Hiya!

A while back, I wrote up a post stating how the WWE is handling John Cena‘s heel turn. It wasn’t a positive post as I thought they were bungling what should have been a momentous event. Since then, the WWE has changed course, possibly because they realized they weren’t doing a good job. So, they quickly made John Cena a face again and things did become better. Since then, he had a very good match against Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship at SummerSlam and an even better bout against AJ Styles at Crown Jewel.

We are winding things down, however. John Cena is still set to retire and, thankfully, it doesn’t appear he’s going to extend his time in the WWE. We knew John Cena will be wrestling his last match (allegedly) at Saturday’s Night Main Event in December. That was announced months ago. What we don’t know is who the WWE is going to have him face off for his final match ever.

Well, we finally got some clarity on who it’s going to be. I said “some clarity” because we actually still don’t know who it is! Instead of putting a definite name on who it’s going to be, John Cena went out during the last Saturday Night’s Main Event and announced how they’re going to determine who he’s going to go against on his last match. They are going to have a 16-man tournament for the next several weeks. The winner of this tournament will have the honor of fighting John Cena during his last match ever in the WWE.

Boo! Boo, I say!

I’m sorry but I don’t like this. This is how the WWE is going to figure out who John Cena’s final opponent will be? Once again, the WWE is dropping the ball when it comes to handling John Cena’s last year. First, the bungled his heel turn. Now, they’re botching John Cena’s final match.

To be fair, I do think there is some merit to having John Cena’s final opponent to be determined in a tournament. Showing off 16 potential wrestlers from WWE and beyond does open up a lot of dream scenarios. It could be a nice mix of John Cena’s general archrivals from within the WWE as well as former WWE Superstars vying to face off against the legendary John Cena before he rides off into the sunset.

It could be someone like CM Punk or Rusev, a couple of examples of WWE Superstars he had big feuds with. It could be someone he’s never faced before like Bron Breakker, GUNTHER or Dominik Mysterio. The WWE could even throw us a curveball and have someone like Matt Cardona or Nic Nemeth, who are former WWE Superstars who are now working at rival TNA. Lots of possibilities… on paper.

The possibilities seem endless… but that’s only because we still don’t know who are actually going to be participating in this tournament. Once we get through the first round and we know who the 16 participants are, things will cool down and fans will start nitpicking the list. Why did the WWE include Wrestler X when Wrestler Y would be a better fit? There’s no way Wrestler Z would ever win this tournament and be John Cena’s final opponent, right?

There are definitely going to be a few duds in this list. I mean, I’m not throwing any shade on Jey Uso fans… but, after his dreadful title run after his big win at Wrestlemania 41, I don’t think they should even float the idea around him being in the tournament, let alone win it! However, I have the feeling he’s going to be in it and I’m not going to like it one bit!

Also, the tournament as a whole comes off like a weird misdirect as it reduces the grandeur of the situation. The prize of the tournament is to fight John Cena? So, I won’t know until the last minute if I should care who John Cena is facing off during the last Saturday Night’s Main Event of the year because I don’t know who John Cena is facing off against until then? I should be biting my nails from the sheer anticipation of who John Cena’s last opponent is going to be! Reducing that choice to a multi-week tournament feels anticlimactic.

I think the problem is the WWE creative team are lost and can’t figure out who John Cena’s last opponent should be. You’ve kind of seen it throughout the entire John Cena retirement tour. It started out promising with him losing to (ugh) Jey Uso at this year’s Royal Rumble as this set up his eventual heel turn. Then things just got dumb, most of it I’ve detailed when I talked about how the WWE didn’t know how to handle John Cena as a heel. So, they turned him face and things did get better as we got that aforementioned awesome match with AJ Styles. By this time, however, it looks like they just ran out of ideas or they’re just too scared to announce who John Cena is going to fight during his last match because of all the mistakes they’ve already made!

For me, it’s simple. There are generally 3 WWE Superstars I would personally love to see John Cena face off in his final match. It’s either Edge, CM Punk and Bron Breakker. Now, Edge does seem like a longshot as he’s not with the WWE and he’s working at AEW, the WWE’s only real competition. The thing is, I’ve always believed Edge to be John Cena’s greatest rival. In fact, when they fought in singles matches, Edge managed to edge (pun intended) out John Cena with the number of wins! So, yeah. I would love to see Edge vs. John Cena one more time as, like I said, they are archrivals.

There is a slim chance he could weasel his way in, however. For one, his contract with AEW is almost up and, coincidentally, should technically end just before John Cena’s final match is scheduled to happen. The problem is the entire tournament! I do hope AEW allows him to participate and win it all. Once again, it’s a longshot but I like to keep my hope alive!

My other pick is CM Punk for obvious reasons. Like Edge, he can be considered one of John Cena’s greatest rivals and, back then, was the antithesis of John Cena. Also, they always have had some of the best matches when the got in the ring together. I understand they’re not exactly in their prime right now but I do think, if they get in the ring one final time, they can make John Cena’s match something magical and memorable. They can put together a match which will be heralded as something truly special and worthy of being called John Cena’s final match. Of course, the problem is they already fought during his retirement tour at this year’s Night of Champions. While I do believe they would pull off a banger of a match, I’d like to give the opportunity to someone else.

Finally, we have Bron Breakker. He’s probably one of the hottest WWE Superstars right now. He can move. He can wrestle. He has power. He has charisma. Most importantly, he can pull off a really good match. However, he does feel like an unknown quantity right now. As good as he is, I’m not too sure if he would have good in-ring chemistry with John Cena. Still, I would like to see if they do. It would also be a good measuring stick to see if Bron Breakker is ready for main event status.

Now, imagine if the WWE outright announced any of these WWE Superstars as John Cena’s final opponent. Wouldn’t you be super excited? Wouldn’t you just be anticipating a great last match to close out John Cena’s storied career? What are we getting again? A tournament? Get out of here!

This is why I’m saying the WWE is botching John Cena’s final match. Instead of, I don’t know, making a promise they’ll give what the fans want, the WWE is being very wishy-washy. They’re just throwing things at the wall and seeing what will stick. This isn’t how to promote someone’s last match! You want the anticipation like what we got when it was announced John Cena was facing AJ Styles at SummerSlam! You want the excitement of John Cena vs. CM Punk at Night of Champions! You’re not getting that from a tournament since you don’t know who John Cena is going to fight until a couple of weeks before it’s slated to happen!

I do hope the tournament pulls off some surprises. Maybe manage to sneak Edge in the tournament and have him win. Still, I don’t think the WWE has any idea on what to do and this tournament is a strong hint at that.

Byee!

Who do you think John Cena should fight on his last match? Do you think the entire tournament is a good idea? Let me know in the comments section below!