From the WWE Rumor Mill: John Cena to challenge Shinsuke Nakamura at Fastlane

What's the story?

John Cena is currently still being advertised to appear at Fastlane, the SmackDown exclusive pay-per-view taking place in two weeks despite being at the RAW PPV Elimination Chamber. Now, speculation has surfaced suggesting what 'Free Agent' John Cena could do on the show.

In case you didn't know...

Cena's storyline heading into this year's WrestleMania is a great one, he's being presented as the 'Face of the Company' coming to terms with the fact he's no longer the top dog in the yard (obvious allusion intended).

As a result, Cena has no clear path to a match at WrestleMania and has been desperately trying to earn himself a spot on the card, whether it's eliminating Finn Balor to get into the Elimination Chamber or entering the Royal Rumble match and dumping Rey Mysterio to the outside

The heart of the matter

The speculation is that John Cena will appear on SmackDown PPV Fastlane and challenge Shinsuke Nakamura to a match, putting the WrestleMania main event title match, he earned by winning the Men's Royal Rumble, on the line.

Per Post Wrestling John Cena is advertised for Fastlane. It was speculated that Cena might ask Nakamura to wrestle him for his Mania title shot.

— rovert (@SoDuTw) February 26, 2018

There are several things that lend credence to this idea, Nakamura has been kept off of television since the Rumble win, possibly to make this match a complete surprise on the night.

Cena also mentioned going 'outside of WWE etiquette' in order to get his spot at WrestleMania on the 'Raw Talk' following Elimination Chamber, meaning that challenging Nakamura to give up his spot is definitely on the cards for a 'good guy' like Cena.

There is also further speculation that Daniel Bryan or Shane McMahon will make the match official against the other one's wishes, further adding to their feud too, and also explaining why Nakamura would agree to such a match with such a stipulation.

What's next?

The expectation is that Cena will lose his match against Nakamura at Fastlane leaving him with no other option but to call out 'The Deadman' on the following RAW or SmackDown, finally leading to the highly anticipated WrestleMania match between Cena and The Undertaker.

Author's take

I just want to reiterate that this is just online chatter and speculation at this moment and hasn't been picked up by what many consider to be reputable sources like Dave Meltzer or Mike Johnson, so we'll have to see.

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