Wrestling fans around the world are eagerly waiting for the return of former WWE champion John Cena. The 16-time world champion will appear on the very first edition of next month’s SmackDown, scheduled to be held at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Apart from the SmackDown event, WWE has already announced a tag team match featuring Cena at the Superstar Spectacle, set to happen in Hyderabad on September 8.
For the tag team match, Cena will team up with world heavyweight champion Seth Rollins and the duo will go head-to-head against the pair of Imperium’s Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci. This will be the first time for Cena to feature in a fight in front of the Indian crowd.
Revealing the details of the fight, WWE posted on social media, “John Cena will team up with World Heavyweight Champion Rollins to battle Imperium’s Kaiser and Vinci at WWE Superstar Spectacle in Hyderabad on September 8th.”
Ahead of the India event, WWE is set to host a number of shows, including the Payback, where a total of five matches will be played. In one of those fights, Rollins will defend his world heavyweight championship title against Shinsuke Nakamura. The bout is scheduled for September 2.
This will be the first time when the Superstar Spectacle event will be hosted in front of a live crowd. The inaugural edition of the show, which was aired on the occasion of India’s Republic Day in January 2021, was recorded at the Thunderdome. The upcoming September 8 edition of the show will feature another title match, in which the Indus Sher duo of Veer and Sanga will join forces with Jinder Mahal to contest against the team of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn for the undisputed tag team championship.
John Cena seems quite excited about his comeback to WWE. Sharing his feelings, the wrestler-turned-actor wrote on X, “Cannot wait to reunite with the WWE family live on SmackDown. Especially excited to meet the WWE Universe in India and wrestle for the first time ever in India! The time is now. See you all very soon!”
Cena last stepped inside the ring at WrestleMania 39 back in April when he took on Austin Theory for the United States Championship. Cena kept the upper hand for most of the bout but ultimately surrendered in front of the grit of Theory, who secured the win with his iconic A-Town Down. Cena also made a surprise appearance at Money in the Bank at The O2 Arena last month. He gave a passionate speech about how London should host a WrestleMania in future, receiving rounds of applause from the English crowd.
