of the winners not amounting to anything of note, but fans remain excited for both bouts at the annual event, regardless.

WWE nailed the women's winner this year with Tiffany Stratton, who is guaranteed to have a bright future ahead of her. Drew McIntyre, on the other hand, was a waste of a winner for the men's matchup.

McIntyre was the only competitor of the six to have been a former WWE world champ. Obviously, his cash-in was always meant to be thwarted by CM Punk in order to add more fuel to their feud, but it was essentially a rerun of what was already done with them at Clash at the Castle in Glasgow, Scotland just last month.

Punk costing McIntyre the World Heavyweight Championship for a third time at Money in the Bank was a well-executed albeit unnecessary angle.

Undisputed WWE champ Cody Rhodes and soon-to-be World Heavyweight champ Gunther are expected to hold onto their respective titles through at least WrestleMania 41, but Money in the Bank winners have an entire year to trade in their title shot.

There's no reason Punk couldn't have cost McIntyre the briefcase so the uber-popular Jey Uso could have become Mr. Money in the Bank instead, but WWE opted to instead book a failed cash-in for the fourth time in seven years—not to mention other Money in the Bank misfires that have happened with Otis and Brock Lesnar along the way.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.