John Cena To Participate In WWE Crown Jewel

The 16-time world champion set to make first appearance at a Saudi show in five-plus years.

by Scott Carlson
John Cena
WWE.com

John Cena is back with WWE this fall, and it looks like he'll be with the company when they travel to Saudi Arabia in early November.

A promotional video from Riyadh Season 2023 advertised the upcoming Crown Jewel PLE on 4 November and made specific mention that the event would include "the participation of John Cena." (viewable at 8:37) The video does not indicate whether Cena will be competing at Crown Jewel, and WWE has not yet announced that Cena will appear at the event.

As Fightful notes, "Riyadh Season is a large entertainment event in Saudi Arabia that is held during the fall and winter months," including "various festivals, events, and activities."

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Cena returned on the 1 September episode of SmackDown and served as host of Payback, making himself the special guest referee in the Miz/LA Knight match during the PLE.

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While he hasn't had a televised match since returning, Cena has had a couple confrontations with Jimmy Uso, which seemingly would bring him into a feud with Bloodline. On SmackDown Friday night, Solo Sikoa went face-to-face with Cena, and the Greatest of All Time found himself alongside AJ Styles in rebuffing Solo and Jimmy to close the show.

It's worth noting that Roman Reigns is slated to compete at Crown Jewel, which would be his first match since SummerSlam. It was assumed Styles would be served up as the Tribal Chief's opponent, but Cena participating could cloud that picture.

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Fightful notes that Cena is scheduled to appear on WWE programming through October 27.

Cena has competed once at a Saudi Arabia show, defeating Triple H at Greatest Royal Rumble in April 2018. He was one of the wrestlers who refused to go back to Saudi Arabia in October 2018 after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by agents of the Saudi government. He had been scheduled to compete in the WWE World Cup tournament, but he was replaced by Bobby Lashley.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.