John Cena will make his return to WWE television at the Feb. 28 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, and all signs point towards him starting a program for this year’s WrestleMania. Cena has already confirmed he’ll be at WrestleMania 36, given that its in his home city of Tampa, and rumors of him stepping back inside the ring for his first match in more than a year have been popping up ever since. Last week @WrestleVotes claimed via a backstage source that Cena vs. Bray Wyatt (for the Universal Championship) and Cena vs. Goldberg were both being floated around as possible matches. Over the weekend Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer brought in a new report with a new opponent, one that might disappoint fans.
Meltzer stated on a recent Wrestling Observer Radio that a match between Cena and Elias is the current plan for the show. He pointed out the faults in that idea — fans won’t care, Elias is currently a babyface again and the idea of somebody getting the rub from a quick loss to Cena seems antiquated — before assuming plans would change.
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“Somebody’s going to wake up and go ‘what the hell is this?’ and it will change. But that is the match listed right now,” Meltzer said.
He also confirmed WrestleZone’s report from earlier this week about The Undertaker returning to action for a match with AJ Styles. “The Phenomenal One” suffered a separated shoulder back at the Royal Rumble but is already booked for a return match at Super ShowDown on Feb. 27.
In recent interviews Cena has talked about being at a crossroads in his career, given that his acting career is taking off.
“That’s been three years of hard conversations with that dude looking back in the mirror and I’m at peace with where it’s at,” Cena said in a recent interview with Collider. “I want to contribute where I can. I’ve even talked about coaching or mentoring. Like I said, it’s the environment I feel the most fluid, so I can sit down and talk to you about WWE as long as you want to talk, but what I don’t want to do is take somebody who has spent 50 bucks on a ticket for themselves, their partner, their families, they bought souvenirs, they bought popcorn and paid for parking and have look at me like, ‘He used to be something.’ You know?”
