John Cena Advertised For Upcoming WWE Raw

Big Match John is set to make a Raw appearance ahead of WrestleMania 39.

Feb 20, 2023 February 20th, 2023

With many speculating that John Cena will be taking on Austin Theory at WrestleMania 39, the 16-time World Champion is now being advertised for an upcoming episode of WWE Raw as the Showcase of the Immortals looms large on the horizon.

In an email sent out by WWE today, Cena will make an appearance on the 6 March Raw which will emanate from Boston's famed TD Garden.

This will mark Big Match John's first appearance on Raw since his his 20-year anniversary was celebrated on 27 June 2022. Of course, Cena has appeared on WWE programming since then, with him having his one and only match of '22 on the final SmackDown of the year; a match where he and Kevin Owens were victorious over Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn.

Not just would a 6 March appearance on Raw serve to hype a potential 'Mania encounter with current United States Champion Austin Theory, but that date would nicely tie in with the promotional push for WWE 2K23. With John Cena as the cover star and the focus of the Showcase Mode for that game, WWE 2K23 is on general release on 17 March.

In terms of WWE's annual Granddaddy of Them All, Cena's last WrestleMania outing was back at WrestleMania 36 in 2020, where he lost against 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt in a Firefly Fun House offering. As it stands, Super Cena has competed 15 times at WrestleMania, with his win-loss record standing at 10-5.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

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