WWE: John Cena Retirement Tour Plans Update, More on Samantha Irvin Departure, WWE Announces Several New Events for Early 2025 Events Schedule

John Cena WWE Retirement Tour Plans Update

As noted before, John Cena announced this past July that he will be holding a retirement tour for his in-ring wrestling career in 2025.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials have held internal talks regarding plans for Cena to challenge one of the two top champions in the company in an effort to have him break his tie with Ric Flair for the most ever World Championships victories record.

Meltzer reported that WWE officials are currently strongly considering for this potential match to take place at next year’s WrestleMania 41 event.

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Update on Samantha Irvin’s WWE Departure

As noted before, WWE RAW brand ring announcer Samantha Irvin departed from WWE this past October over issues related to the two sides not being able to come to terms for outside music projects and Irvin wanting to do more than just be a ring announcer in the company.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials were not happy at Irvin over her social media posts where she publicly stated her displeasure with her ring announcing job and her reasons for leaving the company. Those spoken to reportedly stated that WWE officials had originally respected her decision for leaving but became frustrated afterwards since they could do nothing to force her to take down her tweets.

One source spoken to within WWE reportedly claimed that the harassment Irvin was getting from WWE fans over her departure was the same type that Cargill was getting from AEW fans over her departure but WWE officials did not allow Cargill to respond back nor in the way Irvin has done.

In regards to Irvin’s claims that she had given her notice to depart far in advance to WWE, PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources spoken to within WWE stated that Irvin’s claims did not hold up no matter what she wrote online. One person spoken to described her situation as “cut bait and moved on ASAP.” Others spoken to reportedly also felt that her recent comments on Twitter have undercut her credibility for her claims. Johnson speculated that this current feeling might be more of a sour grapes feeling on WWE’s end over her publicly knocking that she didn’t get a bigger role in the company.

Johnson reported that the current belief within WWE is that Irvin had informed the company the week before that she was leaving and kept news of it to herself to explain the lack of any goodbyes she gave the week before her departure.

One source spoken to pointed out how the company treated Kayla Braxton’s exit and stated that had Irvin handled things differently, she would have received a similar big sendoff by the company.

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WWE Announces Several New Events for Early 2025 Live Events Schedule

WWE announced thirteen new dates for their current schedule of live events for early 2025.

Official press release:

WWE announces 13 Live Events as part of The Road to WrestleMania 2025 Tour

November 1, 2024 – WWE, today announced 13 live events as part of the company’s Road to WrestleMania 2025 touring schedule.

Tickets for each live event go on sale Tuesday, November 12 at 10am local. Fans can register now for exclusive pre-sale access which starts Monday, November 11 at 10am local by visiting https://www.wwe.com/new-events-presale-registration.

SmackDown – Friday, January 3
Phoenix, Arizona: Footprint Center

SmackDown – Friday, January 10
Portland, Oregon: Moda Center

RAW – Monday, January 13
San Jose, California: SAP Center

SmackDown – Friday, January 17
San Diego, California: Pechanga Arena

RAW – Monday, January 20
Dallas, Texas: American Airlines Center

SmackDown – Friday, January 24
Austin, Texas: Moody Center

RAW – Monday, January 27
Atlanta, Georgia: State Farm Arena

RAW – Monday, February 3
Cleveland, Ohio: Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse

SmackDown – Friday, February 7
Memphis, Tennessee: FedExForum

RAW – Monday, February 10
Nashville, Tennessee: Bridgestone Arena

RAW – Monday, February 17
Charlotte, North Carolina: Spectrum Center

SmackDown – Friday, February 21
New Orleans, Louisiana: Smoothie King Center

SmackDown – Friday, March 7
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Wells Fargo Center