{"id":146738,"date":"2025-11-21T21:49:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=146738"},"modified":"2025-11-21T21:49:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T02:49:03","slug":"john-cena-last-time-is-now-tournament-1st-round-concludes-2-more-qualify-on-wwe-smackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/11\/21\/john-cena-last-time-is-now-tournament-1st-round-concludes-2-more-qualify-on-wwe-smackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cena “Last Time Is Now” Tournament 1st Round Concludes, 2 More Qualify on WWE SmackDown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The John Cena “Last Time is Now Tournament” first round pitted 16 men, new challengers, and the old rivals of the “Never Seen 17” in this amazing test of fortitude. Thus far, 14 men have advanced on to the next round, with two more heavy-hitters punching their tickets on this week’s WWE SmackDown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Friday night, we saw two incredible bouts between WWE Raw’s own Penta and Finn Balor, as well as the “Auszilla” Bronson Reed and the revelation that is Carmelo Hayes.<\/p>\n

WWE Universe, we’re now on to the quarterfinals of this tournament to determine the final opponent of John Cena on December 13th at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event XLII. For the first match of the evening, the one who called “HIM,” Carmelo Hayes, took on “Big” Bronson Reed. The monster Australian had things under control for most of the match, with The Vision backing him up.<\/p>\n

But Hayes went on an absolute tear, almost pinning the behemoth on more than one occasion. The Vision, as well as Logan Paul, would get in the way, thwarting any Hayes attempt at securing his spot in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Hayes, he also had back-up in the form of Cody Rhodes and The Usos. The Usos would take care of Bron Breakker and Logan Paul, while Rhodes exacted some revenge on Reed by hitting him with a Cross Rhodes. Out cold, Bronson couldn’t answer the ten-count, allowing Hayes to advance in this tournament.<\/p>\n

Later in the night, the leader of The Judgment Day, Finn Balor, took on the phenom Penta. Both men went out of their way to advance to the next round. Balor has Penta dead to rights, but the Mexican sensation just had more in the tank. After a crushing Mexican Destroyer to secure his spot.<\/p>\n

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

The strongest have now advanced. Who will make it to the semifinals once it’s all said and done?<\/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, John Cena “Last Time is Now” Tournament, 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 John Cena “Last Time is Now Tournament” first round pitted 16 men, new challengers, and the old rivals of the “Never Seen 17” in this amazing test of fortitude. Thus far, 14 men have advanced on to the next round, with two more heavy-hitters punching their tickets on this week’s WWE SmackDown. Friday night, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":145289,"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":[12,2192,26,4,3],"tags":[5395,7740,111,165,9123],"class_list":["post-146738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-bronson-reed","tag-carmelo-hayes","tag-finn-balor","tag-john-cena","tag-penta"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146738","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=146738"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146778,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146738\/revisions\/146778"}],"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=146738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}