Vince McMahon offered Roman Reigns a deal to return during the pandemic after his hiatus to become Universal Champion with a reduced schedule, and when touring returned in summer 2021, he asked Reigns to commit to touring full time for several months to help reestablish WWE as a touring entity until he dropped the title.
WWE eventually decided to still let Reigns reduce his schedule while staying champion, and the plan was for him to wrap up his full time touring schedule in Paris and get a week vacation with his wife. Instead, WWE demand Reigns come back to the U.S. for Raw, and he only got a day or two in Paris, Billi Bhatti reports on The Wrestling Informer.
Reigns beat John Cena at last year’s SummerSlam. John Cena is one of the biggest names of WWE. He is a former 16-time World Champion and has been the face of the company for a decade. Though he started out as a heel, he remained a babyface during the latter half of the run and never turned heel. It was because he was bringing in money for the company by having a good guy heroic persona for children. The star himself spoke about a plan of turning heel back in 2009 but that did not happen.
John Cena opens up on how his gimmick evolved
While speaking on In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast, John Cena talked about the evolution of his character in WWE. Cena revealed that he found out WWE would never turn him heel back in 2009. Here is what he said:
“WWE and sports entertainment walk that gray line. Everyone knows it’s entertainment, everyone. But everyone wants to believe in what’s going on. They don’t ask, even the most iconic superhero characters, they’re known for their performances but they do get to step away. There is a clear-cut difference. In WWE, the audience doesn’t want that. They don’t.”
He further added:
“And that’s what keeps them coming back and that’s what keeps the train on the tracks. That’s part of it. So I was made aware that I would not undergo a tectonic shift in John Cena, the character, probably around 2009. So that allowed me to get that conversation off the board, and I had to, or I chose to dive into nuance.”
John Cena has not appeared in WWE since unsuccessfully challenging Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam last year. He has movie commitments in Hollywood. We will have to see when he decides to make an appearance for the company.
