John Cena has not been a full-time member of the WWE roster since 2016. The 16-time world champion has continued to wrestle for the company in every year since, but his time on television has been limited. Cena worked a couple of pay-per-views in 2017 before only competing on the stadium shows in 2018. The lightest year of his career up to that point would come in 2019, as Cena wrestled just eight total matches throughout the year. Following his Firefly Funhouse cinematic match against Bray Wyatt at WWE WrestleMania 36, Cena was completely absent from WWE programming until pandemic restrictions lifted. He then returned for a Summer 2021 live event tour that culminated with a WWE SummerSlam main event against Roman Reigns. Even though he still has had a good amount of matches in recent years, most of them have been non-televised.
John Cena Wrestling on WWE SmackDown Tonight
According to PWInsider, John Cena will wrestle his first televised match of the year on tonight’s WWE SmackDown. Cena is reportedly set to team with AJ Styles to face Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa. This will be a rerun of a dark match that these four had after last week’s WWE SmackDown went off the air.
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Tonight’s bout will be Cena’s first time wrestling on WWE SmackDown since December 2022, in which he teamed with Kevin Owens to face The Bloodline’s Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn. This also marks a rare instance of Cena and Styles being on the same side, as the two are famous adversaries. Styles was one of Cena’s last great feuds, as the two wrestled each other at WWE Money in the Bank 2016, WWE SummerSlam 2016, and WWE Royal Rumble 2017. Styles has been with WWE ever since, but back in 2016 it was considered surreal by many to see the face of WWE and the face of TNA Impact Wrestling square off.
This match furthers a couple of storylines. Styles is currently rumored to be Roman Reigns’s next challenger, with that bout likely set for WWE Crown Jewel later this fall. Cena is rumored for a contest against Solo Sikoa at WWE Royal Rumble in January.
WWE SmackDown goes down tonight at 8 PM ET on FOX. Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on the card and live coverage of the broadcast.
