The Roman Reigns ‘SummerSlam’ Announcement Will Have Nothing To Do With John Cena
On Monday’s Raw, WWE announced that Roman Reigns will be on next week’s show, and during his appearance, he’ll reveal his plans for August’s SummerSlam show. But, that wasn’t the only thing that was revealed on Monday’s show, as it was also announced that John Cena will be a free agent upon his return, which led to a ton of speculation regarding Roman Reigns’ big announcement next week, with most people predicting that he’ll end up in the ring with WWE’s only free agent in August.
On top of that, there are several key executives in WWE who want to see Roman Reigns vs. John Cena, which is one of the reasons why people are thinking that we’ll see WWE’s two most polarizing figures battle it out at SummerSlam. However, it doesn’t look like that match is going to happen this summer.
On Monday’s post-Raw edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained why WWE is calling John Cena a free agent. He also killed the Cena vs. Reigns SummerSlam rumor.
“So, for whatever this is worth, since everybody has been asking me about this, I asked about Cena, and I was told that [Roman Reigns’ opponent at SummerSlam] is not Cena.
“They did a segment with John Cena, and they made it a point to say that John Cena is a free agent. I guess the idea is that he’ll be on Raw, so they’re giving up the exclusiveness. He’ll be on Raw and SmackDown. They know that he’s the only draw, and they feel that they need him on both shows now.”
The ratings for Monday Night Raw have been on a steady decline for quite a while now, and WWE feels that Cena is their only big draw, which is why he’s going to appear on both shows.
When Cena was drafted to SmackDown last July, the idea was to improve the ratings for WWE’s blue brand because the USA Network wasn’t happy with the show’s weekly numbers. Cena, along with the show being live as opposed to taped, really helped get the blue brand to where it needed to be.
So, if Cena isn’t Roman’s opponent at SummerSlam, then who is? We’ll probably find out the answer on next week’s show, but as of right now, all we can do is speculate.
As of this writing, Reigns doesn’t have an opponent for next month’s Raw pay-per-view called Great Balls of Fire, but he probably won’t be without an opponent for much longer, In fact, we could find out who his opponent is at the July pay-per-view during his big announcement.
There are some who believe that Roman Reigns will demand a Universal Championship shot at SummerSlam during next week’s show, but as of right now, the current plan is for Reigns to be kept out of the Universal Championship picture until WrestleMania, where he’ll challenge the current champ, Brock Lesnar.
Could Roman Reigns’ big announcement lead to the return of Braun Strowman? It’s possible. Following Strowman’s surgery, WWE pushed the idea that he would be out of action for six months. However, it’s been reported that his injury wasn’t that severe and that he’ll be back in time for SummerSlam.
As for Cena, well, according to Cageside Seats, he’s going to start a feud with Jinder Mahal upon his return, which will lead to a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match between the two men at SummerSlam. Cena is set to return to WWE’s blue brand on July 4, which is where the feud with the current WWE champ will likely kickoff.
[Featured Image by WWE]
