Those who were expecting John Cena's recent appearance on WWE RAW to set up a match for him at SummerSlam were left feeling empty and disappointed.
Cena appeared on the June 27 episode of Monday Night RAW to celebrate his 20-year anniversary as a WWE Superstar. While there was a small backstage confrontation between himself and Theory, it didn't lead to a match like many fans were predicting.
On a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez confirmed that Cena won't be competing at SummerSlam this year, which is due to the fact that he's currently involved in filming the second season of the hit DC Comics TV show Peacemaker.
"I can confirm that being filmed right now is Peacemaker 2 and John Cena is involved," Bryan Alvarez said. "He's working on Peacemaker 2 as we speak. I presume that's why there have been discussions of him doing SummerSlam but then he showed up on Raw to announce 'someday I'll be back. I don't know when, don't know where but I'll be back someday.' Apparently, he's filming Peacemaker and that's why he can't do SummerSlam." [H/T: WrestlingNews.co]
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When will John Cena return to WWE?
With John Cena off the board for SummerSlam, it will be interesting to see when the 16-time WWE Champion returns for his next match with the company.
As per Fightful Select, Vince McMahon will be traveling with The Leader of Cenation while he shoots for the second season of Peacemaker in Canada. The report states that talk of having a match at WrestleMania could be the reason why McMahon is traveling with The Champ.
Cena hasn't competed at a WrestleMania since his Firefly Funhouse match against Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 36.
In a perfect world scenario for WWE, the company will have both John Cena and The Rock at WrestleMania 39. But there's just as good of a chance that they manage to land either. It would be in the company's best interest not to bank on their appearances next year and take the time to build some new main event stars over the next several months.