WWE to Counter AEW: All Out with Mega John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar Clash in September: Reports

That appeared to many as a major setback, as Cena is only left with 11 dates for his retirement tour. But regardless of the outcry, he’s slated to lock horns with ‘The Maverick’ in a singles capacity on August 31. WWE had been planning it for a long time. Speaking of Cena’s inevitable clash with Lesnar, he’ll have a couple of dates to build his feud with ‘The Beast’. The 48-year-old Hollywood mogul is set to appear on SmackDown in Chicago dated September 8 and a week later on Raw.

Although there’s no update on Lesnar’s upcoming WWE schedule, it’s likely he’ll be there on both shows as Cena in September. The former UFC Heavyweight Champion marked his return at SummerSlam to stun everyone and F-5ed the ‘Cenation Leader’ to send a message. It’d be interesting to hear Lesnar’s explanation of the attack if he ever cares to do so.

Did John Cena ask for Brock Lesnar’s return to WWE?

The earth-shattering return of Brock Lesnar evoked its fair share of controversy moments after he emerged on WWE programming for the first time in two years. ‘The Conqueror’ is still named in Janel Grant‘s lawsuit against WWE and Vince McMahon. However, the 10-time world champion was given a nod from WWE’s legal department a few weeks before he dropped some jaws at ‘The Biggest Party of the Summer’.

But did John Cena ask for it? During the SummerSlam post-show, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque claimed that working with Lesnar was on Cena’s wish list in his farewell tour. The Game’s comments came across as if the creative team had been molded to act as per Cena’s bucket list of opponents. However, in a recent interview with the Boston Herald, ‘The Franchise Player’ affirmed that he’s never, in his 23-year WWE career, handpicked his opponents.

Does that mean Levesque and Co. are diverting the negative press toward Mr. Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect to show they’re not guilty of calling Lesnar back amid an ongoing legal quagmire he’s in? That would be too bold a statement to make, but the netizens are already going back and forth over it.

John Cena’s heel run lasted almost five months

SummerSlam was John Cena‘s first PLE appearance as a full-blown babyface since he turned heel earlier this year at the Elimination Chamber. To put it bluntly, the villainous arc of the Ricky Stanicky star was a complete fiasco and marred by a lack of an endgame. Some would argue that The Rock deciding to abandon the storyline midway resulted in Cena’s turn going haywire.

Another component of it was the massive falling out WWE had with Travis Scott, as confirmed by Paul Heyman on Ariel Helwani ‘s show. It’s apparent that WWE had to get back to the drawing board once Rock and Scott were out of the fold. What the fans witnessed from Cena in the meantime was the latter trying his best to elicit boos from the crowds in whichever city he visited.

However, the lack of conviction and Cena being the global icon living his final hurrah were enough for the audience to cheer for their hero regardless of what he was pretending to do. Cena showed heavy glimpses of reverting back to being a baby face two nights before losing his WWE title to Cody Rhodes.