WWE SmackDown: 4 Possible Opponents For John Cena

Mustafa Ali

It seems like WWE are serious about building 205 Live “call-up” Mustafa Ali into a star on Tuesday nights, as Ali pinned the WWE Champion just one week ago in a tag team match in the main event of SmackDown Live. He also defeated Andrade “Cien” Almas on Christmas Day in convincing fashion, following up a sweet DDT with an even sweeter 0-5-4 to seal the deal.

If Ali faces John Cena, there’d be positives and negatives to this matchup. On the one hand, it’d be awesome to see Ali get the opportunity to face the biggest name in wrestling. But on the other hand, Ali is on a collision course for the WWE Championship after pinning Bryan and later getting attacked by “The Grinch” of WWE, so he’s one of the last people fans want to see taking a loss, even to someone as vaunted as Cena.

There are ways of protecting Ali from a loss, of course, including calling for a cheap disqualification finish, which could get more heat on someone like Bryan.

Plus, the best way for Ali’s star power to be boosted and for his in-ring work to be tested is a match against Cena, who has faced so many up-and-coming stars that he has become the standard for breakout wrestlers.  Ali is incredible and would pass this test with flying colors, especially with the crowd support he’d get in a match like this.