John Cena’s SmackDown return just got bigger as the Hollywood star will also compete inside a WWE ring for the first time in over 15 months!
As first reported by Variety and later confirmed by WWE earlier this month, Cena will appear on the December 30th episode of Friday Night SmackDown. This will be only the second appearance for Cena this year in WWE as he appeared on the June 27th episode of Monday Night Raw to celebrate his 20-year anniversary as a WWE Superstar.
During that appearance, Cena promised to have more than one match left in him and now, six months later, fans finally know when the leader of the Cenation will step inside the ropes once more!
John Cena Set For Bloodline Showdown Alongside Kevin Owens
During the main event of the latest SmackDown, Roman Reigns announced that he and Bloodline stablemate Sami Zayn will take on Kevin Owens and a partner of his choosing on the December 30th edition of SmackDown. It didn’t take long for the identity of Owens’ partner to come to light, however, as John Cena interrupted Reigns via a video on the big screen.
Cena revealed that he received a text from Kevin Owens asking if he would be his tag partner, otherwise his 19-year streak of competing in WWE every year since his debut would be broken as he is yet to wrestle in 2022. Cena accepted and made the match official: Roman Reigns & Sami Zayn will face Kevin Owens & John Cena on December 30th!
JOHN CENA JUST ANNOUNCED HE WILL PARTNER WITH KEVIN OWENS! 🤩#SmackDownpic.twitter.com/0CCCVUABNU
— WWE on BT Sport (@btsportwwe) December 17, 2022
The 16-time world champion last competed in a dark match following the September 10th 2021 edition of SmackDown in Madison Square Garden where he, Rey & Dominik Mysterio defeated The Bloodline trio of The Usos and Roman Reigns. A few weeks before, Cena unsuccessfully challenged Reigns for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam, his last broadcasted match until now.
Elsewhere on SmackDown, Gunther successfully retained the Intercontinental Championship against SmackDown World Cup winner Ricochet and Uncle Howdy made his first in-person appearance to confront LA Knight & Bray Wyatt.