The last time for John Cena began with the WWE Raw Netflix premiere episode, where he declared his target to become the 17th world champion. This led him to compete in the Men’s Royal Rumble 2025 matchup in the hope of main-eventing Wrestlemania, but that didn’t lead him to any success.
However, WWE did capitalize on his presence at the first premium live event of the year. Being the former franchise player of the company, he’s back in the top-most merch-mover’s position following Royal Rumble. As such, he’s bested the Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes despite his win over Kevin Owens in a ladder match to retain his title.
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John Cena sold tons of merchandise during Royal Rumble weekend
According to the reports of Fightful Select, contacts close to both Fanatics and WWE said that John Cena was the top merchandise seller among talent during The Rumble weekend. The outlet confirmed that generic WWE and Rumble-branded merchandise, like t-shirts and title belts, sold the best, around the former WWE Champion who came out second overall with Rhodes in third place.
Fightful further noted that Rhodes has been the top seller for the last few years while the winner of the Men’s Royal Rumble match, Jey Uso, was also among the top five talents. However, his merchandise sales went through the roof after he toppled John Cena to win the match. Reports also suggest that Roman Reigns rounded out the top five, but it wasn’t confirmed.
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Apart from John Cena, Alexa Bliss’ merchandise also sold well after she appeared to be perhaps the most-discussed returnee of the Women’s Royal Rumble match. Coming out after a two-year hiatus, she debuted a new version of the Lily doll, that was inspired by the Wyatt Sicks with a “six” sewed into one of its eyes, as seen during her entrance. This doll is now on sale for $45 and is listed under “most popular” on Shop WWE.
During the post-Royal Rumble press conference, John Cena said that he’s going to compete in the Number-One Contender’s Elimination Chamber match for a title shot at Wrestlemania 41. For the time being, he’s admittedly headed back to Hungary for a film shoot and would only be back in the WWE for the gimmick-based PLE scheduled from Toronto, next month.