John Cena stood toe-to-toe with Randy Orton in the ring on the latest SmackDown, and for those wondering what he’ll do on Monday Night Raw on Netflix, the answer is nothing. It turns out that while we’ll still stream the new Undisputed WWE Champion’s title defense with a Peacock subscription, he’s not due back to appear on television until the day before the big PLE.
CinemaBlend has written extensively about our expectations for John Cena’s retirement tour and the people we wish to see him take on in the ring. We’re not even a month into his title reign, and I’m already sensing a major complaint I’ll have about this run when I look back on it. For someone who was so consistently the face of WWE over the years, John Cena’s shocking heel turn doesn’t hit as hard when he’s only showing up occasionally.
John Cena’s Limited Availability Reminds Me How Much I Dislike Absent Champions
Cody Rhodes show up in the WWE most every week of his title reign, we’re now back to the days where a champion only shows up part of the time. It happened during Roman Reigns long title reign, and for Brock Lesnar before he was seemingly blacklisted from the company for his ties to Vince McMahon’s ongoing legal issues. Point being, John Cena isn’t the first to be a “part-time champion,” and he likely won’t be the last.
I think what makes it more noticeable is that Cena was historically never an absent champion during his time in the WWE. He was the face of the brand, and while his taking the title away is on brand for his promise to “ruin pro wrestling,” It also runs the risk of resulting in some underwhelming feuds with superstars.
This Being John Cena’s Final Year In Wrestling Makes It Sting More Than It Did With Roman Reigns Or Brock Lesnar
We’ve seen instances where one superstar is absent and underwhelms time and time again, and the latest example is in what should have been John Cena’s biggest match in years. The main event suffered from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s absence, and even with rapper Travis Scott willing to step in and fill his shoes, it just doesn’t substitute for the actual person being there.
John Cena is no exception to this, and while the WWE can sell it all as being part of a storyline in which he’s ruining wrestling, we know the truth. Cena is a busy individual, and between his acting career and other commitments, he can only dedicate a limited amount of time to professional wrestling at this stage in his career.
Unfortunately, I think there’s a possibility that because Cena can only dedicate so much time to the WWE, there will be a few instances in this final year where people feel that his heel run was incomplete or lacked the fire we’ve seen in his previous storylines. Would more appearances fix this? It’s impossible to say, though I can state that I loved his run during the SAG-AFTRA strike, where he could appear on television pretty consistently. We’ll see how this final run goes.
John Cena is scheduled to return to SmackDown on Friday, May 9th, one day before Backlash. Will Randy Orton be able to RKO his way to another world title in his home state? I’d love to see it happen, but I think Cena has his number this time.