3 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Saturday Night's Main Event (Results & Review)

UPS…

3. Cena’s Farwell Tourney

On its face, a tournament where the prize is to face a wrestler in a non-title match on free television would not feel prestigious or important.

However, when that non-title match is John Cena’s last wrestling match at the December Saturday Night’s Main Event, that tourney suddenly becomes a big deal.

Dubbed The Last Time Is Now Tournament, the 16-man event was announced Saturday and will commence on the 10 November episode of Raw. Cena said the tournament would feature wrestlers “at random” from Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and even some surprise entrants who “don’t work here.” He pledged there would be some of his old rivals, as well as a generation of talent he’s never faced.

Given that Cena won’t be around to hype his farewell match due to only having a few dates remaining on his deal, the tournament is a surefire way to keep the final bout front-and-center as a plot point. It also gives purpose to several matches each week, with wrestlers vying to fight Cena as he says goodbye.

There has been a lot mishandled with Cena’s farewell tour this year, but building interest in his last match by having a smattering of wrestlers battle for the honor of sharing the ring with him next month is a smart move.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.