John Cena’s retirement tour is inching toward its final chapter, with his last match set for December 13 at Saturday Night’s Main Event. WWE is leaning heavily into the moment with the ongoing Last Time Is Now tournament, which will determine the opponent who shares the ring with him one last time. But if CM Punk had been given the choice, the man standing across from Cena would have been himself.

During an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up, Punk was asked who should have the honour of closing out Cena’s career. Even though he isn’t part of the tournament, he didn’t hesitate to make his feelings known, leaning into humour before getting serious.

“Uh, well, perfect probably would have been me… but um, you know, I, you can’t really see, the title’s over here somewhere, but it’s blurry back there. Um, I put it on display for you… Yeah, there it is. No, no, no. Where is it? It’s there. You gotta take yourself off portrait mode or whatever. I don’t know what’s going on back there. I’m Generation X. I don’t know how to work any of this stuff. You’re lucky my headphones work and I can hear you.”

After the playful sideways dig at technology, Punk shifted focus to the actual tournament field. Names like Gunther, Solo Sikoa, LA Knight, Jey Uso, Rusev, and one mystery entrant are all in the mix, but one stood out immediately to him.

“Who’s the perfect opponent that’s actually in the field? I mean, right now I don’t know if it’s perfect, but it’s looking like Gunther. Because I’ve been in the ring with him and I know what he can do, and I don’t know who else in that tournament can beat him right now.”

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