Backstage Notes From WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event

WWE is set to present Saturday Night’s Main Event from the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., tonight. The show will be headlined by John Cena’s farewell bout against former World Heavyweight Champion Gunther. The match is set to be officiated by Chad Patton, per Fightful. The arena is completely sold out, and it is set to fetch the largest gate for an arena show in the company’s history.

The Ring General won The Last Time Is Now Tournament to earn the right to battle Cena in the 17-time World Champion’s final match. According to Fightful, Gunther was locked in as Cena’s final opponent several months ago, despite him being out of action due to injury.

Tonight’s show will feature exciting matchups between main roster performers and NXT talents. AJ Styles and Dragon Lee will defend their World Tag Team Championship against Leon Slater and Je’Von Evans, while Bayley will go one-on-one with former NXT Women’s North American Champion Sol Ruca. Meanwhile, Undisputed WWE Champ Cody Rhodes will battle NXT Champion Oba Femi. While it’s well known that Cena was the biggest driving force behind these exhibition matches, Fightful reports that the 48-year-old did not hand-pick NXT talents who will perform tonight.

Wrestling Observer Live reported earlier this week that there is no strict time limit for tonight’s show. While Fightful hasn’t been able to confirm this, the website reports that the claim has not been countered by anyone within the company.

Saturday Night’s Main Event debuted on Peacock domestically last month. According to Fightful, there were discussions of the event airing on NBC when WWE was negotiating its PLE exit from Peacock, but they didn’t come to fruition.

As mentioned above, Leon Slater and Je’Von Evans will be up against AJ Styles and Dragon Lee tonight. Interestingly, Fightful is reporting that the reigning TNA X-Division Champion was originally booked by WXW for the evening of December 13.

Coming back to John Cena, throughout his Farewell Tour, fans clamored for one final match between him and Adam Copeland (FKA Edge). Of course, that didn’t happen, as the Rated-R Superstar is currently signed to AEW. Needless to say, as Fightful reports, he was never considered for anything related to Cena’s Retirement Tour.

One last time…for every one of you who he sees, hears and loves. #ThankYouCena pic.twitter.com/mpU9qqbFqc

— Triple H (@TripleH) December 13, 2025