John Cena begins his date with destiny at Elimination Chamber

A look at the favorites for this Saturday’s event

John Cena/WWE

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Extra Mustard is a weekly column looking at the highs and lows–and everything in between–in combat sports and beyond.

It’s now or never for John Cena

For one final time, John Cena is destined to headline WrestleMania.

If this truly is the final year of his in-ring career¹, then Cena needs to win the men’s Elimination Chamber match on Saturday in order to get to the main event of WrestleMania.

I thought Cena was going to win the Royal Rumble. Evidently, that was a few weeks premature. Instead, he will be part of the Elimination Chamber–a match he didn’t even need to qualify for–to get his shot at WWE champion Cody Rhodes².

Cena battled Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 30/WWE

Along with Cena, the field for this match is filled with stars. It includes CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Damian Priest, and Logan Paul³. Narrowing it down one-by-one, Cena makes the most sense to win.

A victory from Punk would be compelling, as was his promo last night on Raw with Logan Paul. But that would disrupt the storyline with Paul Heyman and Roman Reigns, where Punk is owed a favor.

McIntyre is in the midst of an excellent stretch, yet he isn’t bound for this year’s main event–and neither, for that matter, is Priest (and Paul certainly isn’t, either). Rollins is an interesting case; he nearly wrestled Rhodes last year at WrestleMania 40 for the World Heavyweight Championship, and the two always put forth phenomenal matches together.