WWE wasted no time in picking a new feud for top champ John Cena and fans are loving it.
Cena is arguably enjoying one of the best runs of his career right now, firmly in the thick of his retirement tour, having long since confirmed he’ll be handing up his boots in 2025.
His farewell stretch has already seen the multi-time grappler scale all-new heights.
He won the Elimination Chamber in March to net a WWE Championship match and promptly turned heel – wrestling terminology for a good guy becoming a villain – for the first time in decades.
He aligned with The Rock and vowed to take down fan favourite champ Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania, and delivered on that promise at wrestling’s biggest show this past weekend.
With help from rapper Travis Scott – and, controversially, not The Rock – he used classic wrestling villainy to overcome Rhodes: a low blow and a championship title to the face.
With a record-setting 17th world title reign in the bag, the question on Monday’s Raw was ‘what next?’ – and WWE didn’t wait long to deliver the answer.
Cena kicked off the ever-eventful Raw after WrestleMania by goading fans over his win, only to be interrupted with an attack from one of his oldest rivals in Randy Orton.
The Viper menacingly appeared behind Cena before nailing him with his trademark RKO to send the live T Mobile Arena crowd wild, and a fair few watching at home on Netflix, too.
Orton and Cena have traded blows many a time over the years and the former has made no secret of his desire to work with his fellow veteran again – this time the feud will have a unique twist of a role reversal given the ever-good guy Cena is now playing the villain and fans adore Orton who spent so many years getting booed.
As such, it was no surprise that, as well as the millions watching the segment at home, the attack did great numbers on social media – single image and one video on X garnering over four million views within a few hours.
Ever the devil for detail, though, wrestling fans are celebrating one tiny part of the whole opening portion of Raw that made it – a split-second expletive from Cena that plenty might have missed.
Turning around to see Orton preparing to strike, a panicked 47-year-old simply exclaimed: ‘S***!’ before getting nailed to the mat by the finishing move.
Fans lapped up the fact Cena played up to Orton’s threat, one saying: “The presence of mind for John Cena to yell “s***” before taking the RKO was amazing.
Another applauded: “That’s why John Cena is the GOAT,” another echoing: “Fact!!! Best part of the entire segment.”
Eagerly awaiting the renewed rivalry between the two, another would say: I’m glad the tables have turned and now Randy is the good guy for once. Can’t wait to see what unfolds.”
The emergence of Cena’s next storyline on Raw wasn’t the only major talking point from Raw this week – commentator and former NFL star Pat McAfee was choked out by Gunther in a brutal attack.
McAfee is due to interview The Rock on his show on Tuesday as The Great One’s absence from WWE continues to frustrate fans.
Elsewhere, Becky Lynch turned heel on tag team championship partner Lyra Valkyria just 24 hours after winning the titles at WrestleMania as part of an epic comeback.
