The final run of John Cena has been one of the massive focal points in the world of pro wrestling for 2025 but on this day, the prolific star made his in-ring debut. This took place on November 5th, 1999 as Cena wrestled under the moniker The Prototype. Over a quarter of a century ago, Cena debuted in a two on one handicap match as The Prototype defeated Jobbers-R-Us which was a team comprised of Funky Billy Kim and Troubled Youth. This took place at UPW Entertainment Overload which emanated from the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, California.
Those in attendance at that show saw the birth of one of the most notable professional wrestling legacies of all time and certainly saw the beginning of the rise of one of this generation’s most prolific performers. The former 17 time world champion has such a massive presence in the space that even some current WWE performers don’t buy that he is going to hang up the boots ala Rusev during a recent interview with Shakiel Mahjouri at SHAK Wrestling.
Only time will tell how that all shakes out but WWE is still carrying forward with this tournament field to determine Cena’s final opponent to close out 2025 all the same.
First two matches announced for the John Cena Last Time Is Now tournament
To be the final in-ring adversary of John Cena holds a lot of legacy related weight for people and two marquee match ups have been announced in this Last Time Is Now Tournament. On the upcoming episode of WWE Raw set for November 10th, the aforementioned Rusev will take on Damian Priest while Shinsuke Nakamura and Sheamus will do battle.
General Manager Adam Pearce announced the pair of match ups on the last episode of WWE Raw from earlier this week. Both former WWE world heavyweight champion Priest and former NJPW titleholder Nakamura will also be making their return to the red brand here after both men have embarked on recent SmackDown tenures.
Speaking of the blue brand, Nick Aldis will be announcing another pair of matches for this Last Time is Now tournament on the looming episode of SmackDown on Friday.