John Cena Reportedly Wants a Bigger Role at WrestleMania 36

Even though he hasn't wrestled at all of them, John Cena hasn't missed a WrestleMania event since [...]

By Connor Casey

Even though he hasn't wrestled at all of them, John Cena hasn't missed a WrestleMania event since WrestleMania XX in 2004. And while he hasn't wrestled for most of 2019, the 16-time world champion reportedly wants to be involved in WrestleMania 36 next April. Wrestling insider @WrestleVotes, which reported earlier this week that NXT would play some type of role at next year's WrestleMania, tweeted on Wednesday that Cena wants to do something "substantial" at next year's show, given that he lives in Tampa and the event will be at Raymond James Stadium (home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) in the same city.

In his prime Cena utterly dominated the WrestleMania card with five main event matches. However after his last main event against The Rock at WrestleMania 29, Cena began to take steps backwards. He faced Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania XXX, won the United States Championship at WrestleMania 31 against Rusev, was too injured to work at WrestleMania 32 but appeared in a segment with Rock and the Wyatt Family, beat The Miz & Maryse in a mixed tag match with Nikki Bella at WrestleMania 33 (then proposed, though that didn't end well) and lost to The Undertaker in a squash match at WrestleMania 34. This past April saw Cena revive his Doctor of Thuganomics persona and hit Elias with an FU.

Cena, who has turned his full attention towards acting, admitted in recent interviews that he physically can't keep up with WWE's schedule anymore.

"That's the great thing about WWE, you can perform in any capacity," Cena said while on TODAY. "And, as long as I've made a promise in the in-ring aspect of things, as long as I can keep up with the current product, I can perform. The opportunities that I've been awarded keep me from being in the ring and I actually think that's good because it makes any time that I'm invited back to WWE super, super special. And that's the way it should be."

"If I didn't have these opportunities, I still would be taking, actively taking, time off. My body just can't handle the schedule anymore," he later stated. "When I turned 40, I really took a look in the mirror and said, 'Hey, man, I know you really like this, but instead of 250 performances a year, from here on out, just do it 100 times and do it well," he continued. "And then it became, 'Just do it 50 times and do it well.' And now it's like, 'Hey, you really have to prepare to get ready to perform and then really recover after a performance.'"

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