There may have been two title changes this past weekend at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event, but the biggest story coming out of the event involved an announcement regarding John Cena’s retirement tour. Starting next week, WWE will hold a sixteen man tournament, with the winner earning the right to face Cena during his swan song at the next Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13. And it’s a tournament that promises to have plenty of intrigue, with WWE teasing that talents not in WWE would also be participating in this tournament.
Naturally, this has led to some speculation that the tournament could feature talents from WWE’s promotional partner TNA, the WWE owned lucha libre promotion AAA, indie talent, or possibly even big name talent from AEW. On the latest “Wrestling Observer Radio,” however, Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer threw some cold water over the latter possibility, even while acknowledging that’s what WWE wants fans to believe.
“They want…to tease the idea that it will be Adam Copeland, which it will not be,” Meltzer said.
“Or Jericho,” Alvarez said.
“Which it will not be either, because his contract’s not due then,” Meltzer said. “It’s going to end up being Matt Cardona, or somebody like that.”
Regardless of who will be in it, most, including Meltzer, continue to believe that former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther will wind up being Cena’s final opponent. However, Meltzer also noted there were seeds planted for Cena to wrestle WWE Intercontinental and AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio at some point as well.
“It certainly looks like they’re keeping up with that angle of Cena and Dom,” Meltzer said. “Dom getting another win and beating Rusev, being the one to beat Rusev and everything like that.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Wrestling Observer Radio” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
