John Cena only recently made his return to WWE after a shoulder injury forced him to undergo surgery. This delayed his planned comeback at WrestleMania 32 and instead saw him make his return on an episode of Raw.
Cena left WWE around the same time last year in order to film the first season of American Grit. The ratings for the show were not as high as the Network expected but since they have renewed it for a second season, it seems Cena will be leaving WWE soon for up to two months.
Cena faces AJ Styles at SummerSlam next weekend and then it seems he will be written off TV until this year’s Survivor Series event which is the next time both brands will be together after The Biggest Party of the Summer.
Cena has already stated to many people connected to WWE that he now considers himself to be a part-time superstar and since he has spent more time at home than in WWE this year then that would be a fair assumption.
It has been rumored for a while that much like The Rock before him, Cena is hoping to move away from his wrestling career now and instead look at more hosting jobs and film roles. Cena currently has a net worth of more than $45 million which means that no matter what he does with his life following WWE, he is pretty much set.
The company itself handled his injury earlier in the year quite well, they had initially decided that Cena would make his return in December last year and go after Alberto Del Rio, since he was the man who took his United States Championship.
Cena was obviously struck down with an injury so this was then changed and Cena was set for his return at WrestleMania instead where he was supposed to face The Undertaker. Once again Cena’s recovery time forced WWE to change their plans and Shane McMahon stepped in to replace the 15 time World Champion.
Since he has returned Cena has been kept out of the main event picture and WWE have continued to prove that they have the ability to thrive without the Face of the Company, which means that he is free to continue working any other commitments he has outside of WWE.
The plan is that because Cena filmed from October until December last year then hopefully he can now film from September to November and be back on WWE TV in time for Survivor Series. Whether or not this is feasible still remains to be seen, but it means WWE must have some big plans for the November based pay-per-view.
AJ Styles is set to move onto a feud with WWE Champion Dean Ambrose following the conclusion of his current rivalry with John Cena next weekend, which means that Ambrose and Styles will have the unique task of being the main focus of the SmackDown Live brand whilst Cena is away.
The likes of Bray Wyatt, Dolph Ziggler, Baron Corbin, American Alpha and The Miz have the ability to take over Cena’s position and help to keep the SmackDown brand on course with Raw as they head towards Survivor Series.
Raw definitely has the bulk of the bigger stars on their brand with Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Rusev, Finn Balor, The New Day and Enzo and Cass currently the main focus for the Red Brand, but it will be interesting to see how SmackDown adapt.
WWE have proved that they can cope without Cena, they managed it for almost a year when his injury news came out of the blue and if Cena decides that he now favors work outside of the company then this is something that WWE are going to have to learn to do.
It was inevitable that Cena would want to lower his work schedule down at some point and it seems WWE has brought enough new talent through the company that they have the ability to write Cena off TV for a few months. Cena is one of the biggest stars WWE has ever produced but he isn’t irreplaceable and WWE have realised that and they can easily continue for two months without him.
