WWE Rumor Mill: Possible replacement for John Cena in the WWE World Cup

What's the story?

John Cena has refused to be part of Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia on Friday, which means that WWE will have to write him out of the show in the storyline, and a replacement could have already been found.

In case you didn't know...

John Cena was one of the first names to qualify for the first ever WWE World Cup and was set to go head to head with some of the biggest names in the company including Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy, The Miz, and Seth Rollins.

Given the controversy that surrounds Crown Jewel at present, Cena has made the decision that he will not be joining his fellow wrestling stars in The Middle East, which means that the company now have this last week to replace him.

The heart of the matter

There are a number of names who could replace Cena and interestingly one name seems to have been pushed to the top of the pile.

Wrestlevotes recently reported that Bobby Lashley is the expected name to be announced this week on Raw when the company finds a way to write Cena out of the show and push Lashley into his place.

I know injury concerns have been making the rounds, but I’m hearing Bobby Lashley is John Cena’s replacement in the World Cup at #WWECrownJewel
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) October 27, 2018

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Interestingly, Lashley is reported to be working injured and lost a match to Finn Balor in less than two minutes last week, so it's unknown how WWE is going to find a way for Lashley to qualify for a tournament that is supposed to crown "the best in the world" given his recent run of form.

What's next?

It's the go-home episode of Raw ahead of Crown Jewel this weekend which means that the replacement has to happen this week otherwise WWE will have to revert back to their usual format of announcing it on Social Media instead.