{"id":146166,"date":"2025-11-14T21:19:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T02:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=146166"},"modified":"2025-11-15T11:26:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T16:26:51","slug":"huge-star-steps-up-to-la-knight-on-wwe-smackdown-in-john-cena-last-time-is-now-tournament-first-round-match-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/11\/14\/huge-star-steps-up-to-la-knight-on-wwe-smackdown-in-john-cena-last-time-is-now-tournament-first-round-match-up\/","title":{"rendered":"HUGE Star Steps Up To LA Knight on WWE SmackDown In John Cena “Last Time Is Now” Tournament First Round Match-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

The continuation of the first round of the John Cena “The Last Time is Now” Tournament<\/a> on this week’s WWE SmackDown<\/a> was hotly anticipated by many. Why? Because when SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis drew the names to reveal the entrants for the tournament, he kept the opponent for LA Knight, a secret, saying, “This was one for him,” essentially telling everyone that it’s a star they did not expect, and they should tune in this Friday night on SmackDown.<\/p>\n

Lo and behold, it was certainly<\/em> someone we didn’t anticipate would be on WWE SmackDown (though we did tease the possibility here<\/a>). Woo, Woo, you know it! The “Original Broski” Zack Ryder returns to WWE. The former United States Champion also has a significant history with John Cena, getting entangled in a love square between Eve Torres, Kane, and the “Never Seen 17.”<\/p>\n

\"A
Photo Credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was an extremely great surprise for the WWE Universe<\/a>. However, as Michael Cole and Corey Graves said on commentary, this is not the Zack Ryder that left WWE all those years ago, as this is the new-and-improved, “Matt Cardona-ified” version of Long Island Iced Z. We last saw Zack Ryder, or Matt Cardona, on the October 7th, 2025 edition of WWE NXT, losing to Josh Briggs.<\/p>\n

However, this is Ryder’s first match on the main roster in five years, making this comeback of sorts all the sweeter. LA Knight and Zack Ryder went to war, with the latter even catching Knight with a Rough Ryder for a near-fall. However, LA Knight would take control by countering an offensive move from Ryder from the top rope into a Powerbomb.<\/p>\n

LA Knight would hit BFT, Blunt Force Trauma, to advance in the tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> for more on WWE SmackDown results, LA Knight, Zack Ryder\/Matt Cardona, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the significant 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

You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\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>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The continuation of the first round of the John Cena “The Last Time is Now” Tournament on this week’s WWE SmackDown was hotly anticipated by many. Why? Because when SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis drew the names to reveal the entrants for the tournament, he kept the opponent for LA Knight, a secret, saying, “This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":146168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_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":[2,12,26,4,3],"tags":[165,7482,6346,1375],"class_list":["post-146166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-john-cena","tag-la-knight","tag-matt-cardona","tag-zack-ryder"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146166","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\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146166"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146260,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146166\/revisions\/146260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}