Last week, reports claimed that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson might be making his first appearance on WWE programming in two-and-a-half years as one of several legends to grace the Fox premiere of Friday Night SmackDown on October 4. Now, it appears that another superstar could also join all those WWE icons on the show’s debut episode, and it happens to be the man whom The Rock faced in the main event of both WrestleMania XXVIII and XXIX in 2012 and 2013.
On Sunday morning, John Cena took to his Instagram account to share a photo of a Rolex watch with its hands pointing to numbers that could suggest his participation in the Friday Night SmackDown premiere. As observed by WrestlingNews.co , two of the hands are pointing at the numbers 4 and 10, which could be a reference to the premiere episode’s October 4 airdate. As another hand is pointing at the number 20, the publication speculated that Cena might have been alluding to the fact that Friday’s episode also marks SmackDown ‘s 20th anniversary.
WrestlingNews.co also cited one of the commenters on Cena’s post, who suggested that the position of the fourth hand refers to the wrestler and actor’s 16 world championships in WWE.
Numerical clues aside, the outlet added that there have been rumors that Cena would appear on the premiere episode of Friday Night SmackDown over the past several days, which makes it plausible if he would indeed be on the show alongside his fellow WWE legends.
While Cena and The Rock have yet to be confirmed for SmackDown ‘s big debut on Fox, a number of all-time WWE greats are already scheduled to show up for the premiere. These include the likes of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Sting, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, and Lita — all of whom have since been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. As Cena still actively wrestles on an occasional basis and The Rock only announced his retirement earlier this year, both men have yet to join the aforementioned names in WWE’s hallowed halls.
Due to his busy schedule in Hollywood, Cena is no longer a regular performer on WWE television, may it be as an in-ring competitor or as part of promo segments and backstage angles. As noted by The Sun , Cena’s last TV appearance for the company was on July’s “ Raw Reunion” episode of Monday Night Raw . His last match, per Bleacher Report , took place on Raw ‘s January 14 episode, where he participated in — and lost — a Fatal Four-Way match to determine the No. 1 contender for then-champion Brock Lesnar’s Universal title ahead of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
