WWE WrestleMania 34: Fantasy Booking Two Paths For John Cena

John Cena has an opportunity to appear at WWE WrestleMania 34, but he’ll need to defeat five other men at Fastlane 2018 for the WWE Championship. Here are two possible routes for Cena to ensure he’s on the ‘Mania card this year.

It’s hard to believe that John Cena is actually at risk of being left off the card at WWE WrestleMania 34, because the notion that he won’t weasel his way into some type of match is almost laughable. Cena is by far WWE’s biggest star, and the gap between his brand and the mainstream clout of other superstars is just about as wide as it gets.

Last year, Cena teamed up with future wife Nikki Bella to defeat The Miz and Maryse in a Mixed Tag Match. This year, he’s expected to do something a little more high stakes.

Setting The Scene

After losing in the Elimination Chamber, which Roman Reigns eventually won to punch his ticket to WrestleMania as Brock Lesnar’s challenger for the Universal Championship, Cena was distraught. He appeared on Raw Talk later that night, and even though it seemed impossible and flew in the face of basic logic, his performance was so good that you couldn’t help but “suspend disbelief” and buy into the fact that Cena really might not make it to ‘Mania.

The shot of him sitting outside the Elimination Chamber, locked out with a look of weariness and disappointment etched on his face and the WrestleMania logo looming behind him, was the night’s second-most iconic moment behind Alexa Bliss’s title defense.

One night after his failure to win at the Elimination Chamber, Cena came out on Raw to cut a promo on that very word – failure. But “Mr. Never Give Up” wasn’t about to throw in the towel. Instead, he showed up on SmackDown Live and asked Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon for an opportunity. Not a handout. But an opportunity.

They granted it to him, because, well, who says “no” to John Cena? He faced off against old foe AJ Styles, the current WWE Champion who already has the deck stacked against him with Baron Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn all set to challenge “The Phenomenal One” for the title at Fastlane 2018.

Just like he did at Royal Rumble 2017, Cena defeated Styles, and it took every bit of strength for him to get past one of his greatest adversaries. And now, the WWE Championship match is a Six-Pack Challenge.

The Obvious Route

Cena needs to win the WWE Championship at Fastlane in order to secure a shot at appearing on the WrestleMania card. If he doesn’t win, he’s off of ‘Mania, and that would be a crushing blow to the man’s ego. The “Face That Runs The Place” is the WWE’s most recognizable star, a 16-time champion, and a fixture at WrestleMania.

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So if he can’t win, does Cena start second-guessing himself? Does he wonder if he truly still has it? Does he start to question his place at the top of the hierarchy in WWE? In the back of his mind, he already has to have a great deal of self-doubt, seeing as how he can’t beat Roman Reigns no matter how hard he tries.

The WWE will play up Cena’s determination, which can be coded as desperation on the part of the living legend. Zayn, Owens, and Styles have their own story arc, but let’s be honest, Cena’s acting and stature have made his personal battle and mid-life crisis the far more interesting plotline heading into Fastlane. So use it.

The match itself is brilliant. Since the WWE has been, in a pleasant surprise, going out of their way to make Dolph Ziggler look strong, he starts out hot. Zayn and Owens feel his wrath, and he and Styles briefly form an alliance before Ziggler turns on AJ, leaving us to continue to question just where Dolph lies on the heel/face continuum.

Owens and Zayn work together, and they don’t turn. A turn is teased, but it doesn’t actually happen here; there’s still unfinished business that these two have to accomplish together.

Corbin shines in yet another multi-man match, but nobody takes him seriously as a possible winner. He hits some big moves, including an End of Days to the outside to take out Ziggler, but he just isn’t fast or savvy enough to be a major player in this match.

At the end of the day, it comes down to Cena and Styles. It always does, and it’s no exception here. The two trade counters with big moves, but there’s only one move Cena will go down to here. It’s the Styles Clash, which crushes Cena’s WrestleMania hopes both literally and figuratively.

Styles will defend the WWE Championship at WrestleMania for the first time, earning that dream re-match against 2018 Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura. The crowd goes absolutely bonkers, but in the middle of it all, Cena gingerly sits up and stares vacantly at the WrestleMania sign. Maybe a tear rolls down his cheek. Maybe I read too many sappy novels.

The point is that Cena isn’t going to WrestleMania, and even though Styles vs. Nakamura is the match most people want, the celebration is short-lived. What about Cena?

Gong. The arena goes dark. And no, it isn’t Dolph Ziggler this time. He’s basically half-dead after the electric Six-Pack Challenge.

Yes, it’s the Undertaker, who is here to finish his career with a WrestleMania match that is actually classic. He doesn’t want his last match in the WWE to be a sloppy, boring, mediocre match against Roman Reigns. The Undertaker will finish his career against Cena, and the two will make sure that even the biggest skeptics of the match eventually come to appreciate it.

Cena said that it would be “impossible” for him to face the Undertaker at WrestleMania, but why would he mention ‘Taker on two Raws if the match were “impossible”? Usually, the WWE delivers when they tease something, and Cena’s teased this twice. They may have even leaked a rumor about Cena vs. Rey Mysterio to throw us off the trail.

But if you are a betting man, you’re betting on Cena vs. Taker at WrestleMania 34.

The Path You (Probably) Don’t Want

What if Cena wins?

That’s a question you always have to ask in wrestling, and it’s entirely possible for that to happen at Fastlane. It’s not plausible, but it is possible. You see, Nakamura vs. Styles is almost a no-brainer, especially since it will likely be used to appease the smark-heavy WrestleMania crowd. It can be thought of as a peace offering for Lesnar vs. Reigns Part 2.

Ever since Nakamura won the 2018 Royal Rumble in what was one of the best-booked Rumble matches that the WWE has put together in its history, the expectation has clearly been Nakamura vs. Styles.

If the WWE takes that away from the fans, then the fans will be disappointed. It’s rarely a good idea to take away something good that the fans are expecting.

That said, the WWE can do whatever the heck it wants to do, as evidenced by essentially the entire WrestleMania 33 card. So the fear that I have is that they don’t want to do a rematch of a big NJPW match between Nakamura and Styles. That would be a stupid reason to not do the match, but when it comes to the WWE, “stupid” can be relative (OK, that was probably too harsh).

If that’s the case, then they could have Cena win at Fastlane. Styles has a rematch clause, and Nakamura is still guaranteed a championship match at WrestleMania after winning the Rumble. Instead of getting Styles vs. Nakamura as a straight-up singles match, WWE gives us a little “twist” in their style, adding Cena in the match to make it a Triple Threat.

The good thing about this is that it’s not a straight babyface vs. babyface match. Neither Styles nor Nakamura is turning heel. We’ve already been down that route with Styles, and nobody wants to boo the guy. Meanwhile, I shudder to think how WWE would write Nakamura as a heel.

Cena isn’t a heel, but people will boo him in this match for sure. I mean, it’s a WrestleMania crowd, it’s Cena, and the guy basically begged and scratched his way into this match by using his little “free agent” privilege to get there. And isn’t he basically the SmackDown GM’s brother-in-law (shoutout to Styles on Talking Smack)?

That said, I’m not buying Cena winning. Is he really going to win his record-breaking 17th title at Fastlane? He could, but since he tied the record at the 2017 Royal Rumble without that much fanfare, I have a feeling he’ll win his 17th in grander style. Not that taking it off of Styles at Fastlane after a huge “Will I even make it to ‘Mania?” storyline isn’t big enough, but maybe they draw it out a little more.

Beyond that, even though Cena would play the heel, he’s still a babyface. So that’s three babyfaces in a Triple Threat. And would WWE really dangle Nakamura vs. Styles in front of the fans, only to take it away from them with a month left until WrestleMania? Is that really a good idea, especially after Styles has seemingly sold Vince McMahon on the match being a draw?

Next: Which Superstars Need A Win At Fastlane The Most?

I won’t bother mapping out how the match would go if Cena wins, because I figure any of us who have watched him over the years can get the gist of it. Do I think he’ll win at Fastlane? No. But you should never be surprised if something like that happens.