Tag: John Cena

Kurt Angle names 3 WWE opponents he’d pick for a hypothetical ‘one last match’

Top WWE guys only for Kurt Angle if he ever does a farewell match.

Kurt Angle is a WWE Hall of Famer, and anyone who saw the Olympic gold medalist in his prime knows he’s one of the best to ever step foot in the ring. He’s also now 53 years old and has had some serious health issues and surgeries over the years, including a double knee replacement a few months ago. There’s a reason he’s retired.

That’s not to say, however, that he couldn’t be swayed to put on the singlet one more time. Angle even has a few WWE stars in mind if he ever took part in a definitive farewell match.

In a recent interview with Wrasslinews, Angle not only named the three men he would come out of retirement to face but explained exactly why he’d pick them (h/t to Ringside News for the transcription).

John [Cena], I still think that he is possibly still in his prime. So I would definitely say John Cena. And the reason for that is, I’m 53 years old. I’m not the same athlete I was when I was 33. And when I decided to retire, it was because I lost the step. Knowing that John’s still in his prime, I know that he can carry me through a match. (…) I’d want a Roman Reigns or Seth Rollins, or even a John Cena. Those are the names that I would pick because I know those guys would carry me through the match.

It takes a high level of self-awareness to admit that you’ve reached the point in your career where you’d need someone else to “carry” you through a match after being the person to do exactly that for others at the height of your powers. But Angle has always had that to go with his in-ring talent and microphone skills, and he’s picked three great ones in Cena, Reigns and Rollins.

That doesn’t answer the question of whether Angle should wrestle again, but we’ll assume he’ll listen to the doctors on that one. If he ever decides to give it one more go, at least we know there’s a short list of wrestlers who will have the honor of sending him off.

Survivor Series WarGames is the perfect time to get John Cena his one match for 2022

John Cena at Survivor Series WarGames almost makes too much sense not to do.

There’s no question that John Cena is a busy man. So busy, in fact, that he hasn’t been around WWE much at all in 2022. He popped up for one night on Raw this summer to celebrate 20 years with the company, then off he went.

Cena hasn’t wrestled a televised WWE match since SummerSlam in 2021, and it’s been more than a year since he’s even been in a dark match. As Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful recently pointed out, that’s significant.

Cena has gone on the record as saying he will be back in WWE sooner or later, and it won’t be as a one-off deal. A program with Austin Theory has been teased, and would make sense for WrestleMania next year, or perhaps even SummerSlam if that would fit Cena’s schedule better.

But that would still mean he’d go matchless for all of this year, so let’s fix that. Extreme Rules is already booked, and Crown Jewel has its big non-weekly attraction already in Logan Paul. Happily, there’s another premium live event coming up before the end of the year whose format lends itself perfectly to a John Cena “one night only” appearance to keep his streak of years with a WWE bout intact: Survivor Series WarGames.

The addition of two WarGames matches to the event (the first in WWE main roster) history, not only ensure that Survivor Series keeps the team-based focus that has long been part of its hook, they create the perfect entryway for a surprise entrant. Need a face to balance out a team that is one short in the men’s WarGames match against the Bloodline or The Judgment Day (spitballing the two most likely guesses)? Bam, Cena is your guy.

Better still, it works as an announcement before the event, if the priority is getting more people to tune in, or as a surprise during the show to reward people who already decided to watch. It’s just like a mystery entrant in the Royal Rumble match, just slightly less obvious.

The counterargument to this idea is also common sense: At 45 and no longer doing WWE full time, maybe Cena doesn’t want to do a match with multiple rings and all kinds of weapons inside a huge steel cage. Sounds painful.

But again, it’s a team vs. team contest. Not everyone in a WarGames match has to spend the whole thing taking insane bumps. It wouldn’t be that hard to have Cena enter last for his team and then just not be on the receiving end of the craziest stuff.

There’s also another option (h/t to the latest episode of Cheap Heat for putting this idea in my head) which is a traditional Survivor Series match. WWE hasn’t said there will be any of these this year, but it also hasn’t said there won’t be.

It’s the same concept without the cages and chaos. A team of heels is on one side. A team of faces is on the other, but a man short. Maybe throw in the time-honored “crap, someone got beaten down backstage” subplot to make it that way. It looks like the good guys are going to go at it with a disadvantage. The trumpets hit. The crowd goes nuts.

About that crowd … We haven’t even mentioned where Survivor Series is being held. The TD Garden in Boston is essentially Cena’s home arena. It almost literally couldn’t have been written up any better.

All of this is assuming that keeping his annual string of in-ring performances is important to Cena. Maybe he’s content to return when the time is right for a longer program, which wouldn’t seem to be this year — though WWE has yet to announce its December premium live event, so who knows?

If Cena does want to get back in there in 2022, though, Survivor Series WarGames is the perfect place for it. And there are likely a ton of WWE fans who would love to see it.

John Cena thanks The Rock: ‘I owe a lot of what I’ve done in WWE and in cinema to Dwayne Johnson’

Without The Rock transitioning successfully from WWE to Hollywood, we probably wouldn’t be seeing John Cena everywhere.

Without The Rock transitioning successfully from WWE superstardom to Hollywood, would John Cena be doing the same right now?

It’s a fair question to ask. Cena arguably got off to a slower start to his acting career, appearing in fare like “The Marine” when he was still very much a full-time WWE performer.

But his work outside pro wrestling has shifted into high gear over the last few years, to the point where you can now see Cena (pun intended) just about everywhere: in movies, as a voice talent in animated shows and commercials, and in his own hit HBO Max DC Comics series as the titular “Peacemaker,” which is gearing up for a second season.

In doing so, Cena is very much following the playbook that The Rock helped devise a few years before him. And in a recent interview with CVV Clips, he recognized that fact with gratitude.

“I owe a lot of what I’ve done in WWE and in cinema to Dwayne Johnson,” Cena said.

There was a time when it wasn’t all love, however, and that Cena appeared on WWE programming criticizing Johnson for being a part-timer while others were appearing regularly to keep the sports entertainment train chugging along. Cena himself is now very much in that position, approaching a year since his last televised match.

As Michael Scott of “The Office” might say, how the turn tables.

The irony isn’t lost on Cena, who explained that part of his past comments came because he was saying them for entertainment value, and the other part from his “ignorance” of the moviemaking business.

“When you do a movie, you are not allowed to do anything else,” Cena said. “Because if I go do Monday Night Raw and Seth Rollins puts my nose over here, that messes up the movie.

“People don’t understand, there are 150 people on a movie set who are financially dependent on that movie getting done on time. That movie moving costs everybody money and sets the movie up to fail.”

Suffice it to say, Cena has a much better understanding of the commitment and sacrifices it takes to succeed outside WWE now, and it’s nice to see him give some props to Johnson for paving the way.

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Will WrestleMania be the next time we see John Cena in a WWE ring?

A report that WWE is trying to lock down John Cena for WrestleMania 39 means it could be another 9 months before fans see him in the ring.

No pun intended with respect to his famous catchphrase, but WWE fans haven’t been able to see John Cena much this year aside from his acting roles — and his next match may not be until WrestleMania next year.

Cena made a much-publicized (and good for WWE’s ratings) appearance on the June 27 episode of Raw to celebrate 20 years in WWE. He made it clear during that show that he’d return to the ring at some point, and that “it ain’t just gonna be one.”

The big question, of course, is when that might happen. Cena is as in demand as ever, particularly since his DC Comics HBO Max series, “Peacemaker,” was a big enough hit to warrant a second season. He’ll soon be occupied with filming, though it hasn’t started yet.

There was some hope that Cena would be at SummerSlam at the end of this month, especially since he and Theory had been teasing a program on social media. That seems less likely now with Theory winning the Money in the Bank briefcase, even though he could certainly face Cena if something comes together over the next few weeks and still cash in his contract later that night.

But according to Fightful Select, it’s possible Cena’s next match won’t be until WrestleMania 39, which is set for SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on April 1-2, 2023. The outlet’s most recent sources told them Vince McMahon was traveling to Vancouver next week, potentially to speak with Cena, and that “there were rumblings that they were going to try to nail him down for a WrestleMania match.”

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Cena hasn’t wrestled at all in 2022, and is approaching the one-year anniversary of his last televised bout, which took place last Aug. 21 at SummerSlam. Almost incredibly for a performer who has meant so much to WWE for the last two decades, he’s only wrestled two matches broadcast to the world in the 2020s.

That comes with the territory for aging stars who transition on to other things, but still feels weird to accept for Cena. Here’s hoping that for his many fans, he finds his way back into the ring sometime sooner than WrestleMania, or it’ll be another nine months of waiting.

Who has won the most WWE championships of all time? Here’s the top 10

See who has won the most WWE championships of all time as we run down the top 10 list of most decorated superstars.

The Bloodline knows a thing or two about having a lot of gold.

Roman Reigns and The Usos have made a lot of noise as of late in WWE by uniting the promotions top singles and tag team titles for men, effectively holding two championships at once. It’s an impressive feat, and adds two more titles to the tallies of both the Tribal Chief and the Uso brothers.

In the case of Reigns, it also adds to his overall haul of WWE championships. Since his main roster debut in late 2012, Reigns has held every major WWE title at least once, including the WWE Tag Championship (with Seth Rollins, back when there was only one) and both the Intercontinental and United States Championships (one time each).

But are Reigns’ nine total titles enough to make the top 10 list of wrestlers who have held the most WWE championships? We dove in to find out.

Before we get to the list, some ground rules. For the sake of these rankings, we’re counting only what we consider major WWE championships, singles and tag team, for both men and women. We’re not counting titles won in WCW (sorry, Sting and others) but are including those same belts when won in WWE, like the current United States Championship.

We’re also not counting anything the wrestlers themselves invented, like Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Championship, nor are we considering the 24/7 Championship, which changes so often as a condition of its gimmick that it makes the number of title reigns essentially meaningless. Much respect to everyone who continues to chase that strap, however, because mid-card championships are fun too.

Also not included are the Hardcore Championship, for similar reasons to the 24/7 title, or the Light Heavyweight/Cruiserweight titles.

With those specifics out of the way, let’s jump into the list of who’s won the most WWE championships of all time, starting with No. 10 and working our way to the top.

Watch: Kurt Angle, daughter recreate John Cena’s WWE debut in heartwarming fashion

Watch Kurt Angle and his daughter Sophia do a nearly line for line remake of John Cena’s debut on SmackDown 20 years ago.

Not only is WWE celebrating 20 years of John Cena, his debut on live TV actually took place two decades this week, on the June 27, 2002 episode of SmackDown. Though he was dressed differently than fans would come to know him (no jorts yet), Cena marched right up to Kurt Angle and delivered a memorable line with an accompanying smack.

Check it out starting at about the 5:39 mark of the video below, which also includes Cena’s first full match, as he lost to Angle by pinfall.

To commemorate that segment, Angle and daughter Sophia recreated it for his Instagram account. Just like Angle was issuing open challenges at the time, we challenge anyone to watch this and not crack a smile.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CfZIEjipD2K/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

It’s worth noting that according to Angle, it was Sophia’s idea to do this homage, as it was her “favorite daddy promo.”

Angle looks like he’s in good shape and good spirits following his double knee replacement surgery in late May. The WWE Hall of Famer also recently revealed that he had two offers from AEW, one to wrestle and one for a non-wrestling role, but turned them down to focus on his startup supplement company.

WWE Raw live results: Celebrating 20 years of John Cena

Check out WWE Raw live results from Laredo, Texas, featuring the return of John Cena and Kevin Owens facing Ezekiel or one of his brothers.

Unless you’ve been living under a WWE-proof rock for a bit, you already know what the big hook is for tonight’s episode of WWE Raw from Laredo, Texas. John Cena is back, and the fans should treat him like a returning hero instead of … well, other ways they’ve responded to him at points of his career.

Speaking of said career, it’s a big milestone for Cena as well, a cause for celebration: It’s been 20 years since his first appearance on WWE television (albeit on SmackDown, not Raw), when he displayed his “ruthless aggression” to Kurt Angle. Time flies.

The question worth watching for now is how long he’ll be hanging around. It’s been long rumored that WWE might be building up to a match between Cena and Theory at SummerSlam, and nothing those two gentlemen have been doing on social media has done anything to cool down that speculation. Any number of people might come out to either congratulate or harass Cena, but we’re expecting Theory will be one of the latter.

Another thing we’re not 100% sure about is who Kevin Owens will face tonight. He challenged either Ezekiel or Elias after his quest to prove they are one and the same hit a new low last Monday, and then said it could even be their  “even younger brother” Elrod. We can’t be the only people hoping it is, indeed, Elrod who walks down that ramp. Wink, wink.

If you can’t watch the action go down live from Laredo, just bookmark this page as we’ll be updating it throughout the show with the latest WWE Raw live results.

John Cena vs. Theory in the works for SummerSlam?

John Cena vs. Theory is a SummerSlam matchup that has already been teased, is reportedly in the works and would make perfect sense.

When John Cena makes his return to WWE programming later this month, it might not be just to celebrate 20 years with the company.

Dave Meltzer reported in the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Cena could be sticking around at least long enough to go head to head with one of WWE’s youngest stars at SummerSlam.

While this has not been confirmed to us by the company, the talk in wrestling is that it will be Cena vs. Theory at SummerSlam with the idea that working with Cena will bring Theory up to a higher level.

The seeds for a Cena-Theory program have already been planted in various places around social media. A recent example cane when Cena did a TikTok Q&A and gave Theory as the answer for questions about his favorite current WWE Superstar and the Superstar most in need of an Attitude Adjustment.

 

@wwe Why can’t you see #JohnCena ? We asked him why in this exclusive Q&A! #WWE #CenaMonth ♬ original sound – WWE

Theory didn’t wait long to respond on Twitter.

A matchup between the two would make perfect business sense. Cena is at the point of his career where it’s a big deal when he shows up, but his even greater value to WWE is helping elevate promising young talent. The 24-year-old Theory certainly qualifies on that front, and while he’s already the youngest ever United States Champion, he’d stand to benefit tremendously from a victory over a WWE legend at one of the biggest shows of the year.

Theory is also part of the Raw roster, and Cena’s WWE return is taking place in just a few weeks on the June 27 episode of Raw from Laredo, Texas. If a Cena-Theory match for SummerSlam is going to happen, expect the ball to get rolling on it that night on USA.

CM Punk and Cody Rhodes are injured. Which AEW and WWE stars can step up to fill the void?

With CM Punk and Cody Rhodes injured, we run down the WWE and AEW performers best positioned to step up while they are out.

Fans of traditional sports know how one unexpected injury can torpedo a promising year. It’s no different in pro wrestling, where both AEW and WWE have had the injury bug strike top performers at the worst possible time.

CM Punk had literally just won the AEW World Championship when he hurt his foot during Dynamite last week. That led to an appearance on Rampage on June 3, when he revealed he would be out of the picture for a while while he has surgery.

Cody Rhodes hadn’t won a title yet since returning to WWE at WrestleMania, but he was repaying the company’s faith in him as a top star and looked like he was on the path to contending for championships sooner rather than later. Then he tore his pec, which led to a legendary Hell in a Cell performance before he, too, announced that surgery was in his immediate future.

The situations aren’t exactly the same, but they’re eerily parallel in some respects and the injuries struck just days apart. In AEW’s case, we already know how it plans to pivot — the promotion is holding a mini tournament to crown an interim champion — but the absence of both Punk and Rhodes will be acutely felt.

The silver lining in both cases is that there are opportunities for other talent to step up and claim more of the spotlight while they are away. Who’s in the best possible position to take a step forward over the next few months? Let’s take a look at a few possibilities.

Who could fill in as Raw’s top babyface with Cody Rhodes out?

Riddle

The King of Bros has been rumored to be the next championship contender for Roman Reigns, but his alliance with Shinsuke Nakamura and ongoing issues with The Usos put at least a little doubt on that plan. The most recent episode of Raw made it appear Riddle has his sights set on Reigns again, and the timing couldn’t be better.

Riddle is arguably as popular as he’s ever been in WWE right now, and has shown he has the knack for balancing an edgier side to his persona with his unmatched comic stylings. Pursuing Reigns means he’ll likely appear on both shows over the next month, but he has the potential to stay Raw’s top face even after Money in the Bank.

Bobby Lashley

Speaking of performers who are as over as they’ve ever been, we’re living in the time of Peak Good Guy Bobby Lashley if recent crowd reactions are any indication. Putting him up against the larger Omos helped him as he wasn’t able to win just by being bigger and stronger, but still looked impressive in overcoming the odds.

The only hiccup here is that Lashley just started a program with Theory, so his ascension to top dog on Raw could be more of a medium-term play if Rhodes ends up out until almost the end of 2022.

Edge

Yes, Edge has just spent the last little bit recruiting other wrestlers to be part of The Judgment Day, definitely not a face faction. But then Finn Balor joined and the group turned on him, so he’s going to be a good guy by default.

The 48-year-old WWE Hall of Famer is playing with house money at this point in his illustrious career, but if the company wanted to give him one final babyface run, this is now the ideal chance to do it.

AJ Styles

Not to quite the same degree as Edge, but Styles is headed toward the end of his time as a main event caliber attraction too. It’ll be interesting to see if he joins forces with Edge in an “enemy of my enemy” sense, but why couldn’t WWE push him to the very top of the card right after they deal with The Judgment Day?

Styles has faced Reigns in championship matches before, but not for years, so a program between the two of them could still feel fresh. With Money in the Bank on the horizon, it’s easy to imagine him winning the briefcase and then turning his attention to the Tribal Chief.

John Cena or Brock Lesnar

These are names mentioned somewhat in jest, but if WWE feels this is a “break glass in case of emergency” situation, it’s already announced that John Cena is returning to Raw in a few weeks. And Brock Lesnar is presumably just a phone call away.

Who will emerge as AEW Interim World Champion while CM Punk is on the shelf?

Jon Moxley

He’s got a leg up already in narrative terms since he is guaranteed a spot in the main event on Dynamite to determine who will go on to fight for the interim title at Forbidden Door. And since he’s held the real title before, people know what they’re getting from a Jon Moxley reign.

That’s the downside though, too. The AEW World Championship hasn’t been around all that long, as Mox already held it for some time. Pushing him more right now might feel like something fans have already seen, and not as effective as elevating someone new. The Punk-Moxley unification bout at the end of the rainbow would be sweet, however.

Wardlow

Now that Wardlow has freed himself from the machinations of MJF and become a legitimate star, why not just strap a rocket to him? It’s almost certainly not what the promotion was planning, but injuries have a way of changing plans, and this could be a change that pans out.

His path to the interim championship would also afford AEW a chance to put him over even more, as it would mean winning a battle royale, then defeating Moxley and someone at Forbidden Door, likely Hiroshi Tanahashi. That’s earning it, for sure. Plus it would be easy to turn Punk heel to play off him for their showdown when the current champ returns.

Eddie Kingston

Anyone who has followed Eddie Kingston during his career in the indies is probably already in favor of this idea, and people who only discovered him through AEW TV have to be impressed with him by now. In terms of building a story and selling it with promo work, Kingston could have one hell of a feud with Punk when he returns.

Does AEW view him as a top guy? It would be interesting to know, but if Eddie gets a chance to run with the ball right now, that would go a long way to answering that question in the affirmative.

Bryan Danielson

Just a quick note that while Bryan Danielson had a shot at the AEW World Championship while Hangman Adam Page held it, he wasn’t successful in winning it. The American Dragon has an unlimited amount of goodwill with the fans and would be easy to accept as the interim champ.

He and Punk wouldn’t be a brand new program, of course, but it’s been a decade since they faced each other with gold on the line. Both men shift effortlessly between face and heel roles, so it would be a showdown that can go any direction the creative team envisions once Punk is healthy again.

Hiroshi Tanahashi (or Kazuchika Okada, or anyone from NJPW)

Even in the Forbidden Door era, it seems unlikely that AEW would let someone from another promotion hold its main championship for any length of time. An interim title, though? That’s another story altogether.

Tanahashi was getting ready to face Punk later this month before the injury, and has already invited Punk to face him at Wrestle Kingdom next January. That could be to unify the regular and interim championships if so desired. Or Tanahashi could defend the interim strap in NJPW for the rest of 2022, opening up the possibility of dropping it to Kazuchika Okada or another top NJPW talent. The sky is really the limit should AEW choose to go in this direction.

John Cena on his WWE return: ‘Soon’

John Cena doesn’t know when he’ll be back on WWE TV, but said he hopes it will be soon while in New York for the Warner Bros. Discovery upfronts.

John Cena is a busy man, but he still has WWE fans hoping to hear those famous trumpets in the not too distant future.

Adam’s Apple caught up with the 45-year-old Superstar in New York earlier this week, where he was taking part in the Warner Bros. Discovery upfronts presentation. Cena made two announcements about future TV projects, confirming the second season of his HBO Max “Peacemaker” series, based on the DC Comics character, and revealing that he would be back as co-host of the TBS series “Wipeout.”

But Adam’s Apple asked him the question WWE fans are most curious about: When would he be returning to a WWE ring?

“Aw, soon,” Cena said. “I know in WWE years, I turn 20 pretty soon,” referring to his TV debut on the June 27, 2002 episode of SmackDown.

“That’s a pretty big thing. And from a pretty storied class of folks: Batista, Randy Orton, Brock [Lesnar], we kind of all turn 20 this year. I’m aware that that’s coming around the corner, and who knows?”

Cena added that “there’s a lot of cool stuff going on” and he didn’t want to turn down the opportunities presented to him, making his return date more difficult to pin down.

If he doesn’t show up during the summer, it could be more than a year between times on WWE programming for Cena. His last televised match came last August at SummerSlam, when he unsuccessfully challenged Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship, though he appeared in one more dark match alongside the Mysterios against the Bloodline the following month.

That said, Cena was also absent from on-camera matches for more than a year between January 2019 and March 2020, then again before appearing at SummerSlam in 2021, working only house shows and non-televised bouts during last summer’s buildup. He has, in words Reigns recently used about himself, moved onto a new phase in his career.

But it would also be silly to think we’ve seen the last of him in WWE, and one presumes he’d be welcomed back whenever his schedule allows it. As Cena puts it, that’s more a question of when, not if.

“I don’t know when I’ll be back, but hopefully it’s soon. I’ve been gone for too long.”