Backstage News On Why John Cena Beat Kevin Owens

The reason that John Cena beat Kevin Owens in their second match at Money in the Bank was because of Cena's merchandise sales dropping, as well as live event ticket sales decreasing, according to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio. Since there were only two weeks in between Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank, there must have been a noticeable difference in Cena's numbers if that was a main reason to book the loss. There's no word on if the plan was for Owens to win the second match or if it was going to be Cena's win all along.

There was also further speculation from Alvarez that Owens will be dropping the NXT Title to Finn Balor in Japan on July 4, so there's a chance that Owens could beat Cena for the US Title in their third match, likely at Battleground on July 19. If Cena loses the US Title he could get back in the WWE Title picture soon after. It is believable that merchandise sales would go down a bit if Cena was seen as a midcarder. After all, he hasn't wrestled in a PPV main event match this year because the focus has been on the likes of Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose while Cena has held the US Title, which wasn't considered that important before he won it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBiGXrDCKw4 Cena still headlines nearly every live event that he's on because he's the biggest draw in the company in terms of selling tickets as well as merchandise. Some fans may be sick of Cena, but WWE will always do what's best for him because of his status as the face of the company.