John Cena Gives Montreal One Last Thrill on WWE Friday Night Smackdown

A “Thank you, Cena” chant became deafening, causing a pause before he reminded the crowd that the countdown is now at 11 appearances left, though the urgency and narrative is now gone without the title in hand after losing to Cody Rhodes on Sunday in the main event of Summer Slam’s night-two show.

Cena fought back against the narrative that ‘he willingly chose Brock Lesnar’ to fight, claiming no one in their right mind would pick a fight with “The Beast Incarnate,” but that he’s also never backed down from a fight and would not start now.

“Time is winding down, so Brock Lesnar, when you want some, come and get some,” Cena screamed with his face red before throwing a fainthearted challenge to ‘anyone willing to walk down the ramp.’

It did not take long for Logan Paul to make his way out to confront the version of Cena that Paul claimed was ‘unrecognizable.’ The heat on Paul was genuine as the “F’ you, Logan!” chant hijacked the show’s audio in the form of jarring cuts of poorly timed hollow silence. Logan and Cena began to finesse a match at Clash in Paris before Drew McIntyre came out to cheap-shot Cena.

With the heels in control of the 2-1 beatdown, Cody Rhodes came down to make the save, and before the segment was finished, Cena challenged both Paul and McIntyre to a match with the claim that he had found a tag partner in Cody. After months of feuding, the two were positioned as the company’s feature storyline culminating in a final showdown on Sunday—two days after Cena’s face flip by way of his ‘heel flop.’

The tag match was booked for the evening’s main event.

It was a solid segment off the back of a strong promo from a ‘returning Cena.’ What was better was seeing Cena interact with R-Truth (not Ron Killings), who hadn’t been used on TV in weeks. The pair mirrored each other before Truth reacted by saying, “If you’re back, I’m back.” Funny enough, Cena was the one confusing Truth by claiming it was Truth that had been on a heel run over the last several months.

Main Event: John Cena & Cody Rhodes vs. Logan Paul & Drew McIntyre

The climax of the match was the Cena hot tag behind the track of Joe Tessitore on commentary, saying, “One last time in Montreal for John,” in what felt like an old-school baseball commentator making a classic call over the grainy radio as the future hall of famer steps up to the plate.

The match’s booker was never going to let this one end clean, and the faces took the technical victory after Logan forced the DQ by way of a low-blow on Cena. The match ended, but the fight was not over as Cena and Paul quickly exited frame towards Gorilla, meanwhile, Drew flipped the script on Cody’s ‘tabled plans’ and was in complete control with no one to save Cody.

Drew picked up Cody’s world title and stared at the gold as if he were focused on the reflection in it. McIntyre then landed a modified ‘Claymore Kick’ to Cody’s head, pinned against the commentary desk. The psychotic look in Drew’s eyes closed out the show, and even with Drew knocking this out of the park, the lack of clarity on Lesnar’s place in all this coinciding with the recent “pop-up bookings” that WWE ‘creative’ have continued to utilize at the highest level, and all of it only works to further convolute the final days of Cena’s wrestling career.

Charlotte Flair And Alexa Bliss… Festival of Fuh, Fuh, Fuh… Friends!!

The festival of friendship segment between Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens is remembered fondly by fans, and tonight, the newly reigning women’s tag team champions attempted to have their own segment bonding moment. Unfortunately, Chelsea Green interfered before the two former world champs could really cook.

Flair defeated Green in singles action in the following segment, and the cake that Flair had brought out for Bliss’s birthday was smashed in Chelsea’s face.

MFTs vs. MCMG/ Solo vs. Sami Zayn

JC Mateo and Talla Tonga (MFTs) defeated Motor City Machineguns with Solo ringside and watching on with the U.S. title in hand. Talla Tonga hit the chokeslam for the pinfall victory over Saben, but the night was not over for the former Bloodline 2.0.

GM Nic Aldis came out during Solo’s post-match promo to book a non-title match between the champ and Sami Zayn—Montreal’s own (Sami was put over by Bret Hart in this same arena in an open challenge against U.S. champ (at the time) John Cena. The match was booked with the crowd pop working as the backdrop to an undeniably over Sami Zayn, still a good guy following his ‘heel-ish’ program with Karrion Kross coming to its conclusion in their Summer Slam trilogy.

Sami picked up the victory over Solo in what was portrayed as an upset, but the feud is likely headed to “Clash in Paris.”