Last week on RAW in Boston, John Cena revealed that his retirement night on December 13th at Saturday Night’s Main Event will feature WWE main roster superstars vs. NXT wrestlers matches along with his final match.
On this week’s RAW Recap podcast, Cena revealed that he pitched this idea to WWE’s Chief Content Officer Triple H after rejecting the idea of doing a tribute show in his honor. Here’s what the Intercontinental Champion said:
“The tradition has always been, ‘Oh, your last match… you go out on your back and do the honors.’ No. I think we can do more.
We can take the fans who show up for our show and expose them to the future, and that’s what’s next. I love The Last Time Is Now tournament to earn the chance to be my final opponent.
I really want to take my hat off to Triple H. I called him up and said, ‘I’ve got an idea. We’ve got to do two hours for the show, and if you do a whole John Cena tribute, two things are going to happen: you’ll either do too much or too little, and you won’t please everybody.’ So I rejected that idea.
Instead, I said I’d like to propose that we have big-name WWE Superstars in exhibition matches against the brightest talents in NXT. That way, we have a sold out building, hopefully the world is watching Saturday Night’s Main Event, I get to wrestle one final time and everyone else gets a look at what they can look forward to.
Yes, it’s my last match, but collectively, we’re all closing a chapter in sports entertainment.”
Cena had his final RAW match last night. He teamed up with WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio and Sheamus to defeat The Judgment Day (AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio, Finn Balor, and JD McDonagh) in a 6-man tag team match, where Cena pinned McDonagh.
The 17-time World Champion will have his final PLE match at Survivor Series 2025, where he will defend the Intercontinental Championship against Dirty Dom.
After that, Cena’s remaining one match will be against the winner of The Last Time Is Now tournament.
Former World Heavyweight Champion Gunther returned on last night’s RAW and defeated NXT wrestler Je’Von Evans to advance in the tournament. As we have reported before, The Ring General is the favorite to win this tournament and face Cena on December 13th.
Also Read: “John Cena would never be humble with us in the locker room” – Nexus Member
