Cena’s priority is building for the future.
On December 13 at the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C., John Cena’s WWE career will come to an end when he faces GUNTHER at Saturday Night’s Main Event. After Cena revealed that NXT stars are set to be showcased during the show, reports indicated that the idea came from Cena himself.
Cena has once again confirmed these reports in an interview with The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, revealing that he called WWE Head of Creative Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque to say he did not want his retirement match to take place on a tribute show. Instead, he pitched for NXT talent to have the chance to perform on what will almost certainly be one of the company’s most watched events of the year.
“I called Triple H and I said ‘I have an idea, you’ll know how to do this because I don’t know how to write Television. But I think if we do a tribute show. 1 of 2 things are gonna happen. It’s either gonna be too much or too little. Which means it’s not gonna be good. Why don’t we take SNME, everyone knows it’s John Cena’s last match. The video packages you wanna trickle in, no problem. Then we go to the match, have the match, that’s the night. But beforehand, on a night I know people are gonna be tuning in, sold out, and the last piece of relevant energy I can get an audience member to tune in to. Show the future of your business, have top name WWE Superstars, CM Punk, Charlotte Flair, you put it together however you want, have them have non-canon exhibition matches with the future of the business. Bring kids up from NXT, get em in a building with real noise. Real energy. Let em get under the bright lights. Maybe, just maybe like ‘I wanna be here’. And they get to wrestle people with experience, wisdom and in non-canon, exhibition matches with nothing on the line. It’s a chance to hear the music of your favourite Superstars against somebody you have no idea. And he said that a great idea. They’re gonna do it. I have no clue what the plan is, but I know that’s how I wanna go out.”
-John Cena
NXT Champion Ricky Saints is set to defend his title against former champion Oba Fema at NXT Deadline: San Antonio on December 6, with the winner scheduled to face WWE Champion Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Meanwhile, former NXT Women’s North American Champion Sol Ruca will face former NXT Women’s Champion Bayley that night, with further announcements likely to follow.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on plans for Saturday Night’s Main Event as soon as we hear more.
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