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

[DavidB6937]

I have no doubt if Vince was there he would have been on camera somehow. I don't think they're that worried about it.

[Snitsky's back acne]

1 hour ago, waters44 said:

The wrestling historians can correct me (looking at you Pat) but presumably this whole notion of staring at the lights for your last match is there so you don’t kill off the territory when you leave. It’s just not needed anymore

Yeah, it was when they were relying on next weeks/months crowd -"You're not here next week, he is".

As you say, WWE is not reliant on "next weeks/months" anything so the only other reason to do it is for the leaving/retiring star to "make" someone new for enhanced long term business.
Roddy Piper, knowing he was leaving after Wrestlemania 8, lost to Bret Hart. Piper never lost by pinfall "ever" (he did, but it was rare) so him putting Bret over (just like an injured Mr Perfect did 8 months earlier) was intended to build Bret into the main eventer he became.

Gunther didn't need it. He will (theoretically) benefit from it, but he didn't need it.

So there was no real reason for Cena to lose. 

 

 

[RedTwoster]

2 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

So there was no real reason for Cena to lose. 

It depends on what they’re planning next, I suppose. It wasn’t just that Cena lost, it’s that he lost be tapping out. The man whose mantra was ‘never give up’ actually gave up. As far as I can think, it’s the only time he’s done so as a babyface, and to do it in his final match is potentially interesting. They could have had him refuse to give up, to pass out - but he didn’t. He tapped. I like the idea in theory, but we’ll see where it goes next. 

[DavidB6937]

I hope they build Gunther back up to an unstoppable force for a while and then have someone like Oba or Jevon go over him. It'll be worth it if the future indirectly gets the rub from John somehow.

[Supremo]

[Pinc]

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

I hope they build Gunther back up to an unstoppable force for a while and then have someone like Oba or Jevon go over him. It'll be worth it if the future indirectly gets the rub from John somehow.

The whole internet appears to have young-guy-gets-the-rub derangement syndrome.

[DavidB6937]

1 minute ago, Pinc said:

The whole internet appears to have young-guy-gets-the-rub derangement syndrome.

I think beyond a lot of people disappointed that Cena didn't win, there's a lot just hoping the loss would be important long term. There was a lot of moaning about Gunther being the opponent, although personally I think he was the perfect one. Not from a "needs the rub" perspective but just being a great old school heel. But to make his win more significant, it would be good to then see it pay off down the line somewhere.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

I think beyond a lot of people disappointed that Cena didn't win, there's a lot just hoping the loss would be important long term. There was a lot of moaning about Gunther being the opponent, although personally I think he was the perfect one. Not from a "needs the rub" perspective but just being a great old school heel. But to make his win more significant, it would be good to then see it pay off down the line somewhere.

I think that’s the difficult thing with Gunther. I’m not entirely sure what the payoff could be. The loss to Jey Uso really hurt the aura he once had, and I don’t think this goes any way towards recapturing that. They have a lot of work to do if he’s ever to feel as dangerous as he once did even with this win.

I can’t help but think they picked the wrong opponent if they wanted him (or he wanted) to lose. We’ll see how this plays out, but I’m not certain that this’ll do much for Gunther. 

[JNLister]

Just added up and John Cena did 18 matches this year. The average attendance was 27,362.

[AndyUK]

I think the idea was quite poetic, probably just not executed properly, which sums up this entire run on the whole. It was a decent enough match, these finisher fests are not always my cup of tea but it had some good moments and was probably abut as good as we were going to get. 

But whatever, I'm glad this thing is over now. It never really felt as special as it should have anyway, I don't know what it was. Maybe the fact that in some ways Cena hasn't really felt like a major part of WWE for about a decade now so everyone had already got used to him not being around. Will be interesting to see what they do with Gunther now he's retired two legends.

[air_raid]

18 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Dicey

[herbie747]

Who the hell smiles before tapping out? The idea of tapping is that you can't take it anymore (either the pain, or you're about to get choked unconcious) and you've tried your hardest to fight it off.

Smiling gives it such "oh, okay - go on then - you got me ya big bugger! Rrrrrr" energy. Like casual rolling in a BJJ class.

Edited December 15, 2025 by herbie747

[kieranjennings]

Or, playing devils advocate, he's just accepting that this is it 'I'm Done' and is at peace with it whilst ending the match and his career. That's surely what he was going for with it. 

[RedTwoster]

2 minutes ago, kieranjennings said:

Or, playing devils advocate, he's just accepting that this is it 'I'm Done' and is at peace with it whilst ending the match and his career. That's surely what he was going for with it. 

Yeah, that’s how I took it - I agree with @AndyUK that it could have been executed better (the commentators should have acknowledged it for one) but I’m assuming the idea was he knew he couldn’t continue, and that in itself meant he wasn’t what he once was. And he was OK with that.

 

[Supremo]

Cena smiling as he tapped out was very on brand for this retirement run. Whole year was filled with nice ideas that look good on paper, but bombed in execution.

Legend comes back for one final run, realises he doesn’t have it in him anymore, so sells out to reach the top. Eventually redeeming himself, finding his form, feeling invincible with the fans back on his side, he hits a brick wall in his final match,  accepting it’s over, at peace with what he’s achieved.

Sounds great. The problem is that any semblance of an arc was lost amongst a load of messy, dreadful writing, and a mostly ham-fisted performance from Cena himself. For a man who is now a full-time Hollywood actor, it’s astonishing what a bad actor he actually is. Simply doesn’t have it in him to convey anything other than the shallowest of cartoon emotions. Maybe he hasn’t downloaded the latest patch.

He didn’t feel like a man accepting his fate, or being at peace with his career. He looked like he couldn’t be arsed anymore or found the whole thing funny. Like one final tribute, but this time to Austin Aries no selling on his way out of TNA.

Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because you successfully avoided the Jericho Vortex.

Frankly, the best thing to come out of the whole thing was this photo of Cody. Real Rocky-holding-Apollo’s-dead-body energy. There’s money to be made here if they push Gunther to the moon.

Edited December 15, 2025 by Supremo