John Cena Included In WWE Memorial Day Weekend Takeover
John Cena will bring his hustle, loyalty, and disrespect to WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event.
It was previously reported that WWE would be running their NXT Battleground PLE head-to-head against AEW Double Or Nothing on Sunday, May 25th during the Memorial Day weekend in the United States.
There is more to that story because WWE announced on Friday that they are going to be running four shows over four nights in the Tampa, Florida area. Not only that, but John Cena has been confirmed for Saturday Night’s Main Event in Tampa, which is where Cena has lived for most of his WWE career.
March 7, 2025 – WWE in partnership with the Tampa Bay Sports Commission and Vinik Sports Group, today announced a Memorial Day weekend takeover of the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida, with four consecutive events beginning Saturday, May 24.
WWE will bring Saturday Night’s Main Event (Saturday, May 24), Battleground (Sunday, May 25), Monday Night Raw (Monday, May 26) and NXT (Tuesday, May 27) to the iconic Yuengling Center – once home to the Royal Rumble in 1995 and WWE Thunderdome – giving fans the opportunity to experience non-stop WWE action throughout the holiday weekend.
Further, the takeover will see John Cena appear on NBC’s Saturday Night’s Main Event in primetime, marking his first appearance in Tampa since he entered the ring on Friday Night SmackDown at Amalie Arena in December 2022.
Three and four-day combo ticket packages will be available exclusively during the initial ticket on-sale window starting Friday, March 14 at 10am ET/7am PT via Ticketmaster.com. An exclusive pre-sale opportunity will be available from Wednesday, March 12 at 10am ET/7am PT through Thursday, March 13 at 11:59pm ET/8:59pm PT via Ticketmaster.com.
Saturday Night’s Main Event will air live on Saturday, May 24 in primetime at 8pm ET on NBC and simulcast on Peacock.
The Amalie Arena is home to the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning and if they were still alive in the NHL playoffs then those dates in late May likely wouldn’t have been available. That’s why WWE is going to the Yuengling Center in Tampa for four nights. Those four shows at the Yuengling Center in Tampa are as follows:
- Saturday, May 24: WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event
- Sunday, May 25: NXT Battleground 2025
- Monday, May 26: WWE Raw
- Tuesday, May 27: WWE NXT
WWE Changed Plan For John Cena’s Heel Turn
Wrestling fans will have to wait until Monday Night Raw on March 17th in Belgium to see John Cena explain his heel turn because that’s the first time he’s scheduled for WWE television since turning heel.
It has been reported by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that The Rock wanted Cody Rhodes to be the guy to turn heel, but when Rhodes turned that down, Cena agreed to do it.
Dave Meltzer also wrote in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE thought about doing Cena’s turn at WrestleMania 41, but the call was made to do it at Elimination Chamber instead.
The plan was that the Cena turn with Rock would have been saved for WrestleMania’s finish. The idea is that once the decision was made, during the day, to do it on this show, then obviously it had to go on last.
Cody Rhodes is expected to address what John Cena, The Rock, and Travis Scott did to him on WWE SmackDown in Philadelphia as WWE builds to the epic Cody Rhodes-John Cena WWE Title match at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas.