John Cena WWE Battleground Match: Daniel Bryan Confirms Cena's Flag Match with Rusev
After his WrestleMania 33 appearance, John Cena returned to the WWE ring during its Independence Day celebration where he addressed his "free agent" status and learned who his next opponent will be.
During the Fourth of July episode of WWE SmackDown Live, Cena reportedly gave a lengthy speech to tell the audience that he is not a part-time wrestler. Instead, he should be considered as an all-time wrestler.
He also revealed that his free agent status means that even if he is not regularly seen on the ring, he can still defeat all the top contenders on the Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live roster, including Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Jinder Mahal, and Randy Orton.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
But Cena's explosive speech was suddenly interrupted by an unexpected appearance of his former nemesis, Rusev, who was last seen during March's Fastlane event. The Bulgarian professional wrestler mocked Cena with an anti-American speech, which prompted the 13-time WWE Champion to challenge the Smackdown wrestler for a flag match.
Rusev opted to decline Cena's challenge, but SmackDown Live general manager Daniel Bryan later announced on Twitter that the two returning wrestlers will face each other in a flag match that will happen at the WWE Battleground on Sunday, July 23, at the Wells Fargo Center in Pennsylvania, at 8 p.m. EDT.
According to reports, Cena had to lie low from the pro wrestling matches to work on several movie projects like "The Wall," "Daddy's Home 2," "Ferdinand," and "The Pact," while Rusev spent some time to recuperate after going through a shoulder surgery back in March.
Meanwhile, the Independence Day SmackDown Live event opened with a qualifying match where AJ Styles won against Chad Gable. This means that Styles will be the number one contender to challenge Kevin Owens for the WWE United States Championship title match.
