The time-honored tradition in professional wrestling is for a wrestler who is leaving the company with a loss – to “regain respect” – to someone who will be a part of the promotion moving forward.
John Cena did exactly this in his final match against Gunther at “Saturday Night’s Main Event”. He went out on his shield, did something in the ring that he hadn’t done in 20 years, establishing a young superstar who would be one of the guys pushing WWE forward for years to come. It was an emotional night at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, evoking widespread excitement, sadness, anger and admiration among fans.
There were no surprises after the match. As Cena promised, Saturday night was indeed “the last time” in the career of WWE’s greatest superstar of all time.
Cena gives Gunther a new ‘Legend Killer’ nickname
As Gunther entered the ring, he received a standing ovation and after a long wait, Cena finally appeared to loud cheers. All the beats – running to the ring, sliding into the ring, the salute – made a huge impact on the fans, and Cena didn’t miss a beat. He then slipped outside to hug the legends in attendance, including Kevin Owens, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Haku, Mitchell McCullum and Sami Zayn.
Once the bell rang, Gunther immediately took advantage by hitting hard and rarely taking his foot off the gas. Gunther dominated most of the first half of the match and easily took the lead despite Cena’s best efforts. Cena’s best moment offensively came when he delivered an Attitude Adjustment through the announce table before hitting a hit, much to the crowd’s delight. He did a five-knuckle shuffle and engaged the crowd, saying, “I need to hear from you…this is the last one!” In a final touch of irony, the man who was ridiculed for miraculously kicking out opponents’ finishers began hearing “Super Cena” and “Don’t Give Up” chants while fighting through a sleeper hold. The referee did three old-school arm raises, and on the third raise, Cena gave his patented A-OK, before Gunther landed repeated strikes and went back to the sleeper hold, ultimately tapping Cena out – the first time Cena had been submitted in a match since 2005.
Gunther has now retired Goldberg and Cena and could enter an era in which he will become the ultimate “Legend Killer” if he faces superstars nearing retirement such as AJ Styles and Brock Lesnar.
After the match and a tribute video, Cena bowed in each corner of the ring as he was surrounded by fellow WWE Superstars, took off his shoes and armbands and left them in the ring. As he climbed the ramp backstage, he gave a final salute and said to the camera, “It has been a privilege to serve you for so many years. Thank you.”
It was an emotional, simple and fitting end for a man who meant as much to WWE as Cena.
Cody Rhodes said it best in the postshow when he explained that Cena has done everything “by the book”, including moving out of WWE’s way. Cena jumped on his shield and gifted Gunther – a wrestler who would help propel WWE in years to come – to be the man to end the career of the “Greatest of All Time”.
Oba Femi is now ready for his WWE call-up
This match was a good choice to start the show, as the second highest profile match on the card behind Cena vs. Gunther, the separation between the two matches gave both sides time to shine.
NXT’s Oba Femi is an incredibly imposing figure standing at 6 foot 6 inches and weighing over 300 pounds. Any professional wrestling fan can look at him and say, “This guy is a future WrestleMania main eventer.”
From “I saw your moves” counters to feats of strength in the first few minutes of his match against undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, including running a European uppercut over the announcers’ table that threw both wrestlers into the air and left Rhodes’ ear bloody, Femi had plenty of moments.
Drew McIntyre interfered and caused the disqualification, but this led to both Femi and Rhodes hitting their finishers on McIntyre, then raising each other’s hands in a show of respect.
Many wrestling fans would have preferred a definite winner here, but regardless of the outcome, the biggest takeaway is Femi’s potential star power. His talent was on full display and no doubt won him many new fans.
When Femi is inevitably called up from NXT, the foundation will already have been laid. As for Rhodes, he has one more match with McIntyre before heading down the road to WrestleMania – perhaps at the Royal Rumble or on the January 5 episode of “Raw.”
Sol Ruka scores the biggest win of his career
There were some interruptions in the match, but Ruka demonstrated his incredibly athletic and acrobatic attacks. After some technical back-and-forth wrestling, Ruka deftly used his height to extend a leg to the ropes during a pin attempt.
Rucka hit a Soul Snatcher, leading to a surprise pin attempt by Bayley, but Rucka reversed it and got the biggest win of her career.
With this victory, Ruka’s stature has increased significantly and it has not affected Bayley’s position either.
Young talents take advantage of a unique opportunity
J’Von Evans and Leon Slater wasted no time in hitting stereo superkicks as the opening bell rang, then took down WWE stars AJ Styles and Dragon Lee with back-to-back spectacular dives to the outside.
The high-octane match ended with Styles sliding off the top ropes onto a springboard – a rare mistake for the “Phenomenal One” which Slater promptly erased with a pinfall, before Styles countered with the Styles Clash for the win.
As that became the theme of the night, after the match all four fighters showed love and respect towards each other and Cena. Evans, who competes in NXT, and Slater, with TNA, were in a unique position to showcase their abilities against WWE veterans, and they did exactly that.
