3 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Unreal Season 3 (Review)
1. Cena's Last Stand
Unreal does a good job of capturing the enormity of John Cena's final match against Gunther at 2025's final Saturday Night's Main Event in Washington. The emotion of the evening is personified by Charles Robinson bawling his eyes out before the match, CM Punk and Bayley bouncing around and hugging like fans while they enjoy Cena's finale, Michael Cole choking back tears on commhttps://whatculture.com/wwe/tom-brady-wwe-in-ongoing-conversations-over-future-appearance-wwe-newscelentary, and Al Green’s beautiful ‘For The Good Times’ soundtracking his final moments as he tapped out.
WWE could have just sold Cena’s final night as an in-ring talent as a beloved triumph, but they address people’s bemusement and anger in the booking of his final moment. Cena takes ownership of the story, saying that he knew his final moment tapping out to Gunther would not be universally liked. He explains why he decided to tap out, citing that some people are lucky enough to die surrounded by loved ones with a smile on their face, and that’s how he wanted to end his in-ring career.
The idea is that Cena's retirement in this particular way was done to make Gunther a bigger heel as a result. That worked for a few weeks, as Gunther went on to retire AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble, but fans can be forgiven for questioning this long-term, given his booking in 2026. He is about to fight SmackDown's GM at SummerSlam after being thrown haphazardly into a match with Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 42 that held little weight with fans whatsoever.
Unreal also addresses fans' displeasure with the booking of Cena’s retirement directly at Paul Levesque. Levesque says he considers Cena’s farewell run as “a success on all levels”. This is where Unreal falls apart. Through the opening two episodes, Cena’s failed heel run is barely mentioned, and the role Travis Scott and The Rock played in that run falling apart is not mentioned at all. This reality show too often ignores the biggest questions and criticisms fans have of WWE, in the name of making the company look like it always finds a way to succeed (despite all the evidence to the contrary).