Wearing his re-tooled red, white and blue shirt and the shorts he got from Ellen DeGeneres, John Cena returned to a thunderous ovation in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Raw tonight (May 30).
The Franchise Player hit the stage at the top of the 10 o'clock on a pretty lackluster show. He opened with a Memorial Day tribute, expressing gratitude for fallen United States soldiers, and to be able to return to his home in WWE.
After an emotional speech about liberty, he put over the "New Era" and the many talents who've debuted on the main roster since Cena went on the disabled list with his shoulder injury at the end of 2015. The Face That Runs the Place had a message for anyone - wrestler or fan - who thinks his best days are in the past. Cena returned tonight to make a statement...
The future goes through him.
Cena threw the microphone down after that, but he wasn't done. Because one of those new faces, AJ Styles, appeared, setting off loud dueling chants of "Let's Go Cena" and "A-J-Styles". After several minutes, the Phenomenal One broke the spell by telling the 15-time World champ he'd been waiting for this moment for a long time.
The former TNA and IWGP champ had nothing but praise for Cena, and their segment ended with a "welcome back" and handshake between the men. But the segment still wasn't over then, because...
Here came AJ's former brothers Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows to call him a kiss-ass. They approached the ring, and Cena & Styles got ready to fight the duo who'd laid out WWE tag champs The New Day earlier, but...
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! @AJStylesOrg is attacking @JohnCena! #RAW #CenaReturns pic.twitter.com/IsLExyz3cf
— WWE (@WWE) May 31, 2016
The Southern Boy went all in, running back in for a second helping of whoop ass after The Club had already left Cena laying. AJ would return to the ring several times, after his boys and even referees tried to stop him.
Styles says he's doing the world a favor, and for tonight, the response was truly (ahem) phenomenal.
Will it play out that way over the long haul? Keep watching to find out.