Orlando(Florida): WWE WrestleMania 33 featured signature moments for Roman Reigns, who defeated The Undertaker, and John Cena, who got engaged to Nikki Bella.
Now, WWE’s two most polarizing stars find their careers moving in complete opposite directions. Cena appears to have one foot out of the door while Reigns can finally and officially call himself “the face of WWE.”
As Cena alluded to during his stellar promo on The Miz on last week’s SmackDown, “The Champ” is set to take yet another hiatus from WWE after WrestleMania 33. In what will be Cena’s fourth lengthy hiatus since the fall of 2015, he will be missing at least two months following the pay-per-view in order to film the movie “The Pact,” which will be one of his biggest movie roles yet to go along with his upcoming foray into animated movies with his role in the soon-to-be-released Ferdinand.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t WrestlingInc), Cena “is currently off advertising for SmackDown events beginning the week after WrestleMania, including the June 8th Money in the Bank pay-per-view from St. Louis.” Pro Wrestling Sheet also reports that Nikki Bella could be done as a full-time performer after WrestleMania 33 as well.
Sure sounds like two people preparing for life beyond WWE, doesn’t it?
Especially after a real-life engagement at WrestleMania 33, Cena now has a number of reasons to take one more step away from WWE. Even though he has long been the company’s top merchandise mover and has a tremendously positive effect on live event attendance, he is no longer around enough to be considered the guy in WWE.
That honor now belongs to Reigns. “The Big Dog” is not a good guy. He’s not a bad guy. He’s the guy.
Reigns did the unthinkable and defeated The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33, and the idea behind Reigns’ controversial victory was for it to serve as a “passing of the torch” from The Undertaker. But as true as that may be, WrestleMania 33 was much more so a passing of the torch from Cena to Reigns.
Cena found himself involved in a midcard match made for Total Bellas while Reigns battled a man who has become synonymous with WrestleMania and whose match at the show is one of its biggest attractions every year. If that isn’t a sign that Reigns is taking over as WWE’s No. 1 guy, then what it is?