On tonight’s SmackDown, Gunther made LA Knight tap out to win The Last Time Is Now tournament. The Ring General will now face John Cena in the 17-time World Champion’s retirement match on December 13th at Saturday Night’s Main Event.
After the match, Gunther looked into the camera and said the following to John Cena: “You finally and definitely will give up. You’re gonna tap out.”
Cena hasn’t tapped out in 21 years. Only 3 men have made him tap out in WWE. Below are the 4 times that Cena tapped out in his 23-year WWE main roster career:
1. SmackDown in July 2002 – Chris Jericho made Cena tap out to the Walls of Jericho after their match.
2. No Mercy 2003 – Kurt Angle made Cena tap out to the Ankle Lock.
3. SmackDown in December 2003 – Chris Benoit made Cena tap out to the Crippler Crossface.
4. No Way Out 2004 – Kurt Angle made Cena tap out to the Ankle Lock.
If Gunther makes Cena tap out next week, then he will become the first man to make Cena tap out after Cena became a main eventer.
Coming out of tonight’s SmackDown, below is the updated match-card for next week’s Saturday Night’s Main Event:
– John Cena’s Retirement Match: John Cena vs. Gunther
– Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes vs. NXT Champion (Ricky Saints OR Oba Femi)
– Bayley vs. Sol Ruca
John Cena Reveals Original Plan For His Retirement Tour
During his appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, John Cena revealed that he originally wanted to work 220 dates on his WWE retirement tour this year.
Here’s what the 17-time World Champion said:
“‘Hey man, 36 dates must have been easy this year.’ I did too many jobs. I was in Budapest, flying to Indy, do Indy, fly back, land, go film. Doing that until post-WrestleMania. Back and forth to Morocco, Budapest, all these crazy places that weren’t easy commutes.
You think you can do it, ‘I’ll sleep on the plane.’ You don’t. It doesn’t happen. Then, you get upside down and you’re super fatigued. I threaded the needle just enough.
The plan, originally, was to do a full year. This goes to show my ignorance of the business. I wanted to do 220 dates.
Just take the year off from everything, hop on a bus, do a full WWE calendar, and totally say goodbye.
Thank goodness the business isn’t like that anymore. I’d be done. They only needed me for 36.”
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