WWE legend John Cena suffered another defeat at last night’s WWE Fastlane PPV. Cena’s defeat was hugely significant not least because it means that for the second year running, Cena is going into WrestleMania without a major bout. Check out the WrestleMania matches that have already been announced on the WWE website. Universal Champion Brock Lesnar will face Roman Reigns. Intercontinental Champion The Miz defends his title against Seth Rollins and Finn Balor. Fastlane Six-Pack challenge winner AJ Styles will defend the WWE title against Shinsuke Nakamura.
Those announcements mean that the only men’s singles championship match unannounced is the United States Championship. As reported by the Daily Express , Randy Orton took that title from Bobby Roode at last night’s Fastlane, and they claim that Orton will defend the title at WrestleMania 34 in a triple-threat match against Roode and Jinder Mahal. That would mean that John Cena will not have the opportunity to surpass the record number of world championship wins that he currently shares with Ric Flair. According to Forbes , the reason Cena is out of the world championship picture is that he is on his way out of the WWE company.
The evidence of Cena’s rumored WWE exit, Forbes claims, is in how Cena has been used by the company since claiming his 15th world championship at the 2017 Royal Rumble.
Will ‘WrestleMania 34’ Be John Cena’s WWE Swansong?
Since beating AJ Styles at the 2017 Royal Rumble , John Cena has become a bit part player on the WWE network. In last year’s “Superstar Shakeup,” Cena became a free agent, and he has been used to boost the careers of up-and-coming WWE superstars. Of course, Cena’s film and television commitments have continued to mean lengthy absences from the ring, but how he has been used suggests that the WWE doesn’t see Cena having a role in the title picture.
Cena has been thrown into matches, with little or no storyline, against the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, and Finn Balor. He was a late addition to the Fastlane Six-Pack challenge and even partnered with Roman Reigns in a tag team match.
This, Forbes claims, suggests that Cena is being used to boost the WWE’s biggest and fastest rising stars before he leaves the company for good. If Cena is on his way out of WWE wrestling, then there is one piece of business that the Cenation would love to see resolved before he goes. The WWE universe would love to see Cena split his current tie with the biggest star of them all, The Undertaker.
CHALLENGE MADE! @JohnCena has FIGURED IT OUT…in the form of challenging The #Undertaker at @WrestleMania ! #RAW pic.twitter.com/ho9VlMMDOz
— WWE (@WWE) February 27, 2018
Cena and the Undertaker have faced each other five times. They have two wins each and one match ended with no result. It has long been rumored that John Cena vs. The Undertaker will be the centerpiece for this year’s WrestleMania . Of course, we all believed that The Deadman’s career was over when he lost to Roman Reigns at last year’s WrestleMania, but the rumors that The Undertaker will be back for one more huge match persist.
It had been widely expected that The Undertaker would make an appearance at Fastlane to lay down the challenge to Cena. That didn’t happen, but Bleacher Report claims that his absence was a ruse to throw fans off the scent. They insist that John Cena vs. The Undertaker is happening at WrestleMania , and let’s be honest, there would be no better way for both men to head off into retirement.
