WWE Saturday Night's Main Event: John Cena's Final Match

[The Gaffer]

Rest of the show:

- Other than the on-the-nose 'Fans bowing torwards the ring' final frame of the new intro signature, Triple H voiceover and Riyadh canvas, I thought the production of this show felt quite tasteful. Wall-to-wall Cena appreciation, interspersed with straightforward, decent matches, talking heads etc. I imagine they toned down some of the advertising for John, here, and the effect made a massive difference to the product. 

- It's probably not a downvote because at the end of the day he had an all time run, but it feels like Drew's career rather decidedly peaked with his Punk stuff. Repeating the "I'm OBSESSED with you!" angle again is bound to feel like law of diminishing returns. 

- First time seeing Sol Ruca and she looks like an absolute feel-good star in the making. Highlight of the show by a considerable distance, for me. 

- Didn't even mind that Miz bit, perfect use of him. 

 

Jhyaaaaaaawn Cena:

- The crowd were electric for Cena's stuff. It's perhaps a bit of an eye roll point - I know - and I get it with other sporting events too, but I find it hard to ignore how insane the ticket prices are now and shrug off the fact that it's a building full of quite well off, connected people. Does it nessacerily diminish the authenticity of their reactions? No. But it is what it is. 

- Hugging the legends - albeit with Elias just getting a quick handshake (I'm sure there was nothing in it, but it cracked me up) - was the best part of his night for me. Something about the Kevin Owens hug almost made me cry. Kevin Owens is the best. Kevin Owens came out of Cena's retirement looking the best. 

- The match was fine. Gunther is the Peter Ebdon of the WWE. I get what Cena was going for with the tap out but it looked very funny to me. Cole's grave "Tonight, professional wrestling destroyed sports entertainment" was a howler in so many ways, though. Ugh. 

- Was waiting to turn the stream off with the post match stuff. Completely burned out on the whole Cody and Punk - Grattitude Ambassadors shtick.

 

 

John Cena will always represent the shift to a certain kind of WWE for me, which in a way this ludicrous video game career mode DLC retierment angle has perfectly mirrored. There's a few moments in there I popped for - the Royal Rumble return chief amongst them - but on the whole he wasn't my guy which invariably played into this feeling a bit routine for me. He deserves the company machine calling him the greatest of all time, though, and they probably have the best chance they'll ever have finally at that Babe Ruth figure who'll be a permanent spokesperson/lobbyist for the 'E without squashing too many sour grapes or being too much of an unpredictable quantity. 

Can't imagine what will bring me back next. 'Rumble and 'Mania ain't doing it. Maybe this was the real 'The Last Time is Now'. 

Edited December 14, 2025 by The Gaffer

[SuperBacon]

Loved it, loved the finish, love John Cena.

Watched the whole show, and enjoyed pretty much all of it. First time seeing Oba Femi, and he looks absolutely superb. Bit green still but that's fine. 

Would love to see them have another massive match at some point as I really enjoyed it until it was ruined by probably my most hated wrestler ever.

I hated the comms all night, but that's by the by. 

Cena was brilliant here. I really don't care about all the after match shenanigans. You can't spend years moaning about WWE being predictable and then not be happy when they do something genuinely novel (well, those who actually watch it, that is). Everyone goes out on their back, John is no exception.

Anyway, he's the best, I'll miss him.

[RedTwoster]

2 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

It's probably not a downvote because at the end of the day he had an all time run, but it feels like Drew's career rather decidedly peaked with his Punk stuff. Repeating the "I'm OBSESSED with you!" angle again is bound to feel like law of diminishing returns. 

I really wish he’d gone to AEW when that storyline wrapped up. It’s pretty clear now that he’s not going to break in to that top heel territory in WWE, even though he really should. And heck, if Cody hadn’t jumped to WWE, he may well have been the beneficiary from a babyface perspective. But Drew in AEW would have been good for everyone involved, including WWE - he’s become a bit tedious on their programming and given how good he’s been, that’s an enormous shame.

[Pinc]

I've not been watching regularly but was Vince's appearance in the closing video package his first since the sex trafficking was made public? Or have they been actively laundering his image for a while?

[RedTwoster]

3 minutes ago, Pinc said:

I've not been watching regularly but was Vince's appearance in the closing video package his first since the sex trafficking was made public? Or have they been actively laundering his image for a while?

They haven’t been, as far as I can think he’s not been mentioned in a long while. I find the fact it was an old clip curious. With the lawsuit still bubbling away in the background, I wonder if they even can bring him back, either from a legal perspective or on the advice of lawyers. This reeked to me of some sort of compromise.

[Pinc]

What a lovely company. John going out kissing the Riyadh Season logo was great too. And the gosh you caught me being generous ^_^ smile as he tapped. Perfect for the brand.

Edited December 14, 2025 by Pinc

[CTXRussomark]

36 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

John Cena will always represent the shift to a certain kind of WWE for me, which in a way this ludicrous video game career mode DLC retierment angle has perfectly mirrored. There's a few moments in there I popped for - the Royal Rumble return chief amongst them - but on the whole he wasn't my guy which invariably played into this feeling a bit routine for me.

This has been my feeling throughout at well.  Cena (probably unfairly to an extent, as it was a much wider issue than just him) is intrinsically linked in my mind to my falling out of love with wrestling.  I absolutely detested him and his initial big babyface run to the point I eventually just stopped watching.  I know he went through a bit of a renaissance later on but I could just never fully shake that underlying resentment whenever he popped back up in recent years, so I'm actually kinda glad to be rid of him.  Going out after such a terrible retirement tour and with an audience booing the company is such a fitting end. 

 

[RedTwoster]

28 minutes ago, Pinc said:

What a lovely company. John going out kissing the Riyadh Season logo was great too. And the gosh you caught me being generous ^_^ smile as he tapped. Perfect for the brand.

While WWE embodies capitalism at its worst, and Cena has said some face-palming things about Saudi Arabia as of late, to be fair on him here he was probably just kissing the canvas rather than the logo. 

[Pinc]

No he fancies the logo.

[Hannibal Scorch]

57 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

They haven’t been, as far as I can think he’s not been mentioned in a long while. I find the fact it was an old clip curious. With the lawsuit still bubbling away in the background, I wonder if they even can bring him back, either from a legal perspective or on the advice of lawyers. This reeked to me of some sort of compromise.

They have used Vince in this way recently, I’m not sure if on TV but definitely in the arena as clips have been circulating.

1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

 

Cena was brilliant here. I really don't care about all the after match shenanigans. You can't spend years moaning about WWE being predictable and then not be happy when they do something genuinely novel (well, those who actually watch it, that is).

What am I missing here? Because going out on your back as you leave/retire is what they’ve always done. So what was novel here? Sting proved you can go out with a win and it feel meaningful to all parties. This was the exact some WWE we’ve seen over the last few decades.

[SuperBacon]

1 hour ago, The Gaffer said:

The match was fine. Gunther is the Peter Ebdon of the WWE

I love this so much. Punk is Ronnie, Seth is Shaun Murphy.

[gmoney]

On 12/11/2025 at 10:46 AM, Supremo said:

Reports suggesting that John is going to conclude his Completely Normal Week by opening his own retirement show, with Gunther vs. Cena going on first. For fuck’s sake, John. Why are you the way that you are?!

What bollocks reports were these then? Name and shame. The way the show was laid out there was absolutely no way this was ever true. 

I thought it was about as classy as WWE can be, which isn't that classy, but they put the effort in. I felt weird about Cena tapping, but there's potential to make this a big thing for Gunther, so time will tell. I don't have a lot of trust with them at the moment though. 

Edited December 14, 2025 by gmoney

[Chico Torres]

Utter shite, but fitting. John Cena is awful and the era he presided over from the early 2000s until now is the worst that wrestling has ever been and he’s the face that’s associated with it. The Vault just released a SNME from early 92 with Hogan and Sid vs Flair and Undertaker, Macho Man vs Jake the Snake and Roddy Piper vs Mountie, go watch that instead.

[johnnyboy]

Weird old man emotions hitting me.  John Cena was the man when my son got in to wrestling.  We had the lot.  Foam thuganomics rings and medallion, Hustle Loyalty Respect shirts that looked like a dress on him because they didn't really make them for kids his age at the time, calendars, lunch boxes, and John Cena pants that he kept to the point that there wasn't enough fabric left on them to be classed as a g-string.

Getting to see my son's face light up as he watched Cena wrestle live for the first time, fittingly on a SNME, or fulfill his childhood dream of going to Wrestlemania to see Cena main event (and thankfully win) are priceless memories that I got the share with my family largely due to that weird wrestling android so I can't hate on him for that.

When it became super cool for all the other kids to hate on Cena he did tip me the wink "it's ok dad, I still like him" to make sure that there was still a Cena figure in his stocking that year as long as I didn't let the cat out of the bag in front of his mates.

Putting Vince in the tribute package can get in the bin though.

[SuperBacon]

2 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

John Cena was the man when my son got in to wrestling.

When my youngest was about 3 she was OBSSESSED with Cena. She didn't even watch wrestling (very rarely does now) but she would watch with me and had the lot, the big oversized fists, the poncho towel, the t-shirt, the inflatable bopper thing (dunno what it's called) and loads more. 

She made me cut out a picture of him from Powerslam (obviously I was fuming) and it was on her wall and she'd say goodnight to me, her Mum, her sister and John Cena every night. So yeah it makes me quite emotional as well as I tie him in with when my children were small.

I didn't watch wrestling for a lot of his original run so really don't have that part of his career tied to my fandom, so don't get the whole hatred around him for that. We'll always be a John Cena house.