AEW Stars Pay Tribute To John Cena On Raw

John Cena was the toast of Raw on Monday night as he celebrated his 20th anniversary in WWE, with some surprise faces from AEW making an appearance to pay their own tribute.

Cena made his first televised return to WWE since losing in the main event of SummerSlam 2021 to Roman Reigns on Raw in Laredo, Texas. The date of Cena’s return was significant as it marked 20 years to the day that WWE audiences first saw Cena worldwide as he debuted on SmackDown in 2002, answering Kurt Angle’s open challenge.

Throughout the night John Cena was seen offering advice to various WWE Superstars before he was involved in a tense face-off with WWE United States Champion Theory, who has long been rumoured to be Cena’s opponent at this year’s SummerSlam.

Several legends from the world of wrestling were seen throughout the show paying their own tributes to John Cena in video packages. Perhaps the most surprising of the people seen waxing lyrical about Cena were current AEW stars Paul Wight, Bryan Danielson, and Chris Jericho.

Fightful Select issued a report after the videos appeared about the process of getting AEW talent to appear on WWE television. The report stated that it was a straightforward process and after the idea was pitched AEW President Tony Khan had no problem giving his approval for his talent to appear on WWE television in this way.