Despite his current part-time status, there’s never been any doubt that John Cena will be at WrestleMania 34 in April. In fact, he returned to WWE TV on Christmas night, just in time for the build to the Royal Rumble, which in turn begins the Road to WrestleMania. But just what Big Match John will be doing in New Orleans remains to be seen. There’ve been rumors he might face AJ Styles again, but the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter appears to put those rumors to bed.
According to WON’s Dave Meltzer, there will be no Cena/Styles match at WrestleMania, and in fact Cena’s match will be “much bigger than Styles.” Meltzer says Cena’s match will be revealed within a few weeks. He also points out that, with Styles being the WWE Champion, Cena’s match being bigger probably means a surprise or a returning legend.
He mentions Undertaker, Batista, Bill Goldberg, and Hulk Hogan as possible opponents, before acknowledging that Hogan is pretty unlikely for multiple reasons. According to Meltzer, the match will probably be set up at the Raw 25th Anniversary show, when everybody will be watching. After all, we know Undertaker will be there, and there’s been a lot of talk that he might want another shot at a retirement match.
As for the other names Meltzer mentions, another Goldberg return doesn’t sound particularly likely, and while Batista definitely wants to return, it’s hard to imagine anyone getting very excited about a WrestleMania feud between him and Cena, including Batista himself, who seems to want to do a lot more than that if he comes back.
And whether you’re ready to forgive Hulk Hogan or not, filing new lawsuits relating to the same scandal doesn’t sound like something you’d do if you were about to make your triumphant return to the family-friendly industry that made you. So the Undertaker may actually be the most likely (and perhaps even best?) option.
As for AJ Styles, hopefully his “smaller” WrestleMania match is the one against Shinsuke Nakamura that we all want to see.
