John Cena Hints At Royal Rumble Plans, WWE Departure Not In Sight

John Cena continued his World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) commitments on Sunday night with a show in Tampa, Florida, but before the event, he revealed what it was like to be back in the ring and that it was his decision to return despite still having multiple film commitments on his plate.

The 16-time WWE champion made his return to in-ring competition after almost two months at a live event in New York City on Boxing Day. He is scheduled to appear in multiple events until mid-January.

Cena’s absence was due to his film shooting commitments in China and traveling the globe to promote his recently released movie – Bumblebee. He revealed that the WWE hierarchy was ready to give him time off to recover and return only after finishing his 2019 movie commitments, but Cena chose to return to the ring due to his love for wrestling and the WWE Universe.

“It’s awesome. It’s the best,” Cena said Saturday, as quoted on mandatory.com. I filmed a movie in China that ended shortly after Thanksgiving and I landed in America and started global promotion for Bumblebee a day and a half later. So, I went to Berlin and I went to the UK and I went to Hong Kong and then I went to China, pretty much going all over and finished that four days before Christmas right when Bumblebee came out."

“I had a choice to make and a choice WWE was totally cool with. I’m very fortunate to be able to shoot my next project in Vancouver on January 20th and they said, ‘Well, you’ve been working hard. Why don’t you just take a month to breathe and then do this movie and show up after the movie’s done?’ I said, ‘I could do that or I could come back to WWE,’” he added.

Cena, who is arguably one of the most popular and loved professional wrestlers also hinted he will not be part of WWE’s first pay-per-view of 2019 – Royal Rumble – after revealing that he will travel to Canada seven days prior to the event to begin shooting a film.

The recent winner of the Muhammad Ali Legacy award also apologized to the WWE Universe, but made it clear that he has no plans of quitting wrestling any time in the near future. He is likely to, however, be on a part-time contract with the WWE for the foreseeable future and could be ready to make an impact at the franchise’s flagship pay-per-view event WrestleMania in April.

“So, starting December 26th at Madison Square Garden, I was able to return to a WWE ring and tonight we’re here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and we’re able to do the same thing. I’ll be in Tampa, Florida live tomorrow night performing in a WWE ring as well and then next week I’m gonna switch. I have no brand allegiance…it’s gonna be RAW and the week after that it will be RAW and as soon as RAW is done I’ll head to Canada and hopefully start something else,” the 16-time champion explained.

“But I made a promise to the WWE Universe that I would never leave and I know it’s really difficult to understand because I’m not there every week and it truly breaks my heart, but there are some wonderful opportunities and with those opportunities come more acceptance from the world of what we do here in WWE and if you listen to anything I say to anyone, first and foremost is what I do here because what I do here is what I love and I’m so very proud that WWE,” he added.