10 HUGE WWE SmackDown Season Premiere Predictions You Need To Know

5. The Champ Is Here

The Rock Randy Orton
WWE

John Cena has been kept secret before.

Ahead of WrestleMania 32, he was one of numerous stars shelved by injury before the event. Kept out of booking plans, he earned a huge pop from the 100,000+ crowd despite the usual reaction he'd receive as he linked arm with The Rock to deck The Wyatt Family.

Just this year, Cena was expected to attend but not explicitly promised. It allowed the company to get creative with their use of him - 'The Champ' threw back to his beloved rap persona to eviscerate Elias in a showing that woke up an exhausted WrestleMania 35 audience.

The element of surprise appears to suit Cena at this stage in his career, and with so many other legends as cast-iron promises, one of the original Blue Brand breakouts might as well join some of those from the company's Hall Of Fame ahead of his own eventual induction.

What he does will almost certainly be determined by what happens elsewhere on the show...

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett