Smackdown’s final episode of 2022, taking place next Friday on the 30th of December, will feature a tag-team match pitting Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn of The Bloodline against Kevin Owens and a returning John Cena. The match will be Cena’s only in-ring outing this calendar year, maintaining his record of competing in a match every year since his debut in 2002.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has now provided an interesting update on when fans can next expect to see the former multi-time world champion in a WWE ring again next year, noting that he’s currently expected to be at WrestleMania 39 in Inglewood, California.
“The belief is that Cena will be working WrestleMania but what we were told is that he’s working on his schedule to make sure it works, but the belief is that he’ll get it done.”
-WON
Whilst it is currently unknown as to who Cena will be facing on WWE’s biggest show of the year should he be there, Meltzer revealed that the original plan was for him to compete against Austin Theory, although these plans date back to when Vince McMahon was leading creative, and thus plans may very well have changed.
“Cena will be unavailable to WWE through most of February and March due to filming a movie outside the U.S. At one point he was talked about for a match with Austin Theory at WrestleMania but that was with Vince McMahon in charge.”
-WON
With Cena expected to be absent from WWE through most of February and March, perhaps his upcoming appearance on Smackdown will shed some light on what the future holds for the 45-year-old.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any updates on John Cena’s potential involvement at WrestleMania 39 as soon as we hear more.
