On Saturday, December 13th, WWE returned to the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., for its big event, “Saturday Night’s Main Event XLII.” The event was headlined by “The Last Time is Now” tour coming to an end, as John Cena wrestled his final match ever against the “Ring General,” Gunther.
We also saw the Undisputed WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes, square off with the NXT Champion, Oba Femi. Also, NXT’s Sol Ruca did battle with Bayley, AJ Styles and Dragon Lee defended their World Tag Team Championships against NXT’s Je’Von Evans and TNA Wrestling’s Leon Slater, and a fun segment with The Miz. So, what were the top three moments of the show?
3. Ron Cena (R-Truth) and Joe Hendry Take It To The Miz
Following the World Tag Team Championship match, and right before the main event of the card, The Miz came out to cut a promo and make his presence felt. After all, it’s only right. He was another one of Cena’s great rivals in his career. In 2010 and the early part of 2011, you couldn’t get away from The Miz vs. John Cena even if you tried to.
The Miz expressed frustration with being left off the show, and even brought up his win over Cena at WrestleMania 27. This brought out R-Truth, doing his best Ron Cena impression, who accused Miz of stealing a spot in the “Last Time Is Now” tournament. Truth gave a ball to the Miz of the person’s name whose spot he stole, Miz opened up, and said his name.
The paper inside the ball said “Joe Hendry.” Which Miz repeated and caused Hendry to appear. Truth and Hendry hit a double five-knuckle shuffle on Miz to end the segment. This was a very fun segment, and a very light-hearted one, as the mood in the room was quickly about to change. It was good to see Miz and Truth get a spot on the final show of John Cena’s career, and Hendry getting a spot clearly shows how valuable the company finds him. The future is very bright for Hendry.
2. Oba Femi vs. Drew McIntyre?
In the opening contest of the night, we saw the Undisputed WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes, go one-on-one with the NXT Champion, Oba Femi. Femi reclaimed the NXT Championship from Ricky Saints at the recent “NXT Deadline” event, where it was announced by Cody Rhodes on a recent edition of “Friday Night SmackDown” that the winner of that match would face him at “Saturday Night’s Main Event.”
Rhodes and Femi had a fantastic match to open the show. Sadly, it went less than ten minutes, though, and with Rhodes not being able to be pinned yet (for God knows why), WWE had to improvise a plan for how the match should end. While I would have loved to see Oba get a clean win, I didn’t hate this ending as much as I would have hated Rhodes defeating Femi clean.
Drew McIntyre made his way out to the ring and beat the hell out of Rhodes to cause a no-contest. This enraged Femi, who shoved McIntyre to the ground, and a rivalry was teased. Femi held his own against Rhodes, and a great first rivalry for Femi on the main roster could see him go one-on-one with McIntyre. Nonetheless, despite not getting the win, Femi wasn’t made to look weak here, which was a great thing.
1. John Cena “Gives Up” To End His Career
The main event of the 42nd edition of “Saturday Night’s Main Event” saw John Cena wrestle in his final match ever against the “Ring General,” Gunther. Cena’s illustrious 23-year wrestling career came to an end in perhaps his toughest match yet. Gunther won the “Last Time Is Now” tournament, defeating the likes of Je’Von Evans, Carmelo Hayes, Solo Sikoa, and LA Knight to earn this shot.
Cena and Gunther put on a terrific final match in Cena’s 23-year journey. Gunther said heading into this match that he was going to break Cena’s “spirit” and force him to “give up.” Cena has always prided himself on doing the opposite of that. However, in this match, things changed, and when Gunther locked in the sleeper for the last time, Cena, with a smile on his face, tapped out.
Some fans saw this as a sign of weakness, saw this as a sign of him finally “giving up.” However, Matt Hardy said it best in his recent post: it was Cena simply being “physically and mentally spent.” Nonetheless, the match ended with Gunther standing tall and poised to become one of the greatest to ever do it in the squared circle. As for Cena, he leaves behind a legacy that will never be duplicated. He truly is professional wrestling’s “last real superstar.”
