Tonight's episode of RAW opened with another scathing promo from John Cena, which saw the 17-time WWE Champion tear into the fans in attendance.
Reminding everyone that he has only 27 dates left - appearances, not matches - Cena reiterated his vow to walk away from WWE as the "last real WWE Champion" (confirming he intends to retire with the title in his possession).
The RAW after WrestleMania crowd is always a little strange, and a mention of Cody Rhodes drew boos, something Cena chastised the fans for. Perhaps that's why WWE has decided against giving the American Nightmare a rematch for the time being.
Instead, it seems WWE is running back the clock to revisit one of Cena's greatest rivalries. As Cena posed with the Undisputed WWE Championship, Randy Orton appeared in the ring and hit Cena with an RKO Outta Nowhere.
He then stood tall with the title, laying the groundwork for him and Cena to go to war for the final time.
Interestingly, most fans hated seeing these two square off the last time they shared a WWE ring, but likely feel different now than they did when Orton unified the WWE Championship and WWE World Heavyweight Championship by defeating the Leader of the Cenation.
The hope had been that CM Punk might be Cena's first championship challenger, but it is only April, and there's plenty of time for WWE to give us another Summer of Punk.
Last August, Orton shared his desire to do battle with Cena before he retires at the end of 2025:
"I would love to work with the man and have a couple TVs or more to set it up and really make something special of it. Because no matter how much we faced each other back in the day, almost to the point where people were sick of it, when people look back and think about it, they’re like, ‘Oh, Orton-Cena, wow. It was this amazing rivalry.’"
"To have that call back, that nostalgia concept, and to do it for the fans who I feel like they’d appreciate it, and we go out there and have some fun and tear the place down. I would love to do that, but I guess, according to John, we’re just gonna let it, you know, if it organically happens, it’ll happen, but I think it’ll happen. I think it’s in the cards."
You can check out some highlights from RAW's opening in the X posts below.