The next major WWE pay-per-view event is Survivor Series on Nov. 19 in Houston. The show is full of Raw vs. Smackdown matches with a men’s elimination match, women’s elmination match, and matchups featuring champions from both brands such as Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose vs.The Usos, The Miz vs. Baron Corbin, and Alexa Bliss vs. Natalya.
In the main event, Raw’s Universal Champion Brock Lesnar is scheduled to face Smackdown’s WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, but there’s a bit of a catch. It was announced on Thursday that Mahal will defend the WWE Title against A.J. Styles, so if Styles wins that match, he would go on to face Lesnar. Most people expect Mahal to retain his title, but there could be a change considering how poor Smackdown’s ratings were last week.
Most of the WWE’s biggest names are booked for Survivor Series, which brings us to a name that’s not booked: John Cena. The part time wrestler/movie star/commercial pitchman hasn’t been seen since he lost to Roman Reigns in a dream match at No Mercy. It hasn’t been that long, but his absence has been felt since he’s a big name that is one of the best performers in the company’s history.
There have been rumors for weeks about potential guest referees for the Lesnar vs. Mahal match, but it looks like Cena is going to be the choice, according to the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer. It’s easy to understand why WWE is putting Cena in there because while Lesnar is a huge name, Mahal is not considered a big deal by most fans. Adding Cena as the referee will create buzz because people may think that Cena’s going to have a physical altercation with an old rival like Lesnar or maybe even challenge him to a match after Lesnar wins.
It’s not known when WWE will announce Cena as the referee of Lesnar vs. Mahal (or Styles), but according to Meltzer, it’s official. Perhaps they will mention it this week on Raw. We’ll have to watch the show to find out.
