It Looks Like John Cena’s WrestleMania 35 Opponent Has Emerged

Despite being glaringly absent from WWE programming, John Cena is fully expected to be a part of WrestleMania 35. While his potential opponent is still unofficial, smart money says Samoa Joe will be Cena’s WrestleMania dancing partner.

Cena has been attached to names like Lars Sullivan and even R-Truth, but according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the freshly crowned United States Champion is likely to be waiting for Cena in New York.

Before losing the title this week on SmackDown, R-Truth regularly mentioned Cena in his promos. And as new champ, Joe picked up where R-Truth left off, but with a much more sinister tone.

“I’m sure as hell not a man who loves John Cena,” began Joe. “Hustle, loyalty, and respect? No, no, no. All my opponents will find is disrespect for any man who has the audacity to come for the king and his crown. And to all you SmackDown Superstars who wanna lie awake at night, every night, having nightmares about the day you might step in the ring against me… rest assured boys, I’ll be along soon enough to make you all go night-night.”

Not much done in front of a WWE camera is unintentional. That said, Joe’s words look to be the beginning of a campaign to get Cena in the ring on April 7th. We’ll likely see Cena before then, but at this moment he’s off filming another movie.

Earlier rumors had Cena going one-on-one with NXT call-up Lars Sullivan, but Sullivan has produced one of the stranger subplots in WWE. Multiple reports indicate the Sullivan suffered an anxiety attack before making his official WWE debut. While WWE was ready to work around that, Sullivan apparently took a jet home back to Colorado. As of now, he’s all but AWOL, and WWE had to pass his WrestleMania match onto someone else.

With all due respect to Sullivan, Joe is by far the more compelling matchup for Cena. As one of WWE’s best promos and purest heels, Joe is an ideal juxtaposition for Cena. And now that he’s US Champion, Joe feels undeniable. His pending rivalry with Cena should be a very good one.

Cena and Joe have yet to really cross paths since the latter arrived from NXT. They were scheduled for a program last year, but Joe suffered an unfortunately timed injury. But now, this feud looks imminent, and considering an old interview with Eyes on the Game, this is a match that’s 18 years in the making. Before either man was a WWE Superstar, they came up together in Ultimate Pro Wrestling in the early 2000s.

“It’s been 18 years, 18 years ago, myself and John Cena had a match, and based off that match WWE inevitably hired him,” Joe said, “and brought him along and I went my own separate way. It’s been 18 years since me and John have been in the ring together”

“John, you know, early in my career, he’s been a close personal friend and we drove a lot of miles together,” he continued, “and it would be an absolute pleasure to reunite in the ring and once again, smash him in the face and take everything from him.”