00:00John Cena's last match. It was something that was talked about for a really long time,
00:04and then when it finally came, the people kind of hated it.
00:09So, let's go and dive now into John Cena's last match in WWE.
00:23So, um, that was a thing.
00:26John Cena, no longer an active member of the WWE roster, in terms of an in-ring capacity anyway,
00:33as he falls to Gunther by, uh, sleeper hold and taps out.
00:38And that is where a lot of people are very, very frustrated.
00:41And I will just say, for me, I thought it was perfect.
00:46I thought that, A, it was what I was expecting.
00:48They were really harping on the Gunther submission element of it,
00:53how John Cena had never tapped out in 20 years or whatever it was,
00:56and how this guy has all these submissions, and that's gonna be his focus,
01:00and he's gonna make the guy who never gave up, give up.
01:03And so I just, I thought there was too much going into that, talking about that, for it to not play out.
01:09And, yes, we are probably past the time of the time-honored tradition,
01:14where you do the job on the way out the door.
01:16And we saw it with Sting, that you can do that.
01:19Um, you can have him win, and have it be this great thing.
01:25I also think that, like, all the talk about John Cena,
01:28how, oh, he's going out on his own terms,
01:30and then he says, well, I'm not, because I would like to do this forever,
01:32it's just the body is wearing down.
01:34But, yes, I am deciding when I am leaving.
01:36So that is, that is great.
01:37I think Cena deserved to go out the way he wanted to.
01:42And, in this case, he wanted to put someone over.
01:46And that someone was Gunther.
01:48And it makes sense, we talked about it, like, yeah, it would have been great,
01:51if there would have been a young guy coming in,
01:53to, uh, take that mantle, and, and just run with it.
01:57And have it not be the 38-year-old dude to, to do this.
02:00But, like, this is going to, like, Gunther is going to be a main eventer for this company
02:04for the next five to seven years, right?
02:06So, I, that, that feels future, and anything beyond that we're projecting in wrestling?
02:14Come on.
02:15Like, I, it would be awesome if you could turn the John Cena thing,
02:18and just hand it off to the next guy, and have the, a Pittsburgh Steelers-esque run of coaches,
02:23but with top-level superstars, and we can just go from one guy to the other,
02:28and 45 years is just covered with two dudes that we can roll it with.
02:34That's insane to assume.
02:35And so, if you are going to try to put, like, a young performer in there,
02:39you are hoping to get a five to seven-year run out of it.
02:42Well, you know you're going to get it out of that guy.
02:44And, I thought on Monday, and we'll talk about Monday in a little bit,
02:48I thought on Monday, this was just proof positive that they picked the right guy.
02:53That the, that Gunther was the dude to go out and get the job done,
02:56and be this next heel for it.
02:59So, I had no problem with the choice.
03:01We did a video before about some other guys who I would rather have seen,
03:05but at the end of the day, this was the play.
03:07And I just, I didn't get it.
03:09And I thought a lot of the reaction, um, took away from what should have been a great moment.
03:14And a lot of people were complaining about,
03:15Oh, well, we wanted to celebrate Cena.
03:17You still could have, guys.
03:19Like, you, win or lose, he was done after this one.
03:25So, to choose that moment to start chanting,
03:29you fucked up, and all those things at Triple H.
03:32I just, I thought that the fans were doing the thing that they accused WWE of doing,
03:36and ruining John Cena's last night.
03:39Like, I just, I thought, I thought the whole thing,
03:41and I was in tears for quite a bit of it.
03:43I thought there was just, there was such an interesting comparison the whole night
03:48of how Cena had been treated in his time as a, you know, as a top guy in WWE,
03:55and how fans were relating to him now.
03:58Like, I just, it, it really felt to me like it was a crowd making up for lost time.
04:04Giving Cena the cheers he deserved for a really long time,
04:08in place of the booze that were more meant for the man who was behind the curtain,
04:13who kept giving fans anything but what we wanted.
04:16He received, in that match, you still got it chants.
04:19Probably from a lot of the same fans who, for years,
04:23didn't want to admit he ever had it in the first place.
04:27And I thought it finished the way it was always going to.
04:30Not with one last John Cena, one, two, three,
04:33but with a win for Cena's vision of how he wanted to go.
04:37By trying to leave the wrestling world in a better place than he found it.
04:42He did what he always promised to do.
04:45To give us everything he had.
04:47And at this point, all he had left to give was one big match,
04:51and then the quote-unquote rub to a top guy who could carry it forward.
04:57They didn't anticipate the crowd that, for years, never wanted him to win.
05:02Now, not wanting him to lose.
05:04But I thought the rest of it was perfect.
05:06I just, I, I thought it was exactly how you could draw up a John Cena last match.
05:13He hit all of his big stuff,
05:14and in the end, the guy who never gave up
05:17kind of realized that the mission was complete.
05:21And maybe he didn't have to, maybe he didn't have to give up,
05:25but he didn't have to keep fighting for the thing that he was fighting for forever,
05:28and that was making the WWE a better place.
05:31He recognized now that it's in better hands with some of these other guys.
05:36So I just thought that the smile and the tap and all of it,
05:39like, we all just love the subtlety and everything.
05:42And look, John Cena is subtle as a jackhammer.
05:44We know that.
05:44But we love the subtlety and the storytelling of Roman Reigns finally being like,
05:49you know what?
05:50It's my time.
05:51And smiling and tapping.
05:53And then to hate this, I just, I don't get it.
05:55I don't, I don't get it.
05:56So I thought, I thought it was great.
05:59I really, really didn't understand, just full disclosure,
06:02I wasn't able to watch it live.
06:06Watched it a couple of days after the fact.
06:09And already kind of had that cycle of everyone being pissed about it,
06:13going through on social media.
06:14And so I knew how people felt about it.
06:18And I had a general idea of how the match ended.
06:20And I was very surprised when watching it at how normal and obvious it all felt to me.
06:27So again, I just, I thought it was a great ending.
06:30And I thought it was the perfect way for John Cena to go out.
06:33The one thing, my critique of the whole night, I get, like, it's cool to have Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady and Eli Manning
06:40and all them throwing out their thanks.
06:44By the way, like,
06:46the sports people who, you know what?
06:50You're almost perfect.
06:51Just, just a Patriots fan.
06:53Like, sports people are so lame with some things sometimes.
06:56But that's beside the point.
06:57But, um, all that stuff is cool and neat to get and everything.
07:01I kind of would have preferred more Cena moments throughout the night instead of the thank yous and all of that.
07:08I would have liked the flashbacks to WrestleMania's gone by and ECW One Night Stand.
07:14If Timothee Chalamet is talking about those shows, then we should be seeing them on our television.
07:20So, I, I thought we could have done with more Cena moments and not necessarily the,
07:24oh, thank you, John, and all of that.
07:26Like, the video package they produced and everything, that was spectacular.
07:29Um, oh, like, the, the ones with the, the wrestlers thanking him and the big one that they put up on the board.
07:34All of that, great.
07:35Um, I, I just wished that we would have had, like, some real moments as the, the night kind of went on.
07:44Aside from just people saying thank you to John.
07:46And, you know, you can do that privately.
07:47Or just, like, put them all out on social media and all that throughout the day.
07:50Um, but a, a mix of the two, I think, would have been a little bit better for me.
07:53Anyway, personally.
07:54Aside from that, I, I think the big story of the night was the NXT wrestlers shined.
07:58Like, Oba Femi felt like a star by the end of the night.
08:02And the Drew McIntyre stuff, god, that's so annoying.
08:05I, I understand, like, Oba, there's a, an aura to this guy.
08:09And, like, beating him is one thing.
08:11But I think the way that he wrestled that match, if that would have ended with Cody winning,
08:15I don't think Oba's in any worse of a spot.
08:18But, he is the champion of your developmental brand.
08:22And, boy, did that developmental brand's champions come into focus in the next couple of days
08:26after.
08:27But, um, he's the champion of your developmental brand.
08:30He shouldn't be on the level of Cody Rhodes.
08:33So, like, beating him, I don't think it would have done any damage at all.
08:38Now, I was surprised by the reaction to Cena's loss too, so what do I know?
08:42But, I, I just, I, I thought that was a really unsatisfying way to have that match end.
08:49You could have done all, basically everything else you did.
08:52McIntyre comes out and attacks him.
08:54Oba stands over Drew McIntyre.
08:56And, this, that, and the other thing.
08:57All of that could have worked.
09:00And, we would have been happy with the match because Cody would have got the win.
09:03Um, Sol showed off everything that we wanted her to against, uh, Bayley.
09:07And, I thought both Slater and Evans looked fantastic against, um, AJ Styles and Dragon
09:12Lee.
09:12And, they lost and I did not lose anything for them.
09:15So, I, I think that the real story of the night, as, again, Cena wanted it to be, was
09:21the NXT stars who stepped up and took advantage of this opportunity to shine.
09:27Uh, showing that, again, the wrestling industry is in a much, much better spot than when John
09:31Cena came into it all those years ago.
09:34I'm going to assume a lot of you disagree with where I'm at on the, the Cena loss.
09:39So, let me know in the comments.
09:41What do you guys think?
09:42Um, where, where am I wrong in this whole thing?
09:45And, what would have been a better way for John Cena to go out?
09:49Let's talk about it in the comment section down below.
09:53Um, WWE shows can be a little bit long and we got some big ones coming up.
09:56Big AEW show.
09:58Some of us are going to be staying up late or waking up early for Wrestle Kingdom.
10:01Going to need that energy.
10:02And, you can head over to swiftenergy.gg.
10:04Use the code PKprimetime for 25% off.
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