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John Cena Will Wrestle On Last WWE Smackdown Of 2022

By John Canton • Published 17th December 2022
john cena wwe smackdown 2022

John Cena isn’t just going to appear on the last episode of Smackdown in 2022, he will be in a big tag team match as well.

It was announced about a week ago that 16-time WWE Champion and the man that Michael Cole calls the “Greatest of All-Time” John Cena will be on the December 30th episode of Smackdown in Tampa, which is where Cena lives.

This week on the December 16th edition of Smackdown, we found out Cena will not only appear on Smackdown but also have a match.

During a backstage segment on Smackdown, Roman Reigns told WWE Official Adam Pearce that he wanted to team with Sami Zayn against Kevin Owens and a partner.

In the main event segment, the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns was in the ring for a promo with The Bloodline including the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jimmy & Jey), Sami Zayn, Solo Sikoa and “Special Counsel” Paul Heyman as well. While in the ring, Reigns talked about having a Kevin Owens problem that he needed to take care of.

Sami Zayn said he was KO’s only friend. The rest of The Bloodline didn’t like him saying that, so Zayn caught himself saying he “WAS” his only friend. Zayn said that it will be an honor and a privilege to team with Reigns. That’s when John Cena appeared on the screen with a taped message.

John Cena said that everybody loves a good surprise. Cena was talking into a camera while standing in front of the side of some building with bricks behind him. Cena said that he got a text message from his friend Kevin Owens. Cena said that Owens mentioned that Cena has had a WWE match every year except this one. In the text message, Owens asked Cena if Cena wanted to be his tag team partner on December 30th in Tampa, Florida.

As he continued, Cena said that time was running out on the year. Cena summarized the match as the main event match that can’t be missed. Cena said hell yes, he’ll be there, he’ll be KO’s partner and bring the fight to The Bloodline. Cena said that it will be nice when Cena-Claus is coming to town. The Bloodline didn’t say anything. They looked frustrated as the show ended there.

The last time Cena wrestled in a WWE ring was at SummerSlam in August 2021 when he lost the Universal Title match to Roman Reigns. Other than this week on Smackdown, Cena’s only other appearance on WWE TV this year was in June on Raw to celebrate 20 years since his WWE debut.

During his time away from WWE, Cena keeps busy as an actor and many ohter things.