Cena’s appearance shocks Royal Rumble watchers
I’ve been watching wrestling since I was a kid, dating back to when my father would take me to the matches at the old Southside gym in the days of Tojo, Bearcat and Jackie Fargo.
However, the swerve WWE pulled on the wrestling fans Sunday night at the Royal Rumble had to be the second biggest surprise I’ve ever seen in sports entertainment when former champion John Cena showed up to win the Royal Rumble. By the way, still ranking as the biggest surprise I’ve seen in wrestling was Hulk Hogan turning on his friends and becoming a heel to head the New World Order.
For those who weren’t watching the Rumble, Cena shocked the wrestling world Sunday night by returning many months ahead of schedule after he was sidelined in early October by a torn pectoral muscle. During recent interviews, Cena maintained he wouldn’t even be ready to return for Wrestlemania on March 30. In fact, in most of his recent interviews, Cena had been wearing a sling on his arm to give the illusion he was still recovering from his injury, telling a reporter just two days before the Rumble that it could be up to six months before he returned to wrestling and that he’d likely work on his next movie before returning to action.
The fact of the matter was the injury, sustained when he was performing a simple hip toss during a match on RAW, was not as bad as first believed. The injury itself was very similar, but not as severe, as that which sidelined Edge for five months, also making him abandon his title just as Cena did following his injury.
Anyone who has seen Cena this week can attest he is just as muscular as he was when he left almost four months ago, sporting only a scar near his right arm as testament to his surgery. If you will look at other wrestlers such as Orton, who shrunk down to toothpick when he was out with injury and Bobby Lashley who lost almost 50 pounds since he has been out, you can tell being unable to work out has immediate effects when it comes to appearance. However, Cena hasn’t lost an ounce.
This tells me he has likely been able to train for at least a couple of months, thereby suggesting WWE has known he would be available long before their original forecast of SummerSlam (which isn’t until August). This tells me that in an age of secret inside sources, numerous Internet wrestling sites, and a time when everyone has a camera on their phone, the WWE and John Cena were able to keep his progress and imminent return a surprise. It’s not so much they pulled it off as they pulled it off in a time when eyes are everywhere and surprises are very difficult to pull off.
I read most of the big wrestling sites and there wasn’t one person who even suggested Cena would be in a Rumble, let alone win it and then return to regular action. For the most part, folks I talked to thought it would be Triple H or the Undertaker taking the Rumble. As for the surprise 30th entry, I predicted it would be Ric Flair while others thought it would be the newly re-signed Big Show. Others thought it would be Ron Killings who has reportedly signed a WWE contract after leaving TNA. Still others thought it might be Bobby Lashley who is hedging on whether he wants to return to the squared circle.
The fact WWE was able to spring Cena on us at the Rumble adds a new feeling that the industry still may have tricks up its sleeve. Part of the disinterest, I believe, by the old school fans who turned away after Stone Cold, Hogan and The Rock left the business, came because there are no more surprises because there is always a secret source or a columnist who will ruin the surprise by finding out and exposing the plans weeks if not months earlier. Just look at the return of Y2J recently. I wrote about that more than a month prior seeing it was all over the place.
Bottom line is that I take my hat off to WWE and John Cena for pulling one for the ages on all of us.