#John Cena Returns to WWE, Confronts Universal Champion Roman Reigns

Just ahead of the release of The Suicide Squad, John Cena has returned WWE with a surprise appearance on Sunday night at Money in the Bank. Cena, who’s only been featured sporadically in WWE in recent years due to his rise as a movie star, hasn’t been seen in the company since wrestling The Fiend in a cinematic match at WrestleMania 36 in 2020. He also hasn’t performed in front of a live crowd since January 2019.

Because Cena hadn’t been a major player in WWE lately, he drew a tremendously loud pop from the live audience when he showed up at Money in the Bank. The surprise appearance came at the end of the night after Roman Reigns successfully defended his Universal Championship against Edge. Cena spent a lot of time soaking in the fan adoration before taunting Reigns with his trademark “you can’t see me” hand gesture.
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???????????? ????@JohnCena is BACK!!! ???? #MITBpic.twitter.com/QsXF8OxDr2

— WWE (@WWE) July 19, 2021

This return is timed to most likely set up a Universal Championship match between Cena and Reigns at SummerSlam, the company’s next big pay-per-view show. That event will go down on Aug. 21 in Las Vegas, Nevada, giving the two wrestlers about a month to build toward their match. Reigns has been holding the Universal Championship since winning it in a triple threat match against Braun Strowman and The Fiend in August 2020. It’s his second reign with the belt.

Meanwhile, Cena is a 16-time world champion, tying for the record alongside Ric Flair. However, he has never held the Universal Championship, which was first established in 2016. This is partly due to Cena’s schedule as a wrestler becoming more limited in recent years, keeping him out of the main event scene lately. Now that he’s back on WWE programming, Cena appears to be gunning for the big title that he has yet to win.

It’s been a good year for Cena overall, as he’s been making a big splash in Hollywood this summer. In June, the new sequel F9 premiered in United States theaters to great success, and we’ll more than likely see him show up in the franchise’s final sequels. He plays Jakob Toretto, the brother of Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto, and Diesel has credited the late Paul Walker with inspiring Cena’s casting for the role.

Cena will soon be seen in his next big role on the big screen as we are fast approaching the release of The Suicide Squad. Written and directed by James Gunn, the DC movie stars Cena as Peacemaker, a supervillain who’s willing to kill as many people as it takes in the interest of bringing about world peace. One of the standout characters of the movie, Peacemaker has already been given a spinoff series with Cena reprising the role, and the wrestler recently wrapped filming on the first season with Gunn.

The Suicide Squad will premiere in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 6, 2021. Fans can look forward to seeing Cena back in the role of Peacemaker for the spinoff series on HBO Max in January 2022. Meanwhile, SummerSlam will go down on Aug. 21, 2021, and the pay-per-view can be streamed on Peacock. This story comes from ComicBook.com.

Topics: WWE