The Last Time Is Now tournament officially begins with two opening round matches on tonight’s episode of Raw. The winner of this 16-man tourney goes on to face John Cena in the final match of his WWE career next month at Saturday Night’s Main Event. The two tournament matches on tonight’s schedule are Sheamus vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Damian Priest vs. Rusev. When these four names were announced last week, the first thought that immediately came to mind was, “These guys have no chance to win.”

Here’s why I say that. Sheamus recently lost a feud against mid-card guy Rusev. Mid-card guy Rusev just lost a feud against Dominik Mysterio. Shinsuke Nakamura has been a punching bag for the MFTs on SmackDown. Damian Priest is currently losing his feud against Aleister Black. These guys are essentially all struggling to get the job done in kayfabe right now, so they don’t exactly stand out as amazing candidates to end Cena’s legendary career next month, especially when we know there are far more interesting surprises planned for the tournament.

Many of the top stars in WWE are tied up in their own feuds and stories with Survivor Series coming up, so when you take them and the part-timers out of the mix, several wrestlers who don’t have a chance to win find their way into the tournament bracket. WWE explained this away in kayfabe by announcing that the 16 wrestlers in the tournament were chosen at random. That being said, Priest has a leg up on the other three men tonight by the fact that WWE more recently positioned him at a world title level. Sheamus is probably next in line after that, as he has a lot of history with John (including beating Cena for his first world title in 2009) and is also the guy who wrestled Edge’s final career match in WWE. I’d say they are the favorites tonight to advance to the next round.