Best Potential Raw & Smackdown Live Summer Feuds for John Cena

On the July 4th episode of Smackdown Live John Cena will make his anticipated return. Absent since his memorable moment at Wrestlemania 33, Cena will likely start the build for his summer feud. Big Match John’s feud is likely to be a high profile one which is equally as high in quality. The interesting caveat to Cena’s return however, is his status as a free agent.

What exactly this means is still up in the air. However logic dictates it means Cena will begin to appear on not only Smackdown Live, but also RAW. This sets up a plethora of exciting feuds and matches which are sure to create buzz this summer. Fresh rivalries and dream matches always on the mind when you talk about John Cena. With his return imminent, the buzz within WWE through July to Summerslam will be huge. Undoubtedly superstars would love to take the opportunity to collide with the Face that runs the Place. Whether it be at the Biggest Party of the Summer or beforehand.

With that, this article takes a look at the best possible feuds for the Summer for John Cena from both Smackdown Live and RAW.

Speculation on John Cena Facing Roman Reigns at SummerSlam

Following the announcement of John Cena being a “free agent” and appearing on both RAW and SmackDown, there was a lot of online speculation that the company may be setting something up between Cena and Roman Reigns for this year’s SummerSlam event. However, we can now confirm doesn’t appear to be the case.

Dave Meltzer was asked on the latest installment of Wrestling Observer Radio about the speculation between a match between the two at this year’s blockbuster summer event. Meltzer said that he was told that Cena will not be Reigns opponent for the event.

As previously noted, there is speculation that Cena will face Jinder Mahal for the WWE Title at this year’s SummerSlam event, despite Cena appearing for both brands moving forward.

Major Update on Braun Strowman’s Return to WWE

Braun Strowman has been cleared to return to action after suffering an elbow injury last month.

PWInsider reports that Strowman was cleared to return about a week ago. The belief is that he will return to television as soon as creative can fit him back into a storyline.

As previously reported, the “six months” recovery time that WWE reported was a work to make Strowman’s quick return look more impressive. Strowman was originally planned to face Brock Lesnar at the upcoming Great Balls of Fire event, but that match may be taking place at SummerSlam instead. We will keep you updated.

Triple H Announces NXT Takeover: Brooklyn Event

Triple H announced on Twitter that NXT “Takeover: Brooklyn III” will take place Saturday, August 19th at the Barclays Center during SummerSlam weekend.

NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn returns to Barclays Center on Aug. 19

For the third year in a row, Brooklyn, N.Y., will host NXT’s hottest event of the summer.

TakeOver: Brooklyn III comes to the Barclays Center Saturday, Aug. 19, one night before WWE SummerSlam emanates from the same building.

WWE COO Triple H made the announcement on Twitter:

Tickets for the WWE Network special event go on sale this Friday, June 9, at 10 a.m. ET, exclusively at NXTtickets.com.

NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn has played home to such historic showdowns as Finn Bálor vs. Kevin Owens, Bayley vs. Sasha Banks and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Samoa Joe in previous years. There’s no telling what huge matches will go down this August, but this much is certain: Takeover: Brooklyn III will have the entire WWE Universe buzzing!

Don’t miss out on witnessing the action live in person — secure your ticket this Friday.

Matt Hardy on Feud With Bray Wyatt — It Would Be Amazing!

The Hardy Boys spoke with Sport Bible for a new interview. Here are some highlights:

Matt on seeing Vince McMahon for the first time after returning: “It was cool, it was very quick – the first time we saw him [Vince] physically face-to-face was in ‘Gorilla Position’ right before we went out and it was ‘Hey, good to have you home, hug, hug’ and then it was out to the ring to go and partake in a ladder match.”

Their favorite TLC Match:

Jeff: “I would say the spear [from Edge], Wrestlemania 17 because I had always wanted to hang from those things that held those titles and we finally got to do it. Just to see that come from my mind to reality was breathtaking, and for it to be so good, it’s one of the biggest things that stands out to me – that spear. I would say [it is] one of my craziest stunts for sure because that was a pretty long fall, but then the Swanton I did on Randy Orton years ago back in about 08 or 09, it was like 32 or 33 feet – that was pretty massive so that’s up there with the swantons but all the TLC matches I hold dearly and always will.”

Matt: “I liked the first tag team ladder match we had, the first TLC match we had in theory was the triple threat ladder match at Wrestlemania in 2000 – it was a great match, it was a spectacle but looking back because I’m older, there’s a lot of things that bother me from a psychology standpoint but we were just three young teams, it was our first Wrestlemania and we went out there and they said ‘Don’t worry about time, timing’s not an issue, we know you guys are doing a ton of crazy things, don’t rush’. We were literally given a spot on Wrestlemania and told not to worry about time – that doesn’t happen, that’s not a real deal. That match was great, it was a spectacle and one of my favourites. Summerslam that year it got a little better, I thought it was strong from a storytelling and psychology standpoint, and then I thought Wrestlemania 17 was even better – I thought it continued to improve and evolve as we got better.”

Eventually working in singles competition:

Jeff: “I think the brotherly feuding might be over, I don’t think people really want to see us fight each other but when you think back to the beauty of the Final Deletion, if ever something like that comes into play again then that’s the only way I see us doing something like that but it’s inevitable that we’ll go do our solo things before we’re done but right now it’s all about the tag teams.”

Matt: “Speaking from my perspective, I think right now our goal, especially starting, coming back, being reintroduced to the WWE universe after being away for a substantial amount of time, really was to be a tag team – we became famous for being a tag team. I think down the road there will be a potential for both of us doing our own things; we’re both strong singles personalities in many ways, and I think as performers we’ve grown as we’ve got older; we’ve got smarter. Just for starters, if we get to where we need to be, I think ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy against Bray Wyatt would be an amazing deal, and you look at him [Jeff] – him vs Seth Rollins, him vs Finn Balor, either one of us vs Roman Reigns – there’s a lot of cool, interesting combinations of guys who became stars in the last five or six years that we’ve never worked against, it’s totally like a fresh slate. So there’s a lot of potential forces as singles competitors also.”

WWE Reportedly Holding a Meeting to Discuss Universal Title Plans

Dave Meltzer mentioned on today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Live that plans Braun Strowman and the WWE Universal Championship would be discussed in a meeting today with WWE officials. The meeting was supposed to take place yesterday, but for unknown reasons it didn’t happen.

Meltzer mentioned that the company is hopeful that Strowman can be cleared to return to action by July. The feeling is if he can only be out of action for a month, the scheduled bout against Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Title won’t have to be put off. If Braun is unable to return in time for the July pa-per-view, Finn Balor and Seth Rollins would be the top candidates as possible replacements at the Great Balls of Fire event. Braun vs. Brock would then be pushed back to the SummerSlam event.