RAW will host its No Mercy pay-per-view on September 24 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
According to WWE.com, John Cena will be there.
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Upon pulling up the shows information on the company’s website, WWE has a list of “featured superstars” that include Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Bray Wyatt and…Cena.
Up Next: Ric Flair Explains Why John Cena Won’t Break his Championship Record
There are a couple significant points to address here. The first being that Cena currently works as a member of SmackDown. While it’s been well documented that Cena now has the powers of a “free agent” (meaning he can jump from show to show), he has yet to do so. This allows us to believe that sometime after SummerSlam Cena will make a surprise appearance on RAW to build towards this No Mercy match.
More: Eric Bischoff Thinks John Cena Being a Free Agent is a Bad Idea
The second point of interest here is that if Cena is to jump to RAW and compete at No Mercy, he likely will not be doing it as WWE Champion.
Next week, Cena faces Shinsuke Nakamura on SmackDown for the right to face Jinder Mahal at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship. Another fact worth underlining is that WWE may have tipped their hand there too, as a SummerSlam poster looks to be promoting a triple threat with the 3 above-mentioned names at SummerSlam.
Even further.
While it doesn’t look like Cena will be carrying the WWE Championship to a RAW pay-per-view, that doesn’t mean he can’t win the title at SummerSlam. He would just have to lose it before he jumped to RAW. This is where Baron Corbin comes into play with his Money in the Bank briefcase. Could he cash in on Cena right after he eclipsed the great Ric Flair as 17x WWE Champion? We’ll see.
One may need at least a coffee or even an Adderall to understand all of the elements at play here, but this adds quite the twist to the WWE landscape. With all of the scuttlebutt, the safest assumption we can make is that Cena will not be WWE Champion after SummerSlam. And, if he is, it won’t last long as he will have to lose it within the first few weeks of September.
It would be hard to see WWE giving Cena such an impactful moment like breaking Ric Flair’s record just to have his reign cut short by an opportunistic Baron Corbin. For Cena’s 17th, WrestleMania 34 against Roman Reigns seems the more likely setting.
WWE feels like Game of Thrones, and that’s a great thing.
