On Saturday night May 25, 2025, I was privileged enough to go and see the WWE Saturday Night Main Event at the Yuengling Center in Temple Terrace, Florida which is located on the campus of the University of South Florida.
While the event itself was absolutely AMAZING (more on that in a bit) let’s get the less positive stuff out of the way first, shall we? I live in Brandon, Florida which is 13 miles from the USF Campus. On a good day you can be there in 15 minutes. My Brother-in-Law and I wanted to get to the event early so we could look around, buy some merch and see what we could see until the show started. We left my house a little before 6 for the 8pm show. If you’ve ever been to a huge event like a John Cena led WWE event you would expect there to be traffic. Most events like Buccaneers football games, or Lightning hockey games, the traffic is pretty bad on the express way, but if you know where you’re going you can get to the venue pretty quickly as there are multiple options for parking and entrances. This was a huge event, except it was being held in a small intimate venue on a college campus with only one way to get in and out and everyone had the same idea as we did to leave early. We sat on the main drag of USF (Fowler) for over an hour and watched car after car zoom by us and cut in front of the people who were patiently waiting their turn. Frustrating enough huh?
While the parking was free (thank goodness) it was a long time getting to the lot and a long walk to the venue. Once we finally reached the venue, the line just to get into the joint was down the street and around the corner (you can get an idea of the line in the above picture). If you wanted merchandise, there was one little trailer set up outside with 2 people working it and 2 lines even longer than the entrance lines. So, I say to myself, they must have merch sales inside, maybe I’ll just wait till we get in. After we waited in line for 20 minutes and were about halfway, we heard an employee scream, “Gate B, no line, no wait!” Since no one in the crowd knew there even was a Gate B it would have been good information to have before we waited in this long line… Getting inside another 20 minutes later after several more jerks cut in line in front of us, we were thirsty from the long walk and the 90-degree heat. Good luck getting a drink. I’ll be honest and tell you I don’t know how many concessions stands there were, but every single one of them was wrapped around the concourse and it was going to be a good hour to get a drink or some grub. And the inside Merch? Forget about it. That line was twice as long as the one outside! We ended up getting to our seats just as they were announcing the first “house show” before the main event started around 7:45.
While the WWE purposely chose to hold the event in what was once known as the Sun Dome for a throwback vibe Saturday Night Main Event is going for, the facility is just not built for hosting big events. A basketball game? Sure. High school graduations? You bet. A sold-out WWE event featuring John Cena, CM Punk, Seth Freakin Rollins, Jey Uso and Logan Paul? Nope… Not enough entrances, not enough police officers directing traffic, not enough entrances and certainly not enough vendors.
But enough of the griping, lets get to the good stuff! I have never been a huge wrestling fan. I mean I did like Hulk Hogan, Randy the Macho Man Savage, Andre the Giant, and Rowdy Roudy Piper when I was little. They were just fun to watch, but as I got older, I got into other things, and wrestling just kind of sat there in the background. Of course I watched the Undertaker, Triple H, and the Rock occasionally, but I never went out of my way to watch it. When I got married my wife had a huge crush on Jon Cena. So much so that as a present for her one year I bought tickets to a charity event he was hosting, and we got to meet him. Nicest guy you’ll ever meet, and my wife has a picture with her favorite hunk forever, and I got some pretty good bonus points for setting it up! Fast Forward to 2025, my youngest son, Parker and his cousin Bayleigh are huge Wrestling fans, Bay especially likes John Cena. So, when it was announced that Cena would be coming to Tampa for his last ever WWE event, we jumped at the chance to be there. I fully thought it would be a one-time thing, and I’d never need to go to another WWE event again. Boy was I wrong!
The first fight was being announced as we took our seats. It was a “house fight” meaning that it wasn’t going to be televised, it was just for the people in attendance. I saw the first minute or so then decided to try and get some water. Finding the lines still too long I got back to my seat after it had ended, so I can’t really tell you if it was any good, but I did ask my son, and he seemed content!
The second fight turned out to be the best match of the night. A tag team match of CM Punk and Samy Zayn vs. Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker. Mid way through the fight the crowd began chanting, “This is Awesome”. You know you are watching something pretty special when you hear over 10,000 people chanting it throughout the stadium. The action was intense and the entertainment value was off the charts! Punk was out of the ring when out of the corner of my eye I saw a really big man dressed in what looked like sweats charge directly at Punk and spear him through the padded ringside blockers. Turned out to be Bronson Reed who had been injured for 6 months and just came back to help Rollins and Breakker. Overall, it was a really enjoyable match that Rollins and Breakker ended up winning due in part to that dirty Paul Heyman and his interfering with Samy Zayn’s opportunity to win the match.
The United States Champions Woman’s belt was on the line for the next match. This match between Zelina Vega and Chelsea Green, never got going. The fight was erratic and there were a bunch of errors from both women, but a really botched 619 attempted highlighted how poor the performance was. Vega ended up retaining the belt, but on the bright side the match was not a long.
Next was the match that everyone was waiting for. The match that I paid 260 bucks to see with my kid. John Cena vs. R-Truth. I first heard about Cena potentially making his last wrestling trip to Tampa several weeks ago. I initially scoffed at the price, but my son really wanted to go, and I’m a sucker for making my kids happy! I got really nervous after I bought the tickets as they announced Paul vs Uso as the main event, and then a steel cage grudge match between Drew McIntyre and Damien Priest and it was whispered that Cena’s fight might move to the Friday Smackdown show instead. Luckily for us, he stayed on the card, and we got to see a really fun match. Cena came out first with is iconic the time is now music. I knew something crazy was likely going to happen as Cena would normally be the last one out. Turns out there was good reason for that. When Cena got to the ring his walk out music ended but then started right up again! Cena looked confused as R-Truth came out to the same exact music, wearing Cena’s armbands, jean shorts and shirt. The match was awesome. Cena did Cena moves, R-Truth did Cena moves and they both did Cena’s Five Knuckle Shuffle. It wasn’t a long match, just over 5 minutes, but it was very entertaining and was worth the price of admission on its own. Cena of course ended up winning to no one’s surprise, but he played dirty and whacked R-Truth in the head with his championship belt. Oh Cena, you bad guy. During the fight half the crowd chanted, “Let’s Go Cena” while the other half chanted “Cena Sucks”. I don’t care how “bad” Cena is, I know he’s playing a part (and doing it well) so I was in the “Let’s go Cena” side and always will be!
The night just continued to get better as the steel cage match was next. I’ll admit I don’t know much about the grudge between Drew and Damien, but it made for a good steel cage match. The action was terrific, and both men’s athleticism was on full display. At one point in the match Damien had got the best of Drew so he started climbing the cage to escape the ring and win the match. McIntyre raced up the ropes and cage Priest just as his leg reached over the other side of the cage. It took some time to get it into the right position, but the entire crowd could just see what was going to happen next and no one could believe. McIntyre picked up Priest held him up way above the cage in a suplex and let it rip. I don’t know how many feet from the top of the cage to the mat is but I’m guessing a good 20 feet, and he was several feet above that. Just amazing, that two men can have that much coordination, stamina, and guts to do something like that, and not get hurt. Priest ended up winning the match but that suplex was the single greatest highlight of the night for me. Simply AWESOME!
The Saturday Night Main Event featured YouTuber turned wrestler Logan Paul and reigning heavyweight champ Jey Uso. I’ve only seen Uso fight once, and that was at WrestleMania 41. I loved his entrance through the crowd and the Yeet that gest everyone up and dancing and bouncing their hands up and down in the air. It’s a great gimmick. Logan Paul is pretty unanimously despised among the wrestling community. I actually like him, not just because he’s from my hometown of Cleveland, but because he built an empire from YouTube and then Prime Energy drinks. He is pretty darn athletic to! A couple of minutes after the raised the steel cage from the previous fight we saw the one and only Jey Uso climbing the stairs to our upper deck section. He stood under a stairwell awaiting his turn to start towards the ring. Fans were snapping pictures and shouting Yeet! A couple of minutes later he walked directly in front of us and down the opposite stairwell as the stadium danced to Yeet. It was very cool! Logan Paul then entered to enormous boos, but I was up clapping for him. Okay, yes, I like being the instigator and I got a couple of side eyed stares when I said, “Come on Logan” In the middle of the fight. The fight itself was back and forth with Paul pinning Uso to a two count and then Uso returning the favor. The Uso eventually got the best of Paul drilling him with a nasty kick, climbing up to the top rope and body slamming Paul. The ref got down on the mat, and the crowd new it was over. Everyone except John Cena! Cena came running out the tunnel and dragged the ref out of the ring and started pounding Uso. Uso was in big trouble until Cody Rhodes Walk out music came on followed by the man himself sprinting to the ring in defense of Uso. Rhodes and Cena fought for a few seconds until Cena slid out of the ring and Uso destroyed Paul with a massive spear. Rhodes got the ref back in the ring for the cover, Uso retains his belt. Cena and Paul stare up at the ring at Uso and Rhodes while Rhodes tells the crowd his new partner will see Cena and Paul at Money in the Bank next month.
How incredible was the night? It was freaking amazing. Worth all the traffic, line cutters, and LONG lines at the concessions and merch sites. It was worth the 260 bucks I spent for the tickets, (which by the way were going for over 300 each the night of the event) and more. I went into the event thinking it would be something neat to see, but I’ll probably never do it again. I ended the night, saying what was I thinking? I’ve been to baseball games, football games, hockey games, soccer games, and basketball games. I’ve been to Black Sabbath and David Bowie with Nine Inch Nails. I’ve been to the Orange Bowl on New Years Day to see my Buckeyes lose to Clemson. I have never been to an event as fun as this one was. Television does not do the WWE justice. WWE is one of the few events where crowd participation is absolutely encouraged and anything goes, and the crowd was great. The crowd made the show even better than I could have possibly thought. I’ve got to give Kudos to WWE and their fans. There were WWE legends in attendance. Jesse the Body Ventura was there. One of the Bushwackers, Luke was there. Jimmy Heart was there. The governor of Florida Ron DeSantis was there. It was a nonstop party for 3 hours, and I for one was very lucky to have been there to see it!