Like a breath of fresh air, John Cena was back on WWE programming during the final 2022 episode of Friday Night Smackdown. The WWE Legend John Cena had not only returned to be just on TV but he wrestled on the December 30 episode of SmackDown that took place from his current hometown of Tampa, Florida at the Amalie Arena.
WWE benefitted from this appearance to a great extent when it comes to the numbers. That episode of Smackdown drew 2.63 million viewers with a 0.84 rating in the 18-49 demo, which is up from the previous week’s 2.38 million viewers with a 0.55 rating.
Thus, it saw the highest SmackDown viewership in over 2 years. The particular John Cena and Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn quarter-hour viewership were at its peak with 2.83 million viewers. These were also the highest quarter-hour numbers for any wrestling show in the USA in 2022.
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According to the recent reports of Wrestling Observer, the wrestlers involved in this match had to be extra careful with John Cena, as he’s a Hollywood star and he can’t afford to pick up any injuries while he’s filming shows and movies or else it could cause delays in productions or filming purposes.
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John Cena performed only a few stunts during his return
As expected, the movie star was well protected in this match as he was featured in only a handful amount of spots during the match. Mostly, Kevin Owens carried forward the match on his behalf. This also protected John Cena from showing any sort of ring rust conditions as he hadn’t been in the ring in over a year.
In the end, Owens picked up the win for his team after hitting Sami with a Stunner. This was expected as he needed to pick up momentums on his corner ahead of his Undisputed WWE Universal Title match against Roman Reigns scheduled for Royal Rumble 2023.
There was a push for John Cena to hit his finisher, the Attitude Adjustment, as the broadcaster FOX heavily promoted his return during NFL games. This was the reason that he ended up hitting the AA on Roman Reigns in the finishing sequence of the match that the audience loved. The current assumption is that the 16-time champion should be back for an appearance at Wrestlemania 39.
