John Cena was officially pulled from the WWE World Cup tournament on RAW this week. Baron Corbin announced that he is being replaced by Bobby Lashley. This comes after several days of reports that Cena had refused to appear at the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia. These rumors turned out to be true.
So what would have happened if Cena participated in the event?
According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, John Cena was originally penciled in to wrestle Rey Mysterio in the first round of the WWE World Cup tournament.
Here is a quote (via Ringside News):
“The original plan was to kind of have the talents mixed up. In fact, at one point we were told that John Cena was going to wrestle Rey Mysterio in the first round and then the decision was made to keep the Raw and SmackDown talents segregated until the final because the final would also serve as sort of a preview of next month’s Survivor Series which will have a Raw vs SmackDown theme.”
Rey will now be facing Randy Orton in the opening round of the tournament.
Your thoughts on Cena pulling out of the show? Let us know in the comment section below.
On a related note, Mark Henry shared his thoughts on Cena choosing not to work the event. You can read Henry’s comments here.