John Cena’s final match at Saturday Night’s Main Event was a fitting celebration of his career. 

Whether it gave fans what they wanted along the way is an entirely different discussion. 

The main event obviously commands the most attention. Cena smiling, then tapping out, is a controversial way for it all to end. 

Wrestlers going out on their backs is tradition. Everyone knew it was coming. No doubt The GOAT requested it. Gunther delivered. But the storytelling to get to that point was flimsy. The “Never Give Up” guy finally giving up could be considered poetic, but there was no harm with a simple three-count, either.

Michael Cole, oddly proclaiming “professional wrestling destroyed sports entertainment,” was obviously pre-planned. Weird thing to spotlight in a Netflix era littered with advertisements on the mats and celebrities in the front row, but alas. 

Maybe Cena wanted that ending, specifically. When Gunther puts in a sleeper hold now, it’ll never be underestimated. It ended John Cena’s career, after all. 

However, fan backlash to the ending isn’t hard to find, and rightly so. Triple H had boos rain down on him from nearly 20,000 fans in the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., for good reason. This is yet another perceived misstep of his booking that just keeps growing. 

Look at the rest of the show, which was pockmarked with problems. Going into Saturday night, this was very obviously a “give fans what they want” event, while Cena himself wanted to use the platform to showcase the next generation. 

Unfortunately, NXT champion and next-big-thing candidate Oba Femi got to work just 9:10 with Cody Rhodes. He looked dominant in the early going, but the match ended in typical Triple H fashion…

You guessed it: It ended in a disqualification. Drew McIntyre popped in and ruined a good match, cutting it short early. Neither guy could take a loss logic applies here, but the execution was sloppy and it’s merely the latest DQ ending.

Fans just had one at Survivor Series when a team headed by Brock Lesnar needed a DQ ending to win, courtesy of a masked man. 

This isn’t even a one-off during Cena’s retirement tour. Don’t even worry about the failed heel turn. Look at the odd-feeling loss to Lesnar on ESPN, with kids in attendance in tears. 

The rest of Saturday’s event wasn’t safe, either. Sol Ruca got just 9:25 to beat Bayley. AJ Styles and Dragon Lee took down Je’Von Evans and Leon Slater in just 6:30 despite some rumblings that Evans is one of those other major future centerpieces of WWE. 

As a celebration of Cena and all he’s done for the sport, Saturday was fantastic. But the lingering, overarching problems around the product, for whatever reason, just couldn’t be put aside. 

Over the long term, the immediate future is murky. WWE has failed to really build up the next big star(s) besides Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Names like Jey Uso, LA Knight, and others feel interchangeable, while guys such as Bron Breakker and Dominik Mysterio just aren’t there yet.

There’s time, of course—pro wrestling ebbs and flows. But the Cena era closing while things are so cloudy for the future, despite Saturday night attempting to display that future, is more than a little concerning.

And knowing Cena, he’s more than happy to do what’s “best for business” just as he did in his farewell. But what’s best for business isn’t always what fans want, and perhaps it’s fitting that he is officially stepping away at a time when the product seems to make less and less sense to its most passionate fans.