The energy in Madison Square Garden is electric when a WWE icon like John Cena steps foot in New York. When it’s for his final time performing in the franchise’s signature home and for his last time ever on Monday Night RAW, it is unlike any other.
The second the horns of “The Time Is Now” hit the walls of MSG, the New York City crowd erupted, singing along to every lyric of the legend’s theme song as John Cena took the stage to open the show.
On the third-to-last stop of his “The Last Time Is Now” tour, Cena sported a Yankees-inspired outfit that was held together by his Intercontinental Championship belt, fresh off his hometown win in Boston against former Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio.
Chants of “Thank You Cena” went on for a good minute before he could even utter a word on the mic.
“Boy, do I welcome that enthusiasm,” Cena said to welcome the crowd. “But y’all got it twisted. It is New York City that makes or breaks careers, and at the end of mine, I look around and see people as far as the eye can see. Thank you, New York City.”
Dominik “Dirty Dom” Mysterio interrupted Cena’s speech to the crowd, challenging him to a rematch for the Intercontinental Championship at Survivor Series in Mysterio’s hometown of San Diego.
Soon after, Mysterio’s teammates, JD McDonagh and Finn Bálor of The Judgment Day, joined him on stage to beat up the current Intercontinental Champion, but Cena was met with some backup.
The crowd roared when the Irish legend Sheamus came to Cena’s rescue, but exploded even louder when Dirty Dom’s father, WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio, emerged from the tunnels. It was now a six-man tag team match between three icons: John Cena, Sheamus, and Rey Mysterio against Judgement Day.
Once the bell rang, Cena, Rey, and Sheamus ran through a throwback sequence. Cena hit a Fifteen Knuckle Shuffle on all three members of Judgment Day. Rey landed a double 619 on Finn Bálor and JD McDonagh. Sheamus dropped Bálor with a Brogue Kick, and Cena finished it with an Attitude Adjustment on McDonagh for the pin on his final RAW.
Seeing Cena, Rey, and Sheamus share the ring made MSG feel like a time machine. In a building that has hosted so many of their biggest moments, the sight of all three posing together with Cena’s Intercontinental title over his shoulder gave the night an early “last dance” type of beat, the kind of nostalgia WWE has been building this tour around.
Even after the iconic match, the rest of the night was full of action-packed matches. Elsewhere in the Last Time Is Now tournament, Solo Sikoa used a sudden Samoan Spike to beat a returning Dolph Ziggler, and Gunther forced Je’Von Evans to tap out to a Sleeper Hold, keeping both of their paths toward a possible match with Cena alive.
The women’s division stayed just as busy. Nikki Bella jumped Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer and demanded a title shot, Maxxine Dupri shocked Becky Lynch to win the Women’s Intercontinental Championship after an AJ Lee distraction, and Charlotte Flair ran in to save Alexa Bliss, Rhea Ripley, and IYO SKY from their WarGames opponents.
Top to bottom, it felt like one of the strongest episodes of RAW in the last five years, featuring a title change, meaningful tournament matches, and a constant Survivor Series build, all wrapped in the MSG atmosphere where even entrances feel significant.
The final stretch of the show leaned into that feeling. Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, and The Usos hit the ring, only to be met by Brock Lesnar, The Vision, Drew McIntyre, and Logan Paul, as their WarGames feud boiled over into a wild brawl. RAW went off the air in the middle of the chaos, fists flying and the crowd roaring, but inside the Garden, Punk’s side eventually stood tall, giving fans a quick preview of how dangerous that WarGames team can be.
As things finally calmed down, Punk grabbed a mic to close the night and turned the spotlight back to Cena and the building that helped define both of their careers.
As RAW went off the air and the cameras stopped rolling, CM Punk said some words to honor Cena and the legacy of MSG. “Since this place was Capitol Sports, there’s been a saying, ‘So goes the Garden, so goes the business.’ You guys are the heart, the soul, and the blood of WWE. I couldn’t do this without any of you, John Cena couldn’t do this without any of you.”
It was a simple way to frame what the whole show felt like. RAW was born in New York. Cena’s career has been shaped by this building and this fanbase, and on a night that mixed nostalgia with real stakes, both the company and one of its biggest stars got to say goodbye to each other in the only place that really made sense: Madison Square Garden.
