With the stakes astronomically high, John Cena squared off against WWE Champion AJ Styles for the first time ever on SmackDown LIVE. If Cena prevailed, he would be added to the WWE Title Match at WWE Fastlane. If not, the 16-time World Champion’s WrestleMania prospects would look bleaker.

With Cena and Styles so familiar with one another after their classic series of matches over the past several years, they were more than ready for each other’s offensive onslaughts in this pulse-pounding main event. Both Superstars kicked out of each other’s signature maneuvers and broke free from one another’s excruciating submissions, with Styles even surviving a cataclysmic Attitude Adjustment through the announcer’s table and narrowly avoiding the count-out loss.

In the match’s final moments, Cena somehow reversed The Phenomenal One’s Calf Crusher into another ring-shaking AA for the monumental victory that now granted him access to the WWE Title Match at WWE Fastlane.

Cena would have virtually no time to bask in the victory though, as The “Yep!” Movement and Baron Corbin crashed the party, attacking both Cena and Styles. However, the sixth Superstar in the WWE Title Match at WWE Fastlane, Dolph Ziggler, rushed to the ring and assisted Cena and Styles in dispatching their attackers. That goodwill did not last long, as Ziggler then dropped Styles, which prompted Cena to lay out Ziggler with an AA as SmackDown LIVE went off the air in a state of complete chaos.