John Cena’s WWE Television Return Has Been Slightly Delayed

John Cena has returned to WWE live events in recent days but when you will be seeing him on television has just changed a bit.

Last week on the Christmas Eve edition of Monday Night RAW, Vince McMahon announced that Cena would return for both RAW and SmackDown television next week. That would include the New Year’s Eve edition of RAW on Monday, followed by the New Year’s Day edition of SmackDown on Tuesday.

Instead, WWE has pivoted on Cena’s return to RAW. Though McMahon did announce that Cena will be performing for both brands, he was not at the WWE RAW taping on Friday night in Detroit, Michigan as had been advertised.

Instead, Cena was at the WWE SmackDown live event in Baltimore, Maryland where he worked a WWE Championship Steel Cage match against Daniel Bryan.

Bryan emerged victorious in the cage match Friday night in Baltimore, hitting Cena over the head with the WWE championship belt and escaping the cage to win. Following the finish, Bryan rushed back into the cage to attack Cena again but received an Attitude Adjustment for his efforts. Cena ended the show on top to send the crowd home happy.

Considering Cena has been on the road with the SmackDown brand, we still expect him to be at the SmackDown television tapings tonight (Saturday) in Pittsburgh. However, as always, the cards are subject to change.

Just like last week, WWE is taping this week’s television ahead of time so that their stars can spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day with their families. The company will pick up again with live editions of both RAW and SmackDown on January 7th (RAW in Orlando, FL) and January 8th (SmackDown in Jacksonville, FL).