An eventful episode of WWE SmackDown took place last night at the AllState Arena in Chicago, Illinois, featuring the likes of Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, the returning AJ Lee, and John Cena, who had a full circle moment in the ring.
John Cena kicked off the September 5 episode of WWE SmackDown after Clash in Paris amid the Chicago fans chanting “Thank You, Cena.” Heading into the ring, the Cenation Leader confirmed that it was his final appearance on the blue brand as an active in-ring competitor, and those chants from the fans meant a lot to him.
Cena said Chicago was always special to him, and the fans make people come back to WWE, and they know what he’s talking about. Fans immediately started chanting “AJ Lee,” and Cena obliged them by saying that the fans were in for one hell of a night. Cena further promoted the fact that it was his final appearance on WWE SmackDown, amid the greatest crowd in the company’s history.
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Back in 2002, Cena made her debut on television by coming out as a rookie on WWE SmackDown to take on WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle before slapping him to the face. On that night, Cena also uttered the words “Ruthless Aggression,” which many consider to mark the beginning of the Ruthless Aggression era in the WWE in the following years.
WWE SmackDown: John Cena’s final match was ruined by Brock Lesnar
In his final WWE SmackDown appearance, Cena ended up facing Sami Zayn in a United States Title Open Challenge. Cena paid tribute to Edge (Adam Copeland in AEW) by doing his spear and the pre-finisher hypes in the ring. As fans chanted RKO, Cena went for the RKO, but Sami countered. Sami also survived two Attitude Adjustments in the match.
The third one was an avalanche AA off the middle rope, after which both men went down in the ring. This is when Brock Lesnar’s music hit the arena and out came The Beast. Lesnar took the referee out of the ring and delivered an F5 to Sami. Lesnar then hit Cena with two F5s, making the latter’s final WWE SmackDown appearance a bitter one.