Ranking All 24 WWE Debuts & Returns In 2023
7. John Cena
Technically, John Cena shouldn’t qualify for this list since
he’s always been under WWE contract, but given how long it’s been since he had a
run involving multiple matches (nearly five years), his return to the company
this fall deserves consideration.
Cena wrestled a poorly received match against Austin Theory at WrestleMania 39, losing to him in a United States Championship match that did him no favors. When Cena returned to WWE this fall during the actor’s strike, it wasn’t just a vanity project to keep him on television, but an opportunity to wash that bad taste out of everyone’s mouth.
Although Cena only wrestled two matches during this two-month run, he spent a considerable amount of his airtime doing something he never really did with Theory: putting someone else over. He gave LA Knight his due and endorsed him as a guy to challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
Cena also put over Solo Sikoa as a killer, allowing the Samoan to repeatedly spike him into a pool of quivering jelly on his way out of the company at Crown Jewel. That’s a feather in Solo’s cap in a way that it never was for Theory.
For the future Hall-of-Famer to come back and give two main
roster stars a pretty good rub, that’s a really successful return.