Last week’s WWE SmackDown was headlined by John Cena returning to the ring to team with Kevin Owens for a win over Sami Zayn and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
This was Cena’s first match in more than one year. It also kept Cena’s streak alive of working a match every year since his main roster debut in 2002.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that everything was said to be very carefully done as far as the in-ring work went. The report added that Cena was very protected due to how long he’d been out of the ring.
The finish of the bout saw Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment on Reigns, while Owens hit the Stunner on Zayn for the pin.
There was a feeling that Cena needed to hit his finisher and look strong as FOX was heavily pushing the match during their NFL games.
The show averaged 2.629 million viewers on FOX, and in the all-important 18-49 demographic, the show did a 0.64 rating. It was the highest total viewership since Christmas Day 2020, a show with an inflated number because it had an NFL game lead-in and the highest key demo since September 2021.
As previously reported by WrestlingNews.co, Cena is scheduled to wrestle Logan Paul at WrestleMania 39.
