Report: Scrapped Plans For John Cena At WWE WrestleMania 39 Revealed

John Cena will have his first match at WWE's biggest event of the year since 2020 on Saturday, April 1 when he challenges Austin Theory for the United States Championship in the opening contest of WrestleMania 39. Cena returned to WWE on March 6, only a few months after making a separate return in December 2022 to defeat Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn in tag team action.

WWE had a number of different plans for Cena at the Showcase of the Immortals after it emerged internally that the 16-time world champion would be working WrestleMania 39. According to Fightful Select, people within WWE pushed at one point for Cody Rhodes to go one-on-one with Cena but that match was taken off the table after it was decided that Rhodes would face Roman Reigns at the Show of Shows. "Top-level talent" also angled to face Cena at Mania, although it is unknown who those talents were.

It is already known that Cena was at one point scheduled to face Logan Paul at WrestleMania in the autumn of 2022 but WWE moved away from that idea, landing on Austin Theory as Cena's opponent.

Cena's post-WrestleMania 39 plans in WWE are currently unknown. Many expect him to put over Theory at WrestleMania.