John Cena has returned to WWE.
The 16-time world champion has been almost exclusively in Hollywood since his last outing in WWE that came at WrestleMania 36 against The Fiend.
At Money in the Bank, the 44-year-old made his presence felt by confronting Universal champion Roman Reigns after he successfully retained his title against WWE Hall of Famer and perhaps Cena’s greatest rival, Edge.
The pop that Cena got for his return was nothing short of legendary.
It will go down as one of the greatest pops in modern day WWE history.
That pop for Cena!
— Alex McCarthy (@AlexM_talkSPORT) July 19, 2021
Years and years of earning that. #MITB
pic.twitter.com/fCRQaWt3Oy
Cena has long been rumoured to be Reigns’ opponent at SummerSlam and it now seems certain the pair will headline WWE’s first packed stadium show since the pandemic took over the world some 18 months ago.
SummerSlam is heading to the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and WWE are desperate to make the show as huge as possible.
Cena and Reigns have only met once before in singles action and that came at No Mercy back in 2017. Reigns was victorious on that occasion.
Reigns was able to retain his title at Money in the Bank, but Cena is his next challenger and Big E is now the man with the Money in the Bank briefcase.
The other members of The Bloodline, The Usos, brought their own gold to the table at Money in the Bank after they won the SmackDown Tag Team titles from Dominik and Rey Mysterio on the kick-off show.
On June 23, Cena confirmed to Jimmy Fallon that he would be returning to WWE at some stage.
“Those rumours are true,” Cena told Fallon. “I’ll definitely be back to the WWE, I just don’t know when.”
Cena also told Den of Geek it’s important to him what he does when he returns.
“I do look forward to returning. It won’t be about topping a Firefly Funhouse match. The first question I’ll ask is ‘Why?’ And the next question I’ll ask is ‘Where do we go after that?’
“And if I get, ‘I don’t know’ to both of them, that’s cool because that means I can come up with my own thing.”
SummerSlam goes down on Saturday, August 21.