As seen on WWE Monday Night RAW this week, John Cena teased a match against The Undertaker. Cena said that he was looking for a path to WrestleMania and had issued a challenge to The Undertaker, but WWE officials told him that it’s impossible to make the match.
“I have figured out that I need to stand in this ring and do something that I should have done a long time ago, and that is to put out a WrestleMania challenge to the Undertaker!” Cena exclaimed to a huge pop from the crowd. “You want WrestleMania? That IS WrestleMania! And that match is not happening. I don’t make the matches. As obvious as this seems, I’ve been told that the match is not happening because that match, once again, is impossible.”
It seemed unlikely that WWE would have the match mentioned on live television, only for it not to happen. However, Justin Barrasso reported at Sports Illustrated on Wednesday that Cena will be facing Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania after it was ruled that The Undertaker will not be working the show. It was added that Mysterio was backstage at SmackDown Live on Tuesday and is reportedly finalizing a deal with WWE by the end of the week. Mysterio was backstage at the SmackDown live event this past Monday in San Diego and posted a photo after the show with Sin Cara.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest issue of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the plan for WrestleMania is still Cena vs. The Undertaker as of this past Monday night. He noted that he hasn’t heard of any changes in plans since, and that the only thing that would prevent that match would be Taker pulling out of the show for some reason, like getting injured during training. It was noted that Cena’s promo was to defer attention from the dream match until after he works the SmackDown Fastlane pay-per-view.
Cena appeared on SmackDown Live on Tuesday night and defeated WWE Champion AJ Styles in a non-title match to earn a spot in the main event of Fastlane on Sunday, March 11th. Cena, Styles, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler will compete in a Six-Pack Challenge for the WWE Championship.
As for Mysterio, Meltzer noted that he has no deal with WWE, but has a meeting with Triple H scheduled very soon. A deal is reportedly dependant on Triple H clearing his schedule, as he is not looking to work full-time. There are also some other details that need to be ironed out, like opportunities outside of wrestling for Mysterio.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
