His United States open challenge run was key to changing the “Cena sucks” chants from a true rejection of John Cena to an ironic expression of affection. He gracefully accepted a traditionally mid-card role and used it to elevate opponents like Cesaro, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and the belt itself with long matches and kind words & shows of respect afterwards.
Cena’s on his way back to wrestling in 2019, for an as yet undetermined period of time, in an as yet undetermined role. It’s got us wondering who he should feud with, and the focus has been on talent on the WWE roster.
But as we’ve all remarked over the past few years, “pro wrestling in 201x is wild”. And Cena has clearly stated he’s in the process of winding down his in-ring career, and wants to do whatever he can to benefit the company. So how about we think outside the box?
New Evolve champ Austin Theory shot his shot recently in the Evolve 118 Recap video:
“How but a question that’s on everybody’s mind, and that’s who’s gonna challenge me for the Evolve Championship in 2019? Nobody. And how long am I going to have this title? Until the day I walk into TakeOver. And, uh, John Cena? I heard you’re trying to pass the torch. Well, you know how to get in contact with me.”
Look who noticed...
Weird social media game recognize game...
c u #theoryvscena pic.twitter.com/arvNcKhfgj
— Austin Theory (@austintheory1) December 26, 2018
I mean, why the hell not? As that Theory quote emphasizes, Evolve is all-but officially NXT’s feeder system at this point, and many believe it’s only a matter of time before it anchors a premium subscription tier of WWE Network. A Cena match, or feud, would get a lot of people who wouldn’t normally pay attention to Gabe Sapolosky’s promotion a reason to. At a time when there are a lot of promotions and companies vying for fans’ non-WWE time & money, that could be huge.
Plus, it would be fun.
There aren’t many things wrestling can do to surprise us anymore. John Cena working an 800 seat indie show would be one of them.