After teases and mentions of it happening, WWE has finally confirmed that John Cena will challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Title at SummerSlam.
On Friday’s episode of SmackDown, WWE held a contract signing that was supposed to see Reigns defend against Finn Balor at SummerSlam, but Baron Corbin came out to attack Balor in order to take his place.
Cena ran out to stop Corbin and signed the contract instead.
Cena made his return at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view event to have a staredown with Reigns to set up their SummerSlam main event. This was after the main event where Reigns had retained his title over Edge.
Since Cena has returned, he has helped boost ticket sales for SummerSlam. If he does beat Reigns it would be his 17th World Title win, which would break Ric Flair’s record. However, Cena is slated to start filming a new movie at the end of August.
Fans can expect to see Cena appear at several upcoming shows. Here’s the list of dates and locations of events that Cena will be appearing:
- Saturday, July 31: Supershow – Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee
- Sunday, August 1: Supershow – Little Caesars Arena in Detroit
- Friday, August 6: SmackDown – Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.
- Saturday, August 7: Supershow – Hertz Arena in Fort Myers, Fla.
- Monday, August 9: Raw – Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
- Friday, August 13: SmackDown – BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.
- Saturday, August 14: Supershow – Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.
- Sunday, August 15: Supershow – Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C.
- Friday, August 20: SmackDown – Footprint Center in Phoenix
- Saturday, August 21: SummerSlam – Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas
- Friday, September 10: SmackDown – Madison Square Garden – New York City
