It’s never too hard to read the tea leaves and figure out when John Cena is planning on taking an extended absence from WWE. This time around, it was even more obvious than usual. After losing to Roman Reigns in decisive fashion at No Mercy, Cena took a minutes-long curtain call where he basically said goodbye to the WWE Universe.
After No Mercy, Cena stopped by Raw Talk to rawly talk about whether this means he’s hanging up his jorts for good and retiring. He’s not, but he insinuated that he might officially be shifting into part-timer mode for the time being.
It was also easy to tell that he was taking time off, because of him being scheduled to take time off to film Bumblebee, a Transformers spinoff that he has a lead role in. As a human!
According to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, while plans for the Reigns vs. Cena feud were originally set to be a multi-match program, it was changed to a one-and-done match where Cena would visually “pass the torch” (more or less) to Reigns, and would both allow Cena to take his needed time off and allow Reigns to shift into what is pretty clearly the setup for a Shield reunion.
The current plan is for Cena to return to WWE in time for Survivor Series, but plans could always change. It’s possible that he could remain gone until 2018, although it’s unlikely. For the time being, he’s booked for Survivor Series, so you’ll have to get through the chilly beginning of autumn with neither hustle, loyalty, nor respect to keep you warm. Never give up, though: he’ll be back before you know it.
And then he’ll be gone again. Because he has a whole lot more going on outside of WWE these days than inside it.
