John Cena vs. Gunther To OPEN Saturday Night's Main Event (WWE News)

by Andrew Pollard
John Cena
WWE.com

With the wrestling world now just two days away from the in-ring retirement of John Cena, the record-setting 17-time World Champion is currently set to open this weekend's WWE Saturday Night's Main Event.

Per f4wonline's Bryan Alvarez on X, Cena vs. Gunther is scheduled to open SNME, and Big Match John "will get as much time as he wants." Alvarez also mentioned how there is no set runtime for this latest edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, "so everyone will get all the time they need."

Previous Saturday Night's Main Events have been hampered by the standard timing restrictions that come with airing on NBC in the US, but that's different this time out, with the show solely airing on Peacock in the States, meaning there isn't as much pressure to have a hard out at 10pm ET. A prime example of this, of course, was Bill Goldberg's retirement match back in July, where, after coming up short against the Ring General, the broadcast cut out just as Da Man started his retirement speech.

Advertisement

It remains to be seen which match will close out this weekend's Saturday Night's Main Event, and it will also be interesting to see how the viewership numbers do in terms of any drop-off after John Cena's match is done so early in the show. Of course, it may well be that WWE has Cena and Gunther open SNME, then John gets to do a formal send-off speech at the end of the show.

As for the rest of the WWE Saturday Night's Main Event card, WWE Champion Cody Rhodes faces NXT Champion Oba Femi in a non-title match, former five-time Women's Champion Bayley battles NXT's Sol Ruca, and World Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Dragon Lee find themselves up against NXT's Je'Von Evans and TNA X Division Champion Leon Slater, again in a non-title setting.

Advertisement
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.