Has John Cena ever competed on NXT? Taking a look at his expansive WWE career

John Cena will be on NXT next week. The 16-time World Champion will be in Carmelo Hayes’ corner for the main event singles match against Bron Breakker. Fans might be wondering if Cena has ever appeared, much less competed, in WWE’s developmental territory in the past.

While John Cena hasn’t completed in NXT, he did make a special appearance on the show a decade ago. Cena showed up as the guest on “The Damien Sandow Show” during the May 3, 2023, NXT tapings. This was a dark segment, but WWE did release a clip of it on their YouTube channel.

Fans can check out the video below.

Cena constantly mocked Sandow during their exchange, which also featured an unannounced appearance by Enzo Amore and Big Cass. The pair cut a promo on Sandow at the NXT taping in Full Sail University.

The segment mainly served to hype John Cena’s WWE Championship defense against Ryback at Extreme Rules 2013. The pair met in a Last Man Standing Match at the May 19th pay-per-view event in St. Louis, Missouri.

Cena went on to retain his title after he and Ryback went through the electronic wall on the stage, rendering them both unconscious and forcing the referee to count to 10.

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Why is John Cena appearing on NXT? Possible reason disclosed

WWE NXT has a stacked line-up for the October 10th edition of the show. The event will be graced by the likes of John Cena, Cody Rhodes, and Asuka. The Empress of Tomorrow will be squaring off against Roxanne Perez in a first-time match-up.

Since NXT is going head-to-head with AEW Dynamite next Tuesday, it could be seen as Shawn Michaels pulling out all the stops to make sure his show emerges as the winner in the ratings collision with Tony Khan’s flagship show, featuring the in-ring debut of Adam Copeland (formerly Edge).

The Rated-R Superstar made his AEW debut at WrestleDream. Fans can read more on that here.