{"id":145777,"date":"2025-11-11T20:45:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T01:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=145777"},"modified":"2025-11-11T20:45:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T01:45:18","slug":"5-tna-wrestlers-most-likely-to-compete-for-john-cena-final-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/11\/11\/5-tna-wrestlers-most-likely-to-compete-for-john-cena-final-match\/","title":{"rendered":"5 TNA Wrestlers Most Likely to Enter Last Time is Now Tournament and Compete for Final John Cena Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When John Cena announced that WWE was planning a tournament to determine who his final opponent and match would be, Cena mentioned there would be wrestlers from SmackDown, Raw, NXT, and perhaps even some who don&#8217;t even work for the company.<\/p>\n<p>The bracket for the tournament is filling up with 10 of the 16 wrestlers already being chosen &#8220;at random&#8221; but it is interesting to note that both Nick Aldis and Adam Pearce chose to hold back on announcing the names they drew for LA Knight&#8217;s opponent on November 14 and Solo Sikoa&#8217;s opponent on November 17. That of course has led to speculation that these names are guys from outside of the company, especially since Aldis did announce the tournament&#8217;s first NXT name, Je&#8217;Von Evans. It seems odd they would announce one NXT name but then stay hush-hush about another so it would appear at least one of these spots is going to a TNA wrestler while the other could potentially be a AAA wrestler.<\/p>\n<p>In TNA in particular, Cena shares history with quite a few wrestlers on the roster. There are some he&#8217;s wrestled in title matches and #1 contender&#8217;s matches, others he first faced over 20 years ago, and some still that he hasn&#8217;t faced but many would consider to be &#8216;dream&#8217; matches. Here is a look at five TNA wrestlers mostly likely to be chosen &#8220;at random&#8221; to take part in the tournament to determine Cena&#8217;s final opponent and the final John Cena match ever.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/11\/05\/john-cena-final-match-competitors-results\/\" target=\"_self\">John Cena Final Match: Full List of Competitors and Results in Last Time is Now Tournament<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler - United States Championship Match: Raw, October 12, 2015\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AYIvRhOug-E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nic Nemeth (Dolph Ziggler)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>WWE&#8217;s former Dolph Ziggler first stepped foot in a ring with John Cena in 2008 in a multi-man tag match on Monday Night Raw. His first singles match with Cena came two years later. In all, Cena and Nemeth met in 91 matches including dark matches and house shows. They wrestled against each other at eight PPV\/PLEs (including Royal Rumbles) and wrestled either against or alongside each other 23 times on Raw or SmackDown. Completely random fact but two of those matches involved Vickie Guerrero where she teamed with Nemeth on one occasion and Cena on another.<\/p>\n<p>Their first memorable feud came in 2012 when Nemeth, along with Raw managing supervisor Vickie Guerrero, alleged that Cena had an inappropriate romantic relationship with AJ Lee while she was Raw general manager, resulting in Cena receiving favors the rest of the locker room didn&#8217;t. This accusation led to Nemeth\u00a0defending his Money in the Bank contract for a second time, as he took on Cena at TLC. The two clashed in the main event in a match that saw both Guerrero and Lee get involved. In the end it was Lee, who pushed Cena off a ladder to allow Nemeth to climb and retain his briefcase, that resulted in the match&#8217;s finish. Lee&#8217;s heel turn on Cena led to her aligning with Nemeth as his storyline girlfriend. The win marked the first time (including house shows) Nemeth defeated his rival in a singles match.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FULL MATCH - John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler \u2013 Ladder Match: WWE TLC 2012\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Paoqw24-eQE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The two would continue feuding briefly but not much came of it and by 2014, Nemeth was aligning with Cena, taking part in Team Cena &#8211; and being the winning sole survivor &#8211; at that year&#8217;s Survivor Series. Nemeth continued to team with Cena, notably against the Authority, and the two even picked up a major tag team victory at 2014&#8217;s Beast in the East. A few days later, Nemeth joined a list of men to answer and ultimately fail, Cena&#8217;s US Open Challenge despite playing dirty.<\/p>\n<p>Cena and Nemeth would meet for the last time in 2018, both taking part in a six-pack title match for AJ Styles&#8217; WWE Championship. Back when he was a heel, Cena dropped Nemeth&#8217;s name in a promo he cut mocking CM Punk&#8217;s pipebomb. This coupled with WWE&#8217;s relationship with TNA led to speculation about a final match between John Cena and his former rival. However, it is another name on this list that Nemeth would like to see get a shot against Cena in one of his final dates, tournament result aside.<\/p>\n<div class=\"x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a\">\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;I know there\u2019s a Madison Square Garden match, I wouldn\u2019t mind seeing Zack Ryder or Matt Cardona show up in New York on RAW against John Cena,&#8221; Nemeth said during a recent appearance on Busted Open Radio.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John Cena vs. Zack Ryder - United States Championship Match: Raw, May 25, 2015\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f4peOWXVvvQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Cardona (Zack Ryder)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Woo, woo, woo, you know the former Zack Ryder would love to get one last shot at his old friend, who he last faced in a US Open Championship Challenge over a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p>Cena and Cardona shared 22 matches in their career, largely as teammates. After Cardona&#8217;s run in the Rated R entourage came to an end, the Long Island Iced-Z as he called himself, found himself with reduced TV time. So Cardona took matters into his own hands and introduced his own YouTube series that led to an increase in popularity. WWE took notice of the sold out t-shirts and &#8220;We Want Ryder&#8221; chants on TV and PPV\/PLE and made Cardona the Assistant Raw General Manager. At this time, Cardona was also seen with Cena a lot given the two had a real life friendship. Cardona credits Cena with helping him come up in the business and that relationship was explored on TV as Cardona and Cena began teaming up. Cena even helped Cardona get an opportunity to win his first WWE championship, which he was successful at doing defeating Dolph Ziggler at TLC in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>In 2012, Cardona entered a story where he began romancing Eve with Cena helping him. At the same time, his friendship with Cena led him into direct conflict with Kane. The Big Red Machine targeted Cardona, storyline injuring him again and again. Kane and Cardona&#8217;s feud resulted in one of Cardona&#8217;s infamous and memorable WWE moments, when in a wheelchair, he saw Eve kiss Cena after he saved her from Kane&#8217;s kidnapping. This led to Kane pushing the wheelchair-ridden Cardona off the stage. While he was out of commission, Eve revealed she never liked Cardona and was only using him for his popularity. Talk about adding insult to injury.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Raw: A distraught Zack Ryder is attacked again by Kane\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cTT2ZxHB_yU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In all, Cardona and Cena teamed up on 15 occasions while only wrestling each other in singles matches twice. As noted on the prior page, Cena mentioned Cardona in his pipebomb and Cardona did the same at an independent show. Plus, Cena also shared a post when Cardona returned to a WWE ring during an episode of NXT. While Cena and Cardona have buried any resentment between the two, Cardona still blames Cena for getting him pushed off the stage and kicked in the nuts at WrestleMania so when asked his thoughts on getting to face John Cena in a final match during his retirement tour, Cardona didn&#8217;t hold back on his wishes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cJohn, I\u2019ve looked up to John for a long time,\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/matt-cardona-wants-face-john-173802254.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Cardona said in an interview with SEScoops last year<\/a>. \u201cWe did get close during my WWE run, but he is just a pro\u2019s pro. What a way to go out. What a smart way to go out, huh? A whole year plus, because he\u2019s hyping it up in July? I\u2019m just thinking the merch, he already had the merch ready. John is such a great guy, somebody who\u2019s definitely helped me in my career&#8230;Those posts I\u2019ve been making on social media, they\u2019re not BS. I would love to wrestle John Cena one last time. I think, with the way WWE is now, I think it\u2019s something that could happen, where I could just walk in, whether it be for one day or make a return.\u201d<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John Cena | The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy #53\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/up_xM767JT4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Hardy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2002, Matt Hardy and a newly-promoted John Cena began wrestling on house shows. A few months later, both began teaming up on SmackDown briefly. Both Matt and Jeff Hardy teamed with Cena in the ensuing years. Jeff Hardy wrestled Cena for a #1 contendership in 2008 but it might shock people to know, Matt Hardy and Cena never had a televised singles match despite sharing the same company for parts of two decades. It seemed like when Cena was on Raw, Hardy was in ECW, and when Cena was on SmackDown, Hardy was on Raw. They just never crossed paths, which seems almost unfathomable.<\/p>\n<p>Hardy doesn&#8217;t have beef or bad blood with Cena. In fact, it&#8217;s just the opposite as Hardy has mentioned in various interviews enjoying working with Cena and the two having rap battles on European tours. Hardy and Cena are of the same generation and both represent a great era in WWE history. It almost feels criminal that Cena&#8217;s career (and in turn Matt&#8217;s one day) could end without these two locking up once.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Joe Hendry Explains Why Randy Orton WrestleMania Finish Made Sense, Pushes For John Cena Showdown\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t8ZbpnfDaaw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Joe Hendry<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Say his name, and he appears&#8230;in the Last Time is Now tournament?<\/p>\n<p>John Cena will retire without having wrestled several of what fans have called dream matches for him including against the likes of Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kenny Omega. But there is one dream match that is still on the table, especially if you ask Joe Hendry himself.<\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/video\/ariel-helwani-show-wednesday-20250423-124329570.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hendry recounted on the Ariel Helwani Show<\/a> his thoughts on his personal dream match against Cena:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;John came back from Gorilla [Position at WrestleMania 41], and he came right up to me, and there were multiple camera crews, and he said basically what he said on Pat McAfee,&#8221; Hendry said. &#8220;John gave me some advice and said, &#8216;You did exactly what I told you to do, and you were great tonight.&#8217; For him to say on Pat McAfee&#8217;s show that he thinks I&#8217;m going to be a major player, that was the biggest compliment. And I really did take his advice to heart&#8230;It was very important to me to show John that respect because he \u2014 in my opinion, John Cena is the greatest professional wrestler of all time. So when he tells me that there&#8217;s a certain path I should be going down, or focusing on, that&#8217;s exactly what I&#8217;m going to do. Because I think when he&#8217;s giving me that advice, he&#8217;s giving me advice to help me and to help me contribute to the professional wrestling business positively&#8230;So for John to take the time \u2014 he&#8217;s literally just won the title and become the greatest of all time, and I said, &#8216;John, congrats,&#8217; and he goes, &#8216;Sure, sure, but let&#8217;s talk about this.&#8217; He gave me that moment, and that&#8217;s the type of guy that John Cena is. That&#8217;s the dream match.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Whether or not Hendry gets his wish, he deserves to at least be in the tournament and have a chance to vie for the final John Cena match ever.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p><b>Frankie Kazarian<\/b><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NECW 20th Anniversary Collection:  &quot;The Prototype&quot; John Cena vs. Frankie Kazarian\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ykbesWSQbJg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Very few wrestlers can say they wrestled against John Cena but Frankie Kazarian is one of them. In fact, there may not be an active wrestler today who shares as much history with Cena as Kazarian does.<\/p>\n<p>Cena and Kazarian&#8217;s relationship and friendship dates all the way back to 2001, when both were first coming up in Ultimate Pro Wrestling. Kazarian and Cena trained together and while their paths took them down separate roads (Cena to WWE, Kazarian to TNA and the indies), there is no denying the mutual respect both have for each other. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/aew\/news-aew-star-frankie-kazarian-recalls-match-wwe-legend-john-cena\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kazarian has spoken about Cena on multiple occasions<\/a> throughout the years, calling him a consummate professional and one of the hardest working wrestlers the industry has ever seen.<\/p>\n<p>But prior to both men achieving their respective career successes, they were friendly competitors, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.fightful.com\/wrestling\/samoa-joe-recalls-john-cena-and-frankie-kazarian-eating-six-pounds-chicken-his-house\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">whether it was eating pounds of chicken at Samoa Joe&#8217;s house<\/a> or in the ring. The two teamed up twice and faced each other head-to-head once, in which Kazarian was the victor. So not only does Kazarian have one of Cena&#8217;s earliest professional matches to his name, he&#8217;s also probably the only wrestler Cena has faced that can make the claim to never have lost to one of pro wrestling&#8217;s greatest of all-time.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Frankie Kazarian Talks The EARLY Days Of John Cena!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r1JaGAU-6X4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While Kazarian is more likely suited for AJ Styles&#8217; retirement tour next year, it would be a nice nod to Cena&#8217;s earliest career days to see Kazarian throw his hat in the ring. He&#8217;s one of Cena&#8217;s first-ever handful of matches. It feels poetic he&#8217;d want a chance to be his last.<\/p>\n<p><strong><b>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\"><em><u><i>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i> for more on John Cena final match, the Last Time is Now tournament, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81788927\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cwtv.com\/shows\/wwe-nxt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/tubitv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aetv.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>A&amp;E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments) and\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Main Event as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/events\/1773457579022155776?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When John Cena announced that WWE was planning a tournament to determine who his final opponent and match would be, Cena mentioned there would be wrestlers from SmackDown, Raw, NXT, and perhaps even some who don&#8217;t even work for the company. The bracket for the tournament is filling up with 10 of the 16 wrestlers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2418,"featured_media":145289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12,2192,8959,4,3],"tags":[167,607,165,9001,6346,123,8740,1375],"class_list":["post-145777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-wrestling","category-tna-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-dolph-ziggler","tag-frankie-kazarian","tag-john-cena","tag-john-cena-retirement","tag-matt-cardona","tag-matt-hardy","tag-nic-nemeth","tag-zack-ryder"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145793,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145777\/revisions\/145793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}