John Cena won't be missed when he retires from the wrestling ring, his long-time rival Wade "Gunther" Barrett said. Cena's farewell tour comes to and on Saturday night when he goes one-on-one with Gunther, bringing down the curtain on a 26-year-old wresting career.

But Barrett – who locked horns with Cena during a memorable feud in 2010 – says that despite being one of the biggest names in company history, the record-breaking 17-time world champion won't be a huge loss to the locker room.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star, Preston-born Barrett said: "To be fair he's not been around much for the past six or seven years, so I don't think it's going to be a seismic change.

"Despite all his commitments in Hollywood and his commercial commitments, he's done a great job for being around WWE for around the best part of the last 12 months.

"But in terms of him suddenly being taken out of the locker room, I think we got to that point in 2019 or 2020 and we really did rumble along really well. I think the management is different now. I think the company is just run better than it ever has been before a

"And you've got guys like Cody, like Roman, like CM Punk who have really filled that locker room leader hole where younger guys coming from NXT can look up these guys.

"I think we have the personnel behind the scenes now and in the locker rooms that can really help younger guys. John Cena, of course there's a void whenever he's not there, but it's one we can cover off."

British grappling legend Barrett burst onto the WWE scene in 2010 as the leader of the Nexus faction and had a main event feud with Cena.

Looking back on that time, he told us: "I was thrust into the spotlight in 2010, I went from a complete unknown in the developmental system of its day to suddenly main eventing PLEs and being in the biggest storyline in 2010.

"It was quite a seismic shift in my world to go from unknown to the brightest of spotlights with the biggest star in the industry. It was really a sink or swim time for me. I was wrestling a lot in FCW at the time and most of the matches were five or six minutes long.