Rumor Roundup: Management wants to 'refine' and repackage top star, former WWE Champion heading to NXT? Details on plan for John Cena and Roman Reigns (17th August)

#2 WWE's plans for John Cena and Roman Reigns' SummerSlam feud

Source in creative said an objective for tonight’s SmackDown was to really amp up the rivalry between Reigns & Cena. The match will sell itself on names alone, but some feel the build has been lackluster.

— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) August 13, 2021

The Universal Champion Roman Reigns and his challenger John Cena verbally bashed each other this week on WWE SmackDown. WrestleVotes has reported that the plan behind the segment was to build more hype for the SummerSlam match between the two former WWE Champions.

Source in creative said an objective for tonight’s SmackDown was to really amp up the rivalry between Reigns & Cena. The match will sell itself on names alone, but some feel the build has been lackluster.

The segment saw both men taking some personal digs at each other. Though Cena outshined The Tribal Chief during their promo battle, Reigns played the role of an arrogant heel with great panache.

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#1 Who was responsible for the promo battle between Cena and Reigns?

Dave Meltzer revealed that Roman Reigns and John Cena were given considerable freedom by WWE to build their promos, and there was no script given to the iconic superstars.

Fightful reported that Jamie Noble was the producer for the iconic promo battle between Cena and Reigns on SmackDown. It was also revealed that Paul Heyman also had a big role to play.

"Jamie Noble produced the opening segment that featured John Cena and Roman Reigns or at least was listed as such. It’s worth noting that Paul Heyman has also had heavy influence over Reigns’ stories, and Reigns and Cena have a significant more amount of freedom over their segments than most."

John Cena will challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam on August 21 2021.