Cena reportedly is scheduled to shoot a film in early 2023
WrestleMania 39 is expected to be a star-studded event, so it’s no surprise WWE is trying to do what it can to get the biggest names for the two-night spectacle.
The premium live event is going with the tagline, “WrestleMania Goes Hollywood.” WWE certainly would like to bring in as many mainstream stars as possible to satisfy the Inglewood, Calif., crowd. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has thrown his hat into the ring, and the company has grand plans of bringing in Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to face his real-life cousin Roman Reigns.
The Rock’s status is up in the air, but another wrestler-turned-Hollywood star reportedly will make an effort to clear his schedule to make it to WrestleMania.
“The belief is that (John) Cena will be working WrestleMania but what we were told is that he’s working on his schedule to make sure it works, but the belief is that he’ll get it done,” Dave Meltzer wrote in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter on Friday. “Cena will be unavailable to WWE through most of February and March due to filming a movie outside the U.S. At one point he was talked about for a match with Austin Theory at WrestleMania but that was with Vince McMahon in charge.”
Cena has not appeared at the last two WrestleMania events, and his last WWE match was against Reigns at SummerSlam 2021. But the 45-year-old is scheduled to appear on SmackDown next Friday to team up with Kevin Owens against Reigns and Sami Zayn.
It’s not known if that match will lead into a WrestleMania program, but a match against Theory makes sense.
The current United States Champion has been open about how Cena inspired him to get into pro wrestling, and during his independent wrestling days, Theory made a habit of calling out the star multiple times.
Whether WWE commits to a Cena-Theory match might not be determined until closer to April 1-2, but the company at least can count on one big star showing up at WrestleMania.