Review: Saturday Night's Main Event gives John Cena his deserved flowers, but how did it reflect on Triple H?

It's no secret that WWE's creative has been fairly up and down in 2025, in spite of the record business they've been doing at the gates. Much of that is the momentum fro the exciting twists of the Bloodline story through 2022-to 2024, culminating in Cody Rhodes finishing his story at Wrestlemania 40. The farewell tour of John Cena has served as the key storyline through most of this year, and opinions of it have been all over the place. It's led to this farewell SNME show in Washington, D.C. (at least as far as Cena's in ring competiton is concerned, as he's signed a new Legends deal with the company), which understandably whipped up emotions among the wrestling fandom.

Cena's retirement run has felt somewhat bucket list-ish, which is funny given the main criticism of Triple H's booking this year year has been that he allegedly plays things too safe. It's as if they wanted to get as much done as possible- let's give those jaded fans the long-awaited heel turn (an ill-time suggesstion from the Rock), let's give them the 17th world champinship, let's pass the torch to the next generation, let's put on a few last 4 and 5-star matches, and let's also put on a Antonio Inoki-style tournament to determine his closing opponent. Part of why I feel this whole thing has left many fans feeling weird is how WWE wasn't able to stick to one consistent narrative for Cena's final dates. Thankfully, Cena's charisma and still solid in-ring timing has kept much of the questionable creative afloat. 

Even during the peak of his backlash (no pun intended), I was always generally a Cena guy. My all-time favorite men's wrestler is Macho Man Randy Savage, that never changes, but John's always been somewhere in my personal top ten (usually seated between Mitsuharu Misawa and Jushin Liger). On top of his versatility in the ring with different opponents, engaging mic skills, charity work and commitment to the industry, I've just always found his energy infectious. His acting chops aren't bad either, as his run as Peacemaker and the depth he gives James Gunn's version of the character has shown. His performance here shows how thin a line there is between film a ring acting, and he wasn't the only one displaying that tonight.

Cody Rhodes vs. Oba Femi

We open up with a non-title exhibition match between the WWE men's champion and the current NXT men's champion. Oba is called "The Ruler" for good reason as he spends much of the match dominating Cody, who plays the underdog role well as usual (another quality he got from his dad).  For a bout that's under nine minutes it's pretty entertaining, but after Cody makes his eventual comeback into a stalemate, Drew McIntyre interferes for a disqualification finish. 

I can see where WWE didn't want either Cody or Femi to lose at this point- they're still highly protective of Rhodes as a draw, and they're also still invested in keeping up Oba's destroyer-type aura. McIntyre will no doubt spin this into a complaint over not getting a title shot, because as the apparent WWE mandate indicates, "Drew Must Suffer."

Bayley vs. Sol Ruca

Ruca reminds me in many ways of a more impactful Kelly Kelly, another women's superstar with a gymnast background, but who also worked much lighter than Sol (not that I'm condemning Kelly for that, it's just her style). There's more of a rawness and desperation to Ruca's work in comparison, and Bayley is of course athletic enough to keep up. I'm still not all that wild about the Rose Plant as a finisher- I've seen worse, it's better than the overdrive at least. (I prefer Bayley's flying elbow as a match ender, frankly I think hers is better than Okada's.) 

After a series of pinfall attempts, Ruca is able to counter Bayley for a three-count in a brisk but entertaining contest. The two are sympatico after the match, though I foresee Sol and Bayley having tensions once the former is called up to the main roster given how erratic the former world champion's been lately.

World Tag Team Championship match: AJ Styles and Dragon Lee. vs. Je'Von Evans and Leon Slater

Wrestling writers absolutely love Je'Von Evans, and for good reason, his physical ability and still blossoming charisma are damned impressive at such a young age. It's to where the Wrestling Observer more or less has a complete meltdown whenever he comes up short, and I can't help but think to myself "calm down, he is still developing and if he remains healthy then he'll be in line for a major push soon". 

He and his tag partner Slater put a lot of doubt in my mind as far as Styles and Lee retaining, because some of these near falls convinced me they were dead to rights. Alas, it's not the youngster's time quite yet as AJ is able to take advantage of an error from Dragon and pin him with a Styles Clash. For the time it was given, not a bad title defense and it has me interested in what AJ is planning for his own retirement tour in 2026 (his Clash In Paris match a couple months back against Cena was a banger also).

John Cena vs. Gunther

So as you'd expect, this was the match of the night because it was going to get the most time. Gunther spends a fair amount of time working Cena's upper half, particuarly with a series of brutal lariats. Cena has rightfully pointed out he's slowed down considerably, so he mostly sticks to his bread and butter while playing the underdog against the final boss Gunther- pretty impressive when you're as bulky as Cena, which goes to show you in spite of his hulk-up moments throughout his career, the dude has been an under-apprectated seller for a while. 

The flying leg drop, super-AA and STF aren't enough as Gunther, as promised, gets a submission win and he gleefully soaks up the boos as he heads to the back. The roster comes out to celebrate Cena with a pretty moving tribute video set to One Republic, including Cody and CM Punk symbolically sharing their belts with him, but Hunter gets absolutely lambasted when he steps out to the ring. This is "2003 Triple H Reign of Terror" levels of rage at this guy now.

The reaction to the booking to me is a reflection of how well Cena connected with audiences throughout the years. Regardless if the crowds were on his side or not, he always made them feel something. One of his defining contributions to the business was a style of performance that showed a young fan living out their fantasies and never losing that sense of excitement about it- not an easy thing to pull off in an industry this insane at times. 

It's evident in the sense of gratitude John gives off as he leaves his sneakers in the ring. With one key main eventer taking his last bows, how that affects the makeup of the men's Royal Rumble remains to be seen, but of course, none of the superstars are thinking about that currently.

There have been other superstars who were more technically sound than Cena, and he'd be the first to tell you that he's not as crisp as a Bryan Danielson or a Bret Hart. Personally, I think bell to bell he's still a bit underrated. But just as a performer who left you with fun, memorable moments and made everything feel larger than life- the fundamental goal of a professional wrestler- there were few more effective in its history. So I'd still recommend the show because booking concerns aside, I think it's a nice final showcase of the qualities that made Cena such a WWE pillar.