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John Cena Reacts To Tag Team Match Victory On WWE Smackdown

By John Canton • Published 2nd January 2023
john cena wwe smackdown kevin owens

John Cena has thanked the WWE Universe for the support they showed him following his only wrestling match of 2022.

The final WWE televised match of 2022 took place last Friday on the December 30th edition of Smackdown from Tampa, Florida. It was a tag team match with Kevin Owens & John Cena defeating Sami Zayn and the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.

Owens worked most of the match for his team until Cena got the hot tag leading to two shoulder tackles and a spinning slam on Zayn. After Cena slammed Reigns beside Zayn, Cena & Owens each did the Five Knuckle Shuffle fist drop on their opponents. Cena hit Reigns with the Attitude Adjustment, which led to Reigns rolling out of the ring while Owens hit a Stunner on Zayn for the pinfall win.

It is expected that Owens will challenge Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble on January 28th, which is likely why Owens got the pinfall win to give him some momentum going into that match.

As for the 45-year-old former 16-time WWE World Champion John Cena, it was his first match in a WWE ring in 2022. By having that match, Cena continued his impressive streak of having at least one match per year since his 2002 WWE main roster debut. While Cena barely spent any time in the ring and only bumped on the floor, he was still part of the winning team in that match.

Another thing about Cena’s appearance was that he had very visible bald spot on the top of his head. It’s something many men his age deal with, but in Cena’s case it looked more prominent than ever.

On Twitter, John Cena tweeted about being lucky to have 20+ years of moments as part of WWE.

“Thank you @WWEUniverse for investing your time and energy with me. I never overlook how lucky I am to have 2 decades of moments filled with your voice and passion. To everyone behind the scenes, in the ring, live and around the world @WWE #ThankYou. #Smackdown”

It is currently unknown when Cena will wrestle again for WWE although he is rumored to be competing at WrestleMania 39 in April. Cena is also filming a movie in February & March, which could limit his free time and could affect whatever is planned for him at WrestleMania 39.

After the match, Cena also spoke to the fans in Tampa while thanking them for the support as usual. WWE filmed that and posted it on social media as well.