WWE legend John Cena wrestled his final match last year on December 13 at Saturday Night’s Main Event at the Capital One Arena. His opponent was Gunther, to whom he tapped out during the show.
The show also featured several members from NXT, including Sol Ruca, Oba Femi, Leon Slater, and more. But it turns out that WWE originally had a different plan for John Cena’s final show. Bruce Prichard, who works as part of the creative team, wanted to do a one-match event featuring John Cena vs Gunther for Saturday Night’s Main Event. The Cenation Leader, however, wasn’t a big fan of this idea, as he recently revealed in an interview.
John Cena Reveals Why He Didn’t Want Saturday Night’s Main Event To Be A One-Match Show
On the No Contest Wrestling Podcast, John Cena said that one of the earlier pitches for Saturday Night’s Main Event was a one-match show. This was Bruce Prichard’s idea, and while it sounded good on paper, John Cena was against it because he thought the live audience wouldn’t love it. He wanted to add in some more matches, and reportedly, he handpicked some wrestlers from NXT to be part of the card.
“I remember Bruce Prichard, who is a great friend of mine, came up to me and was like, ‘For your last show, I’m thinking about a one match show.’ I said, ‘You will kill the audience. You will absolutely murder the live event audience.’
Now, WWE is great at production. If you were watching at home, that would have been great. But the wind would have been out of the sails in DC. I said, ‘No, f*ck that. Do two, three minute packages here, but let’s get some matches. Let’s bring in some marquee guys.’” (H/t 411Mania)
Also read: WWE Announces Clash In Italy Premium Live Event For May
As a result, not only did fans get to see Cena wrestle for the final time, they also got to see Cody Rhodes wrestle Oba Femi in a Champion vs Champion match. There was also a match between Bayley and Sol Ruca booked for the show. Lastly, AJ Styles and Dragon Lee wrestled against NXT’s Je’Von Evans and Leon Slater.
The Cenation Leader retired with 17 WWE World Championship reigns in his name, along with countless other title victories over the years. While John Cena will no longer wrestle, he will continue to be a brand ambassador for WWE for another 5 years and represent them whenever he can.
Cena was also recently announced as part of the cast of Netflix’s One Attempt Remaining, which also features Jennifer Garner, Kate McKinnon, and Aimee Carrero.
Main image credit: IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire
Ishaan Sharma has been following wrestling ever since he was 8. That was over a decade ago. He loves to write about this pretend sport and has worked with online publications such as Sportskeeda and TheSportster, where he shared his insights about the wrestling business.