On Tuesday’s episode of WWE SmackDown Live , a huge main event was booked to take place involving John Cena. The biggest free agent in the company had appeared on Raw the night prior and addressed his road to WrestleMania . As of then, Cena hadn’t punched his ticket for the big pay-per-view. However, he would head over to the blue brand’s show Tuesday to continue to put his plan in motion and it ended up giving fans a treat.
As ProWrestling reported in their SmackDown Live show results , the opening segment for the latest episode featured John Cena coming down to the ring. He talked more about wanting to be a part of WrestleMania and said in order to get there, he’d have to enter into a specific match. From there, Cena said he wanted in the Fatal 5-Way match for the WWE Championship at Fastlane 2018 . That prompted SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon to arrive out to the ring to tell Cena that he needed to earn a spot in the match. General Manager Daniel Bryan arrived out to the ring next and said he and Shane were on the same page. Bryan booked Cena in a match against WWE Champion AJ Styles for the main event.
If he WINS, he’s IN! @JohnCena will need to earn his way to #WWEFastlane in tonight’s #SDLive main event against… @WWE Champion @AJStylesOrg ! pic.twitter.com/AT8AWS3e2S
— WWE (@WWE) February 28, 2018
The major stipulation for the match would be that if John Cena won, he would get a spot in the Fatal 5-Way at Fastlane . That brought a smile from Cena and cheers from the crowd over the classic match that was set forth for the main event. The two have previously fought in other matches including a Royal Rumble match that drew rave reviews last year. However, this match carried WrestleMania implications along with it.
There had been previous rumors that John Cena would take on Royal Rumble 2018 winner Shinsuke Nakamura on tonight’s show and that if Cena won he’d get a spot in the title match at WrestleMania 34 . However, this latest move seems to show a different path is in store. A win by Cena at Fastlane guarantees he goes to Mania as the reigning WWE Champion, and as Shane mentioned it would mean Cena is a record 17-time champion.
With that said, this seems to further stoke the rumors that The Undertaker is going to show up at some point. After Cena mentioned his name in last night’s Raw promo, it seems like that could draw “The Phenom” into showing up at Fastlane or thereafter.
Will @JohnCena be in the @WWE Championship match at #WWEFastlane ?! #SDLive #CenavsStyles pic.twitter.com/ofktfB4amT
— WWE (@WWE) February 28, 2018
Update (2/27/18): John Cena defeated AJ Styles via pinfall in the main event to make the Fastlane 2018 title match a Sixpack Challenge. It’ll be Cena along with Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, and Kevin Owens fighting for AJ Styles’ WWE Championship.
