Former WWE champion, not Cody Rhodes, to challenge John Cena after Randy Orton, predicts analyst

John Cena is set to fight Randy Orton this Saturday at WWE Backlash. Analyst Sam Roberts recently predicted The Franchise Player’s next challenger after The Viper.

After dethroning Cody Rhodes at this year’s WrestleMania, Cena fell victim to an RKO on Monday Night RAW. On the following SmackDown, The Franchise Player had a heated confrontation with Orton. Although the 48-year-old attempted to get a cheap shot on his Backlash opponent, he was laid out with another RKO. Despite this, Roberts speculated on his Notsam Wrestling podcast that the 17-time World Champion would emerge victorious this Saturday in St. Louis.

The 41-year-old analyst proposed a scenario where LA Knight would confront Cena on the first SmackDown episode after Backlash, leading to a match between the two later this month at Saturday Night’s Main Event:

“I have LA Knight vs. John Cena happening at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Tampa. I think that’s like a perfect match where you don’t have to make it like we’re selling out a stadium match, but it does become this fantasy match, where it’s like ‘Whoa, we’re gonna get to see LA Knight. He gets a title shot. He gets to fight John Cena. It’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.’ Feels like a draw to me for NBC. And you can also have John Cena beat LA Knight clean at Saturday Night’s Main Event,” he said. [From 28:11 to 28:45]

Ex-WWE writer thinks Cody Rhodes will end John Cena’s title reign

On his Wrestling with Freddie podcast, former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. discussed Cody Rhodes’ defeat against John Cena at WrestleMania. He claimed it gives The American Nightmare another hill to climb.

Meanwhile, Prinze Jr. predicted that the two superstars would square off again at SummerSlam, where Rhodes would dethrone The Franchise Player:

“This gives Cody another hill to climb because they’re gonna wrestle again at SummerSlam and Cody’s gonna win the title back and get it back because he’s the new John Cena. So, he’s getting it back,” he said.

The American Nightmare has been absent since his loss at the Show of Shows. Wrestling veteran Stevie Richards recently explained why taking Rhodes off TV was a correct decision.

Please credit Notsam Wrestling and give an H/T to Sportskeeda if you use the above transcription.

About the author

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alt=”Ahmed Hamdy” height=”72″ width=”72″>

Ahmed Hamdy is an Egyptian journalist with a decade of experience in sports journalism, specializing in pro wrestling and football.

Hamdy kicked off his career as a sports reporter for Al-Ahram Weekly. He then became a producer/reporter for Mal Masr TV program on the Egyptian channel ON TV. In the following years, Hamdy worked as a reporter for several international news outlets, including Deutsche Welle (Germany), As-Safir (Lebanon), and Al-Monitor (U.S.A).

In 2014, Hamdy joined leading Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm, where he is now a Senior Sports Editor. In addition to all that, the Egyptian also worked as a sports editor for Sport360 and feature writer for Manshoor.com.

Hamdy has covered several sports events throughout the past few years, including WWE’s tour in Egypt and the 2019 African Cup of Nations.

The experienced journalist joined Sportskeeda’s pro wrestling feature writers team in early 2021. Since then, his work has managed to get millions of reads.

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