 |
| Cena will be back for SummerSlam Photo Credit: WWE.com |
John Cena, whose nose was severely broken thanks to an errant knee from Seth Rollins on the July 27 episode of RAW, has been cleared to wrestle at SummerSlam. He made the announcement on last night's Tough Enough, oddly enough. He will defend his United States Championship against Rollins' WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a Winner Take All match that will more than likely serve as the second match down from the Undertaker/Brock Lesnar main event. Cena has missed the last two weeks of WWE television, but he is expected back at RAW on August 17 for the final edition before SummerSlam.
Cena had been in the midst of the best in-ring year of his career before the injury, wrestling several long, pay-per-view-quality matches on RAW as part of the United States Championship Open Challenge. The move to put him against Rollins, especially with both titles on the line, seems like that run may be coming to an end. If plans were in place to get the US Title off Cena before SummerSlam, they were obviously scuttled thanks to the injury. Now it remains to be seen whether the winner of the match will actually leave with both titles, as Sheamus and his Money in the Bank briefcase loom. The cash-in was teased on Monday, but either thanks to some jitters on everyone's part or Randy Orton missing a cue, it was horribly botched.
I get the feeling, however, that if anything happens, Rollins will end up retaining at least the WWE Title. I feel like if Cena was going to win the strap at SummerSlam, more of a big deal would have been made about him attempting to tie Ric Flair's record for World Championships. Either way, the match will happen as scheduled. Cena will finally get a chance to participate in the build for it this Monday. I'm hoping that it ends up being a bit less puerile than what Rollins had in store Monday with that Conan O'Brien-inspired "interview."