In what would be the most aggressive competitive move against All Elite Wrestling to date, WWE is reportedly discussing moving John Cena’s final, historic retirement match to a new date where it would air head-to-head with AEW’s “Worlds End” pay-per-view in December. The news was reported by Bryan Alvarez on today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Live.
A Potential Shift for Cena’s Last Match
Alvarez stated that while the plan is not yet finalized, the discussion to move the match is actively happening within WWE. “Originally, the final John Cena match was going to be in early December, Saturday Night’s Main Event,” Alvarez said. “And this is not confirmed, okay, but it does look like there is now discussion that the date will be moved so it will be head-to-head with AEW World’s End”.
This potential move follows the recent report that WWE will run a premium live event on Saturday, September 20, headlined by John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar, which will go directly against AEW’s All Out pay-per-view. Alvarez noted that he had previously heard another head-to-head event was in the works for this year. “We did talk about how there’s going to be one more of these before the year was out, and I think they’re going to try and put the final John Cena match on Saturday Night’s Main Event in Boston head-to-head with World’s End,” he stated.
A Major Escalation
While WWE’s NXT brand has run premium live events on the same day as AEW pay-per-views in the past, the move to use main roster shows—particularly one as significant as John Cena’s retirement match—represents a major escalation in the competition between the two companies. “Worlds End” is AEW’s final pay-per-view of the year and is considered one of their major shows.
As for Lesnar, he’s expected back on WWE TV soon. He is advertised for the September 12 Smackdown and the September 19 Smackdown to build to the match with Cena next month.
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