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What's the story?
John Cena's big Survivor Series return was pretty uneventful. He was in the match and lasted a fair amount of time. In the process, he had a couple spots, but in the end, Cena's involvement in the match wasn't all that crucial.
Many fans were left wondering why Big Match John was in the match at all to a certain degree. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter might have some clarification because in the end the men's Survivor Series elimination match wasn't supposed to be about Cena.
In case you didn't know...
Few WWE Superstars have made an impression on the business like John Cena but as time goes on and his involvement with top storylines diminishes the fulltime players are going to get more of a spotlight.
It turns out that due to Cena's insane work schedule full of extracurricular activities and exciting media opportunities is keeping him from some of the top stories in WWE. But Vince McMahon and Company still want to use him as much as possible.
The heart of the matter
The Men's Survivor Series Elimination Match was a huge chaotic affair and at points, it was hard to follow all of the action. But one thing that was made clear was Braun Strowman was being pushed to the moon.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the match's purpose was to push other storylines that didn't involve John Cena. In all reality, the match was all about the Raw brand's team and getting Braun Strowman over. This is evident by the fact that Braun Strowman eliminated Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, and Randy Orton with his destructive running powerslam.
Triple H's interaction with Kurt Angle and Strowman were also paramount. In fact the only person Braun Strowman didn't eliminate before going into the home stretch of the match was John Cena who met his fate after an Olympic Slam from Kurt Angle and a Coup De Grace from Finn Balor.
What's next?
With John Cena's incredibly busy schedule he will be tied up for a good portion of time to come. His next scheduled appearance will be at the WWE house show in Madison Square Garden on December 26th.
But don't dismiss Big Match John just yet because he's not retired, he's just working the dates he can to coincide with his incredibly demanding schedule
Author's take
John Cena really didn't need to be in the Men's Survivor Series Match and as Meltzer noted he could have probably been best served as a special referee which was apparently his original placement on the card.
