The reason behind US President Donald Trump's absence from John Cena's final WWE match has been revealed.
Cena competed in his last-ever match as a professional wrestler in Washington D.C. at Saturday Night's Main Event, losing to Gunther.
The 17-time WWE world champion left his shoes and elbow pads in the ring at the end of the match, officially closing out his 24-year career with the company.
The ring was surrounded with WWE stars of the past and present, with current world champions CM Punk and Cody Rhodes briefly handing their belts over to Cena.
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Kurt Angle, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Trish Stratus were among the WWE legends that made appearances in Washington D.C., while current main roster stars Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Carmelo Hayes and Roxanne Perez - who was involved in Cena's penultimate singles match - were also in attendance.
In a video montage shown on the big screen following the match, former WWE owner and chairman Vince McMahon made a brief appearance, via interview archive footage.
In 2024, former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a sex trafficking federal lawsuit against McMahon and WWE, with the 80-year-old company founder having been rarely mentioned on TV since. McMahon denies the allegations against him.
There had been speculation that McMahon, or his close friend Trump, would attend Cena's final match in Washington D.C.
Trump is a WWE Hall of Famer, having made sporadic appearances for the company from the 1980s up until 2008.
He was involved in the build-up of a match between Umaga and Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania 23, titled 'The Battle of Billionaires'.
The losing billionaire of the match between Umaga, representing McMahon, and Lashley, representing Trump, would have their head shaved on live television. Lashley won the match.
Regardless, Trump reportedly inserted a clause into his WWE contract which stated that under no circumstances would he have his head shaved.
As it turned out, neither McMahon nor Trump attended Saturday Night's Main Event.
The President had earlier attended a Army vs Navy football match, where he handled the coin toss and met players from both sides.
At 6:43pm EST - around an hour before the WWE event got underway - the White House issued a travel/photo lid notification to journalists, which indicates the completion of the President's business for the day.
Trump did later make an appearance to address a mass shooting incident at Brown University, Rhode Island, which has killed two people and left nine, several of whom are in a critical condition, injured.
Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp reports that US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr was present at Saturday Night's Main Event, with it unclear as to whether other members of the Trump administration attended.
Topics: WWE, Donald Trump, John Cena, Vince McMahon, Wrestling
Ryan Smart