4 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE SmackDown (5 Dec - Results & Review)

1. A Final Every Bit As Good As Anticipated

The 'Last Time Is Now' tournament designed to find a foe for John Cena's final match at Saturday Night's Main Event on 13 December was a bit of a formality once Gunther was announced for the brackets. Pretty much everyone knew that the 'Ring General' would get that slot, but WWE did throw a curve ball into the works by eliminating Jey Uso on Monday's episode of Raw.

That meant it was one LA Knight who squared off with Gunther in the final.

SmackDown's blow off was a worthy finale for the John Cena tourney, as expected going in. Gunther was physically dominant during the early going, and Knight channelled his inner Sami Zayn to play the slightly outgunned underdog well. A one-two punch of LA hitting an Attitude Adjustment then Burning Hammer for a big near fall was awesome, and there was another fab close one when LA hit his BFT but Gunther got a foot on the bottom rope just in time.

What a tidy main event for this week’s SmackDown. Again, most got the feeling that Gunther was always winning this thing, but the final didn’t suffer because of that. Plus, the submission story they're telling going into Cena's last hurrah is juicy. Gunther won with a submission eerily similar to Cena’s STF, and the heel now says he wants to make Cena tap out so he can make a mockery of the legend's “Never Give Up” catchphrase.

That's a fine way to go with John's final bout as an active member of the WWE roster. Bring it on.

What did you think of this week's WWE SmackDown? For more wrestling, check out 15 Wrestlers That Got BANNED From WWE and 9 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 2004!