Who will Cena face at WrestleMania? There are a few plausible options, but likely only one obvious megamatch will be entirely satisfying for fans (and give the WrestleMania card the once-in-a-lifetime pop it needs). Wyatt is a worthy champion and his victory was widely celebrated by fans, and while the fact that Cena losing the title doesn't diminish the outstanding match he had with Styles, it does make Cena's historic moment feel a bit hollow in retrospect. The fact that Wyatt retained the title later that night means he'll surely enter WrestleMania 33 as the champion, while after back-to-back losses Cena seems to be shuffled out of the picture.Įxcluding Elimination Chamber 2010, where Cena won and lost the title in the same night, Cena's 16th World Championship reign tied for the shortest of his career - his average WWE World Championship reign is 96 days. It lasted all of 14 days, and Bray Wyatt announced the start of the Wyatt Era on Tuesday's SmackDown. On the January 24th episode of SmackDown, the final show before his fourth pay-per-view match with Styles, Cena channeled his old Doctor of Thuganomics persona and emphatically rebuked Styles' barbs that he was a 'has been' and a part-timer, declaring that the "My Time Is Now" era was about to commence. So what is next for WWE's biggest star? The next few weeks won't just reveal John Cena's WrestleMania opponent, but could give an indication as to Cena's trajectory in the year to come.
Instead having of a championship match in the main event of WrestleMania 33 - a year after he was forced to essentially miss out on the biggest WrestleMania of all time due to a shoulder injury (a small bit appearance aside) - Cena's WrestleMania plans now seem to be up in the air, and his stock on SmackDown Live has suddenly plummeted. Just two weeks later at Elimination Chamber, Cena was eliminated midway through the match, which was eventually won by Bray Wyatt, and on Tuesday Cena lost an immediate rematch in a triple threat against Wyatt and Styles. Just a few weeks after what was arguably the best match of his career and a historic World Championship victory at the Royal Rumble, John Cena may already be at another crossroads.Ĭena became a World Champion for the 16th time in his career that night - matching the all-time mark established by Ric Flair - in a match-of-the-year-quality epic against AJ Styles.