John Cena appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night, where he once again confirmed he’d be back in a WWE ring soon. The rumors of Cena returning for August’s SummerSlam event to take on Roman Reigns have been spreading for weeks and Cena made the same confirmation during an interview with Chris Van Vliet last week. Cena told Fallon, “Those rumors (of his return) are definitely true. I’ll definitely be back to the WWE, I just don’t know when.
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Cena was there to promote this weekend’s release of F9, where he’s playing the villain opposite Vin Diesel. During the Van Vliet interview, the 16-time champion was asked about the possibility of a long-awaited heel turn.
“I think this is the beginning to showcase the fact that it’s possible,” Cena said. “Now as WWE invests and builds its roster, it has a wealth of talent and truly has many anchors to the ship now. Certainly [with] Roman being a very, very marketable and definitive star. I think the reason for me not to explore that side is because WWE didn’t feel confident they had any alternative [top star in the company]. And I respect that business choice, I really do. But now with them really laying their foundation for the future, even for life in the next decade or so, maybe… maybe. I don’t know.”
As for his rumored opponent, Cena has repeatedly praised Reigns for what he’s created in “The Tribal Chief.” Reigns has utterly dominated SmackDown since his return last SummerSlam and his Universal title reign will reach 300 days by the end of this week.
“I also think that this time without an audience has allowed performers like let’s say Roman Reigns for example, to unobstructively mold his character. If you send Roman Reigns from city to city to city, with paying audience after paying audience, there may be some audiences that don’t even care what he wants or has to say. They just want to boo him, or cheer him, or whatever,” Cena said. “Without that, especially when developing a character, when trying to get the message across, when trying to hand someone your business card. I think Roman Reigns has absolutely needed this time, and in it he has developed himself, his personality – found out who he is. So now when he goes back to live audiences, they’re not confused. He’s spent this 15 month block defining who he is and he’s the one that can benefit from this.
“Whereas established performers, I think I really would have had a tough time with no audiences,” he added. “I as a performer, and what I enjoy out of the performance, I am happy for the WWE to have crowds again. I really look forward to getting back in front of those crowds. But I’m just happy for everybody that their music can hit and they can feel that genuine excitement that makes all of our hearts beat.”
