Reported Reason Why John Cena Opted Out of WWE Crown Jewel

On Monday WWE announced John Cena will miss Friday's Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia. But no one [...]

On Monday WWE announced John Cena will miss Friday's Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia. But no one knew exactly why.

Conventional wisdom said Cena had issues—similar to Daniel Bryan's—with the controversial event, but his motives for skipping Crown Jewel were never clear. However, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, pressure from Hollywood factored into Cena's decision. Per the report, Cena was advised against participating at Crown Jewel for fear of negatively impacting his reputation and opportunities in Hollywood.

Before pulling out, Cena was scheduled to work Crown Jewel's World Cup tournament. Original plans had him advance to the final and facing Rey Mysterio. Cena would reportedly have lost the match in the name of giving Mysterio a massive injection of momentum. Per the Observer, WWE aims to launch Mysterio back into stardom in hopes he can energize WWE's Latin fan base.

If WWE planned for Mysterio to beat Cena in the finals, then it's likely Mysterio is still the pick to win the World Cup. WWE installed a banded bracket that will see a Raw Superstar take on a SmackDown Superstar in the finals. At the moment, the winner will only receive bragging rights, but Shane McMahon revealed that if the SmackDown representative loses, he'll be fired from the show.

The first round will see Seth Rollins vs. Bobby Lashley (Cena's replacement), Kurt Angle vs. Dolph Ziggler, Jeff Hardy vs. The Miz and Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton.

As for Cena, it's unclear when we'll see him wrestle again. Randy Orton joked on Wednesday that he wasn't sure Cena still considered himself a wrestler. While Orton's barb was in good jest, Cena has been remarkably absent from WWE programming in 2018.

However, it looks like Cena's this year in the ring has always been the plan. Now 41, Cena could be just as much as a help to WWE by landing big roles in Hollywood as he would winning WrestleMania matches. All year long, WWE has treated Cena as a special guest than a regular, but in an interview with ESPN, Cena insisted that his future is permanently tied to WWE.

"I'm far from done with the WWE. The WWE will always be my home, but in this current state of affairs right now with all this extra cool stuff that's going on, it's fun to try. It's a great time to be able to take a chance and I'm so eternally grateful to the WWE and its audience for bringing me to this point. I realize I'd be nowhere without them and I never forget them. I promise as soon as I have any sort of downtime, like I had when I was at the Greatest Royal Rumble and the string of shows I did before WrestleMania, anytime free time I get will not be free, it will be spent at my home in the WWE," he said.

"I don't feel like they're dependent on me in any way. I think the program is riveting as it stands and there are so many gifted young performers that deserve a chance and have earned a chance so there couldn't be a better time for me to take a break," he said.

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