John Cena Returns To The Ring After WWE SmackDown, More Dark Matches Held For Live Crowd

By Marc Middleton

John Cena returned to the ring after last night's WWE SmackDown went off the air at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio.

The dark main event held last night saw Cena, Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio team up for a six-man win over WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns and SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos.

There was no physical interaction between Reigns and Cena, and Reigns didn't do much wrestling at all. A fan in attendance noted that both of The Usos were pinned for the finish. Reigns only got involved when he hit Rey with a steel chair. He then left the ring when Cena took the chair and confronted him with it.

This was Cena's first match since the Firefly Fun House match loss to "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 36 in 2020, which was a cinematic bout, and his first match in front of a live crowd since the Fatal 4 Way he worked on the January 14, 2019 RAW show with Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre and winner Finn Balor.

As noted, Cena kicked off Friday's SmackDown on FOX broadcast. You can click here for details on what happened on the show with Cena, Reigns and Balor.

WWE also held a six-man dark match for the live crowd in Cleveland while Chad Gable vs. Otis and Carmella vs. SmackDown Women's Champion Bianca Belair aired from the Rolling Loud festival in Miami. The match saw Cesaro, King Shinsuke Nakamura and Big E defeat Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode and WWE Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews. There was a segment that aired on SmackDown with these six Superstars brawling in the ring before a commercial break. This was done to set up the match for the live crowd.

WWE NXT Superstars were brought in for the pre-show dark matches held before SmackDown hit the air in Cleveland. Odyssey Jones defeated Austin Theory in the first match, while Aliyah defeated Indi Hartwell in the second match.

You can see several clips and photos from Friday's dark matches below:

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