Fans planning to watch John Cena’s final ever wrestling match this weekend on YouTube have been given a £1,000 warning.
Cena will this weekend wrestle for the last time ever 23 years on from his WWE debut.
Whilst the rest of Cena’s retirement tour has taken place on Netflix, which comes with its own set of warnings, the final match of his career will be aired internationally on the WWE YouTube.
This is because his last match, against Austrian wrestler Gunther, will take place on the WWE’s ‘Saturday Night Main Event’ airing on Peacock in the US.
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Cena confirmed his upcoming retirement earlier this year, letting his fans know that ‘The Last Time is Now’.
The American wrestler-turned-actor has come under criticism for his retirement tour, particularly for the handling of his ‘heel turn’.
Cena spoke out about this in a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, saying: “I got 11 months to do this. 36 TV appearances.
“It takes five years to get a guy over, regardless. If you turn him, it’s gonna take a year or two on television for it really to sink in. I don’t have the time to tell the right story.”
Despite the criticism of Cena’s final run in the WWE, many have been full of praise for his last few matches with names such as AJ Styles and Dominick Mysterio, but those watching him against Gunther from the UK should be careful.
This is because many don’t realise that TV licensing laws still apply even if you’re just sticking on the live broadcast on YouTube, as those in the UK will be.
If you watch the broadcast without a TV license you risk falling foul and potentially leaving yourself open to a £1,000 fine.
Whilst it’s a very common crime, if you are caught watching without a license, you could be hauled into magistrates court and faced with the hefty fine.
All this is to say that, if you expect to find yourself watching John Cena’s final match from behind a five-knuckle shuffle in floods of tears, maybe double check you paid your TV license.
Cena has received credit for how he has approached his final match, rebuffing what the WWE had originally planned for it.
Cena has spoken about how originally the plan was for the entire show to be a tribute to Cena, however, he shot this down.
Instead, the show will feature a number of up-and-coming talents from the WWE’s developmental show, NXT, facing off against some of the company’s biggest names.
This includes WWE Champion Cody Rhodes facing off with the 27-year-old Oba Femi, and WWE Legend Bayley facing 26-year-old Sol Ruca.
Cena also spoke in a recent interview about how a conversation with AJ Styles about their age helped reinforce why he is retiring, saying: “This is why I'm going because I can still give you what you want. I don't want to walk away when I can't. When people are like, ‘Man, I wish he had gone two years ago.’”
John Cena’s final match at Saturday Night’s Main Event will air live on Saturday, December 13 on Peacock in the United States and on WWE’s YouTube internationally.
Topics: John Cena, TV and Film, WWE, YouTube, UK News, Entertainment
Michael Slavin