At Saturday Night’s Main Event, the plans for John Cena’s final match were revealed. 16 competitors, chosen at random from Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and possibly from outside of the company, would compete in a tournament to determine who would face Cena in his final match at December 13th’s Saturday Night’s Main Event. On Monday Night Raw, Adam Pearce announced the first of these two matches involving two former world champions.
Last Time is Now Tournament Sets First Names for Chance to Wrestle John Cena
The first announced match for the Last Time is Now tournament was Rusev vs Damian Priest. Rusev is a three-time world champion and certainly has memorable history with Cena going back to their feud that culminated with WrestleMania 31 where Cena became the first WWE superstar to pin Rusev. Prior to that, Rusev successfully defended his first of three United States championships against Cena at Fastlane. Priest won his first and only world championship at WrestleMania 41, cashing in his Money in the Bank contract on Drew McIntyre. He held the title through SummerSlam, dropping it to Gunther. Unlike Rusev, Priest doesn’t have history with Cena, only crossing paths with him twice in the 2025 Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber respectively. They’ve never wrestled a singles match head-to-head.
The second match set for the November 10th Raw is Shinsuke Nakamura vs Sheamus. Nakamura has won the United States Championship, Intercontinental Championship, NXT Championship, and several tag title reigns to go with a Royal Rumble win, but he’s never been world champion. He also doesn’t have much history with Cena, having only competed in one head-to-head singles match back in 2017. The match was won by Nakamura. Nakamura’s opponent on Monday is quite the opposite as he shares more history with Cena than many on the current WWE active roster. Sheamus and Cena have been in the ring together nearly 150 times including singles matches, multi-man matches, and house shows. Their last singles match was a decade ago and their first singles match was in 2009. In their first televised head-to-head, Sheamus defeated Cena to win his first championship in a TLC match. The two continued to feud through 2010 where Cena regained the title in an Elimination Chamber bout.
Prior to the announcement of the matches in the Last Time is Now tournament, John Cena, in a pre-recorded video package, noted that his opponents would represent the past, present, and future of wrestling. Certainly with these four men, there is a lot of history there, especially among Rusev and Sheamus. Priest and Nakamura don’t have the same story with Cena to revisit but as Cena noted, the field would include some guys he’s never stepped in the ring with, aka a large swath of the NXT contingent.
The next four names and matches for the Last Time is Now tournament will be announced this Friday on SmackDown.
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