John Cena Series Now Filming, WWE & AEW Ratings Delayed, WrestleMania Merchandise, Retribution Theme

By Marc Middleton

- As seen above, WWE Music has released the "Shut 'Em Down" theme song for RETRIBUTION. The song was done by Def Rebel, and can also be found on iTunes, Spotify and Apple Music.

- The final viewership for last Friday's WWE SmackDown will be delayed until tomorrow afternoon due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Tonight's RAW viewership will be delayed until Wednesday, Tuesday's Impact Wrestling viewership will be delayed until Thursday, and the WWE NXT and AEW Dynamite numbers will be delayed until Friday.

- WWE Shop has released new merchandise for the next three years of WrestleMania events, as seen below. You can click here to save on your WWE Shop purchases.

WWE announced over the weekend that WrestleMania 37 will be held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on April 10 and April 11 of this year, WrestleMania 38 will be held on April 3, 2022 from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, and WrestleMania 39 will be held at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on April 2, 2023.

- Director James Gunn revealed on Instagram that production began this past weekend on John Cena's DC series "Peacemaker" for HBO Max. Filming is now underway in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Gunn wrote, "5 months ago, while quarantining, I was almost done editing #TheSuicideSquad & had just turned in a draft of #GuardiansoftheGalaxyVol3 & was awaiting notes. Normally I would try & take a break during this time & go on vacation. But with Covid that wasn't happening. So, having nothing else to do, I started writing a TV series, #Peacemaker, mostly for fun, as I didn't believe it was ever going to happen. I wrote a whole first season in 8 weeks. And now, here I am in my trailer, on the first day of shooting. Life is surreal. Let's go (& go safely!)"

The Suicide Squad spin-off will explore the origins of the character that Cena is playing, The Peacemaker, in the 2021 Suicide Squad film. Season 1 will feature 8 episodes. Cena is also serving as an Executive Producer for the new HBO Max series, along with Gunn and Peter Safran, who is a producer of The Suicide Squad. Gunn is writing all 8 episodes and will direct several of them.

Cena's character, which was created by Joe Gill and Pat Boyette and first appeared in the Fightin' 5 series originally owned by Charlton Comics, is a man who believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he has to kill to get it. The new HBO Max series will extend the world that Gunn is creating for the feature film, which is scheduled to be released in theaters on August 6 of this year.

Cena said in a press release issued back in September, "I have said before that it has been a tremendous honor and an incredible opportunity to be part of The Suicide Squad and to work with James on what is going to be a fantastic movie. I am unbelievably excited to have the chance to team up with him again for Peacemaker. We can't wait for fans to see this."

Cena appeared in WWE's WrestleMania announcement video this past weekend, but has been out of action since losing to "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt in the Firefly Fun House Match at WrestleMania 36.

You can see Cena's character for The Peacemaker below, in a promo that was released this past fall, along with the Instagram post from Gunn:

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