Unlike certain wrestlers who make it big outside of the squared circle and suddenly think they’re too big for WrestleMania (yes I am looking at you, Dwayne), John Cena just can’t seem to quit Triple H’s Mansion of Moonsaults.
It looked for a long time like 2022 would be the year that Big Match John finally became No Match John, as he finally went a calendar year without wrestling for the first time since he first laced up his book.
However, he came in on the last SmackDown of the year like an extremely jacked Santa Claus to save both his streak and WWE’s ratings.
More than that, it’s now rumored that the Invisible One will be having a match at WrestleMania 39, which could lead to even more future bouts.
But what could those future bouts look like? Who could face John Cena at WrestleMania, and potentially beyond?
Here are ten potential WWE matches for John Cena in 2023:
Logan Paul
The current rumor is for Cena to take on the man who revealed himself in 2022 to be – yes, I’m going to say it – the greatest wrestler who has ever lived.
I’m not joking; if Logan Paul was some indie guy from some niche promotion 99% of people have never heard of, he’d have been voted wrestler of the year in every single online poll and it wouldn’t even be close.
You know I’m right.
Regardless of your feelings on Paul as both a worker and more generally as a human being, it’s not difficult to see why WWE would be attracted to a programme like this.
Wrestling has a reputation for being a fairly esoteric form of entertainment, and like it or not having names that people actually recognise gets people through the door and watching your Drew Gulak vs Otis workrate classics.
What’s going to be really interesting about this match – assuming it does take place – will be the build, and which roles Cena and Paul take.
Will one establish themselves as a heel? Cena has avoided doing so his entire career, and Paul has made it clear that he “wants to be a good guy”, so it doesn’t seem like either is ready to cut a “you people” promo any time soon.
But WWE tend to follow that fair simple good/evil dynamic, so it looks as though one of them may have to take one for the team.
Oh my God… could this be how we get the John Cena heel turn after all these years? Somebody check on Blampied.
Austin Theory
Back when Vince McMahon was still in charge of WWE, all those decades ago, it seemed like Austin Theory would be the next person to get that patented Cena/Stone Cold/Hogan rub.
After his failed Money In The Bank cash-in (against a mid-card title, no less), Theory’s big push seems to be on a bit of a hiatus.
That isn’t to say he couldn’t be heated back up easily, and there’s no easier way to do that than by putting him in a big WrestleMania feud against one of the biggest names in not only wrestling, but in entertainment as a whole.
As the current US Champion, Theory would be the perfect foil for Cena, who added a level of prestige to the belt during his reign and open challenge invitational.
Their feud could be based around Cena’s attempt to add some honour back to the belt after Theory besmirched it with his… endless selfies? Being young and hot and dumb? What is Theory’s character?
Either way, a nice generational clash like this could be the best way to use Cena at this stage of his career.
Kevin Owens
If Kevin Owens knows about one thing, it’s turning on his former friends.
After their year-ending alliance, a great way to extend Cena’s storyline into the new year would be by having Kevin Owens do the thing he does second best (first best being, you know, wrestling) and show Johnny Largemeat his true colours.
As he proved last year, Owens is a great safe pair of hands to entrust your legends to, meaning that Cena wouldn’t have to worry about halting production on any upcoming projects with an unfortunately-timed injury.
For Owens the benefits are obvious: even a loss to Cena would be great exposure.
Plus imagine the promos the two could cut on each other. Owens coming out to Cena’s music, wearing his dumb neon baseball cap while the crowd boos him straight back to Hell. I need this.
Hell, have the match at ‘Mania and start a streak of Owens having matches with insanely over wrestling legends (Undertaker at 40? The Rock at 41?).
Bray Wyatt
This one is almost too obvious, but let’s talk about it anyway.
Wyatt and Cena famously went up against each other at WrestleMania 30, with Wyatt famously failing to convince Cena to abandon his ideals and turn heel.
The two met again at WrestleMania 36, in the mind-bending Firefly Funhouse (the favourite match of insufferable wrestling elitists everywhere).
So why not have a sequel to my favourite match, rounding out the trilogy by having the two face off at ‘Mania 39?
Maybe this time Wyatt could be successful, finally convincing Cena to do the unthinkable (you know, the thing literally every other wrestler does at some point).
Sure, he does want to turn because of his “commitment to Make A Wish”. But which matters more; satisfying the whims of too-online wrestling nerds, or helping out a bunch of sick kids who probably don’t even know why Bruno Sammartino is?
Sami Zayn
At the time of writing, Sami Zayn is probably the most over man in all of wrestling.
While a lot of other entrants on this list would benefit from the Cena rub, Zayn is the rare case where Cena could actually be elevated by stepping in the ring with him.
This is the type of match you’d have much later in the year, after Zayn has finished up his story with the Bloodline (and hopefully had a chance with one of the company’s big boy belts).
Picture the scene: a SummerSlam main event between John Cena and World Champion El Generico.
Think of the promos. Think of the buffoonery.
Like Owens, Zayn has already proven that he can carry anybody to a great main event (even Wee Man). Cena is still in great wrestling shape, but he’s still a part-timer – a match with Zayn could help him recapture some of that workrate magic.
Roman Reigns
Yes, I know these two had a match at SummerSlam 2021, but when has WWE ever shied away from a) having rematches and b) making a buttload of money?
In the absence of a return by the Rock, Cena/Reigns is one of the biggest matches the company could have right now.
Even if it’s a repeat of something we’ve already seen, putting these two in the ring together guarantees butts in seats and eyes on screens.
As Reigns transitions to more and more of a part time role, these kinds of huge matches become more and more attractive; after all, if WWE is only going to have him a few times a year, they may as well make sure they’re maximizing their usage of him by putting him in the biggest matches possible.
And what bigger match against Big Match John himself?
With Reigns as one of wrestling’s best heels at the moment, and Cena as its perennial face, this is as straightforward a “good vs evil” story as you can tell in WWE.
The Rock
That’s right baby: thrice in a lifetime.
The first time these two faced off it was literally the biggest event in WWE history, making the company more than any WrestleMania has before or since.
The second time… also happened. But hey: three times’ the charm.
With Johnny and the Dwayne both currently eying in-ring returns, putting them against separate opponents seems like the obvious move to spread their star power around as much as possible.
But if you’ve ever put sugar on your Frosties you’ll know: sometimes more is more.
Why not put all your eggs in one basket for a match that would have the potential to bring in the lapsed fans, the casuals, the internet nerds and the nostalgia addicts?
It’s not graceful (nor would these two be if you put them in a ring together in the year of our Lord 2023), but it’s a guaranteed home run.
Cody Rhodes
Adrenaline, in my soul, Cena vs Cody Rhodes (I’ll stop doing that when it stops being funny, i.e. I will never stop).
Cody’s kind of a weird dude, and I’m not just talking about the tattoo.
He’s an old school workrate wrestler and was once God of the indies, but seems more than anything in the world to want to be a Cena-level sellout superstar.
He’s so good at pretending to be Cena that he ended up convincing AEW audiences that he was intentionally trying to make them hate him. They didn’t boo that thing on his neck, but they boo’d the second he started saying he loves America. Communists.
Putting these two together is a total no-brainer, as Rhodes is confronted by his potential future, and the type of man he’s compared himself to his whole career.
On a more metaphorical level, it would be a clash of WWE-style booking at its most obnoxious and the kind of super-indie, anti-Cena wrestling that Rhodes championed in helping found AEW.
A passing of the torch that also acts as a kind of complex commentary on the torch itself? Is wrestling even capable of that level of complex, meta storytelling? There’s only one way to find out.
CM Punk
Cena vs the Rock is the biggest match you could currently book for casual audiences. Cena vs Punk is the biggest match you could book for people like us (30-something too-online wrestling dweebs who think Dave Melzer’s stuttering rants count as “the news”).
In 2011, Cena had the best match of his career (and one of the best matches in WWE history) against Punk at that year’s Money In The Bank pay-per-view).
Not long after, Punk quit WWE )and wrestling as a whole) because of how people like Cena were being booked over workrate darlings like himself.
If Punk has a nemesis, it’s Cena. This is wrestling’s Batman vs the Joker, and I’m honestly not sure which of them is which.
With Punk’s contract situation with AEW currently way up in the air, WWE finally has an opportunity to step in and reignite one of the greatest rivalries in wrestling history.
Plus this way, maybe Punk can finally get that WrestleMania main event.
Drew McIntyre
I’m going to level with you, this one is only on the list because I really like Drew and only want good things for him.
Ever since his World Championship wins were curtailed by that whole “global pandemic” thing, Drew has struggled to capitalize on the push that began at the 2020 Royal Rumble.
I have no doubt that Drew’s time will come (please WWE, I need this), and what better way to get the ball rolling by putting him up against a verifiable legend like Cena?
The story for this match isn’t quite as evident as it is with some of these other guys, but I kind of like the idea of WWE’s “chosen one” (Drew’s original gimmick in the company during his first run) going up against its actual chosen one.
It would be a great way for Drew to remind people of what made them so excited about him at the start of 2020, and a great way for Cena to look like a normal human being against somebody with even more freakish proportions than his own.
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