As promised, WWE opened tonight’s (Dec. 27, 2016) loaded episode of SmackDown Live with John Cena making his return after a couple months away to work on outside endeavors. Naturally, he got a huge reaction, both cheers and boos.
And, yes, a CM Punk chant that he shut down by saying he wasn’t sure if they were chanting “Cena sucks” and how strange that in Chicago they wouldn’t be chanting “go Cubs go.”
After breaking down the night’s card, he finally got around to bringing up what exactly he’s doing back and what his plans are.
“What am I doing here tonight? I’m setting the record straight. I’m not done. I’m not leaving. And I’m sick of this ‘New Era’ BS. It ain’t the ‘New Era,’ it’s the ‘My Time is Now Era.’ Never give up means that when you get knocked down like I did this year you don’t stay down, you get up, you fire up, and you kick ass.”
Then he challenged the winner of tonight’s WWE world championship match — AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, or Baron Corbin — to a title match at Royal Rumble. He can do that, you see, because he’s John Cena, and he just did.
Like it?