John Cena came back a few weeks ago in order to announce himself as an entrant into the Royal Rumble match. He recently had an opportunity to win a chance against WWE Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar. Cena would lose in the Fatal 4-Way to Finn Balor.
After the matchup, WWE revealed that Cena actually suffered a storyline injury. He was seen limping before heading to the back. They then claim he has since re-aggravated an injury during a training session. This series of events has threatened his chances at appearing in the 30 man Royal Rumble event.
But with the rumor that Cena will instead be preparing to film a new movie, why would WWE bring Cena back, build him up, only to remove him days before the Rumble itself?
According to Dave Meltzer, their reasoning is identical to the recent Braun Strowman/Brock Lesnar debacle: sell tickets.
“The story going around is that Cena was never to be in the Rumble in the first place, but with a stadium to fill, they advertised Cena — similar to advertising Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman, another match never actually planned — to help sell tickets.”
Meltzer made a point that Chase Field has been configured to fit approximately 43,000 people. At this time, Royal Rumble is expected to have around 25-30,000 paid fans in attendance.
The start date for Cena’s new movie is actually February 4th. So if Cena wanted to be a surprise entrant in the Rumble matchup, there’s still a possibility of that happening.
