Where Do We Go From Here?

We’re officially in a post-John Cena world, as Saturday Night’s Predominant Event ended on the image of Cena leaving his iconic sneakers within the ring to formally signify his retirement. Now it’s two days later, with “WWE Raw” coming up and the corporate fully transitioning into pre-taped holiday episode mode. What’s going to the fallout from Cena’s retirement show be? SNME also had potential implications for Tuesday’s episode of “WWE NXT” and beyond, as “NXT” stars got the chance to indicate out against important roster talent on Saturday’s undercard, and even for other promotions.

Is WWE on the point of strap a rocket to Sol Ruca? Is Leon Slater preparing to leap ship from TNA? How will the “Raw” audience reply to GUNTHER after he tapped out Cena himself within the important event? In other words, with Saturday Night’s Predominant Event within the rearview mirror, where will we go from here?

NXT Champion Oba Femi showed out during his opening match against Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, throwing the important roster star across the ring prefer it was nothing and even busting him open on an upper cut on the skin. In true WWE fashion, nevertheless, with creative seemingly not wanting either champion to lose clean, Rhodes’ current rival, Drew McIntyre, ran right down to the ring from the group to cause the disqualification. Rhodes was ruled the winner, as “The Scottish Psychopath” got within the ring and beat him down.

It was a disappointing end to the champions’ exhibition match, and a slightly lackluster begin to Saturday Night’s Predominant Event, but WWE has the chance to make the most effective out of the booking decision moving forward. If the corporate desires to proceed getting Femi exposure on the important roster, and particularly ahead of “SmackDown” returning to its three-hour runtime firstly of 2026, “The Ruler” should need to get revenge on McIntyre. Femi stared down McIntyre within the ring, pushed him down, and eventually hit an enormous chokeslam on him to follow up Rhodes’ Cody Cutter. The Undisputed WWE Champion could have raised Femi’s hand within the ring after the McIntyre beatdown, but “The Ruler” still didn’t look blissful about all of it.

Femi could easily proceed the storyline with McIntyre and Rhodes. In a fantasy booking scenario, the NXT Champion could team with “The American Nightmare” against McIntyre and a partner from “NXT,” possibly Femi’s current rival who he beat at Deadline, Ricky Saints, in a tag team match on the primary three-hour episode of the blue brand in the brand new 12 months. Femi could also easily proceed his storyline on “NXT” at the identical time, especially if Saints is working alongside him on “SmackDown.” A number of appearances on the important roster to proceed to realize exposure is simply going to learn him.

“The Ruler” is about to defend his title at Recent 12 months’s Evil against the winner of the runners-up of the Iron Survivor Challenge, Myles Borne, Dion Lennox, Leon Slater, and Joe Hendry, who’re set to clash in a four-way match on Tuesday, however it seems more likely that he would lose the gold in a triple threat involving each Saints and Je’Von Evans at a later date. Regardless of the way you fantasy book it, nevertheless, Femi is a megastar destined for the important roster, and Rhodes is once more on a collision course against McIntyre for the pair to face off at yet one more premium live event, either the following Saturday Night’s Predominant Event on January 24, or on the Royal Rumble from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia the next week.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Sol Ruca took certainly one of the most important victories of her profession when she overcame WWE Women’s Grand Slam Champion Bayley at Saturday Night’s Predominant Event. The competition may need just been an exhibition match, but its impact on their careers is tangible.

While people say that Ruca is prepared for the important roster, I’d caution against it. Sure, we have had successful “NXT” call-ups with out a reign with development territory’s important title on the important roster prospect — Becky Lynch involves mind first, and Lash Legend looks promising — but in today’s times, a reign with “NXT’s” important title might as well be a prerequisite to a successful important roster call-up. Once Kendal Grey falls to Jacy Jayne (because, despite all her talent, I gently doubt that Grey is over enough for a title win), I anticipate it’ll be Jayne and Ruca for the NXT Women’s Championship. It isn’t a matter of if she wins that title, but when. There’s also the Zaria issue: while the 2 could have patched things up temporarily, there is no telling when that friendship will implode over again.

Saturday may need been an enormous win for Ruca, but that night in D.C. was just one other unsuccessful match for Bayley, who has felt directionless post-Lyra Valkyria feud, and in 2025 as a complete. Her last televised win was back in October over Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez (two women who’re arguably finding more success and recognition than the previous WWE Women’s Champion), and who can forget her controversial WrestleMania 41 removal? 2025 has not been kind to Bayley. While some may take a look at her abysmal 2025 as proof of an imminent move to AEW, Bayley reportedly re-signed with WWE in late 2023 or early 2024. Sure, Bayley has the ability to walk away from her contract, but given Bayley’s loyalty, we are able to only hope that 2025 was only a stepping stone in the trail to a beautiful 2026 for the Grand Slam champion. Stephanie Vaquer and Maxxine Dupri do need more challengers, and Bayley hasn’t held either of their titles yet…

Written by Angeline Phu

“WWE NXT” star Je’Von Evans and TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater had a formidable showing in a fast-paced, high-flying match against WWE World Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Dragon Lee, but they couldn’t get the job done within the exhibition match. Despite the impressive bout, a match Slater had been vocal about being a dream for him against Styles, it doesn’t appear to be the young stars are destined for one more title shot anytime soon, nevertheless, as everything of the “WWE Raw” tag team division is now gunning for the gold.

Styles and Lee just successfully defended their titles against the War Raiders on “Raw” on Monday, and after the match, they faced off with other tag teams on the roster who now desire a shot at them. From The Usos, to the Recent Day alongside Grayson Waller, to the War Raiders who aren’t finished of their quest to grow to be champions, to Judgment Day’s Finn Balor and JD McDonagh, the previous champions, likely wanting a chunk of the motion, Styles and Lee have their work cut out for them to hold on to the gold in the brand new 12 months. Nonetheless,  Styles has said he plans to retire in 2026, so his tag team with Lee is probably not long for this world for Styles’ retirement tour to get under way.

Meanwhile, in “NXT,” Evans, who won the Men’s Iron Survivor match this 12 months, only to lose his shot at Oba Femi and the NXT Championship, continues to be going strong down in developmental, like he has something to prove before he heads as much as the important roster. His loss was due to interference by former champion Ricky Saints, nevertheless, so it looks like “The Young OG” will remain in contention for the developmental brand’s top title going forward. 

Slater, after all, stays with TNA as its X-Division Champion, however it looks he’ll be headed to the WWE Performance Center full-time sooner slightly than later. His TNA contract is reportedly set to run out in the autumn of 2026, in response to Fightful Select, but WWE has made it known, within the case of Joe Hendry, it will probably and can buy out top star’s contracts of its partner promotion. Slater has slowly grow to be a staple on “NXT” programming for weeks now, and even competed within the Iron Survivor match alongside Evans at Deadline. Now, he’s set for yet one more match to find out the primary contender for the highest gold in “NXT” on Tuesday when he takes on the opposite runners-up from Deadline to find out who faces Femi at Recent 12 months’s Evil.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Gunther did it. He retired John Cena by making “Mr. Never Give Up” do exactly that, smiling knowingly as he tapped out for the primary time in a long time to ride off into the sunset. That is it for Cena now; he gets to return to his movie profession and never has to think in regards to the impact of a bump outside of fond memories.

Alternatively, Gunther has a wholly recent cross to bear. That of being essentially the most hated man in all of sports-entertainment right away – perhaps other than Paul Levesque, that’s – and the person hand-picked to dropkick Cena out of the door. That is quite a bit for anybody man to hold, and it’s probably going to be a complete lot heavier for the proven fact that we’re now heading into the much-availed Road to WrestleMania. So where on Earth does he go from here? 

The simple answer could be one which glimmers, mayhaps just like the World Heavyweight Championship held by CM Punk. The problem on that front is Paul Heyman has already made it abundantly clear that Bron Breakker intends to take that title in the brand new 12 months. Breakker is certainly one of the one men in the corporate who can say they’ve beaten Gunther clean in the course of the ring. But also they are each bad guys of the very best order on Monday nights, and realistically each are at a stage where it could make little-to-no sense to show certainly one of them babyface. So it stands to reason that they can be kept separate a minimum of for the immediate future, and thus an issue starts to form: if not the World Heavyweight Champion, then, because the Recent Day once Owl-oquently put it, “WHO?”

If one was to imagine the reports floating across the Royal Rumble in 2024, then Brock Lesnar was penciled in to face “The Ring General” at WrestleMania 40. That did not occur on account of Lesnar’s naming – yes, he was named, though not a defendant – in Janel Grant’s still-ongoing sex trafficking lawsuit filed that very same weekend. But WWE has since brought Lesnar back to decimate Cena, like Gunther, and make his WarGames debut. And now the whispers are that Lesnar is potentially seeking to wrap things up in 2026, there may very well be a probability of revisiting that dashed plan for this 12 months’s WrestleMania. 

As my colleague identified during SNME’s Winners & Losers column, things are inclined to roll in threes; Gunther has just this 12 months retired each Goldberg and Cena, each of which being infamous rivals of Lesnar’s previously. Is it too far beyond the realms of possibility to see him attempt to make Lesnar his three-peat?

Written by Max Everett