John Cena has now revealed who his last WWE rival will be. The Last Time Is Now Tournament, which included 16 fighters from RAW, SmackDown, and NXT, was held, and two past WWE superstars (Dolph Ziggler and Zack Ryder) also participated, with the winner obtaining the privilege to confront John Cena in Cena’s last WWE bout at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13th. Leading up to the tournament, the then 2-times WWE World Champion Gunyjer was the one to be announced as the winner of the tournament in an early October report.
Gunther secures victory over LA Knight in Tournament Finale
During the last battle of The Last Time Is Now Tournament on SmackDown held in Austin, Gunther subdued LA Knight through a cravat submission, resulting in Knight’s tapping out and Gunther’s victory. Even though the competition did not have any surprises and the predicted winner was the one who actually won, still, the majority of the fans still enjoyed it thanks to the series of good matches that occurred.
Cena reflects on facing Gunther in his final bout
John Cena, on the other hand, took to social media to express his admiration for Gunther and to declare his respect for him.
“The stage is set for One Last Match. On a night of epic proportions, it is an honor to face off against an opponent who I respect and who has earned the right to issue this final challenge! I will bring my best, I know he will do the same! Don’t miss the Final Time! #SNME @peacock”
This fight will mark the initial encounter of Cena against Gunther, and also the finale, since the upcoming match is Cena’s farewell.
John Cena reaffirms retirement ahead of emotional farewell bout
The encounter will mark the inaugural occasion that Cena will face Gunther, plus the ultimate one as well, since it is the retirement match of Cena. John Cena’s great matches during his last year in WWE have led a lot of people to question whether the 48-year-old future Hall of Famer will actually be retiring. Nonetheless, Cena was on Jimmy Kimmel Live this week to confirm once again that he is retiring from the ring.
“This has really never been done in WWE history. WWE superstars don’t necessarily retire, they always kind of hang on for one more match. I am absolutely, 100% done on the 13th of December. it is my last in-ring performance. I will never wrestle again.
Then, you’ll be able to show this clip and call me a liar. There is a lot of skepticism out there because this has never been done before. I just hope people can come to grips with that because the reason I wanted to give people so much me time is because being able to perform for two decades, and people allowing me into their living rooms week after week, 52 weeks a year, no reruns, you do feel a connection with people. Touring the world in this last year has been beautiful. Meeting audience members and them sharing their stories has been great.
I wanted to give people a heads up so people could process whatever closure they want. If you’re one of those people who are like, ‘You’re never going to retire.’ After the 13th is going to be weird because you don’t have the closure you want.”
