John Cena Returning To WWE Raw Next Week—What Will He Announce?

John Cena is making his highly anticipated return to WWE programming.

The company revealed on this week's episode of Monday Night Raw that the 17-time world champion will appear on next week's episode of Raw on Netflix, which is the "go-home" show to the Crown Jewel PLE. Following the announcement of Cena's return, the legendary star took to X, formerly Twitter, to tease that he would be making yet another blockbuster announcement on Raw from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn:

After retiring in December 2025, Cena last appeared on WWE programming at Backlash in May, where he made a surprise appearance to announce the creation of "The John Cena Classic." At the time, Cena revealed a few details regarding plans for the event, including:

A format pitting rising NXT stars against established main roster performers

The creation of a "John Cena Classic Championship" belt

Fan voting to determine the champion, so that, in a unique twist, a WWE superstar could lose his or her match and still win the John Cena Classic

Cena himself has repeatedly admitted that he isn't sure how the John Cena Classic will work or if it will work at all. Back in September, he told WrestleRant (h/t Ringside News ), "Even with the John Cena Classic, I'm still swinging big. Like, I'm in the clubhouse, dude. I'm retired. I made it. But I want to put my name on an event that hopefully is a way to to bring people together and and I'm really excited about it and it also might fail."

Although WWE has revealed remarkably few details about the event, a brainchild of Cena himself, there has long been speculation that it will function somewhat similarly to Cena's retirement show. Last December on Saturday Night's Main Event , Cena lost to Gunther in his final match and also used that stage to highlight young up-and-coming talents, including Je'Von Evans, TNA's Leon Slater, Oba Femi and Sol Ruca.

Those stars all benefitted from their presence on that show. Slater is now TNA's World Champion while Evans just challenged for the WWE Championship on this week's Raw. Meanwhile, Ruca would go on to win the Women's Intercontinental Championship, and Femi is already one of the top stars in WWE, with an expected WrestleMania 43 main event possibly on the horizon.

The John Cena Classic had previously been confirmed to take place at some point in December. At one point, WWE was targeting Dec. 12 for the event, but WrestlePalooza will take place on that day instead. The likeliest date for the JCC remains Dec. 19, even though that would put it head-to-head with both AAA and AEW's Worlds End pay-per-view.

With the announcement of Cena's return on next week's Raw, which will be a double taping alongside SmackDown, the expectation is that Cena will reveal the official date and venue for the John Cena Classic as well as perhaps some of the scheduled performers and matches.

That taping also featuring CM Punk vs. Kevin Owens, so WWE is clearly hoping that the addition of Cena's major announcement will result in more buzz and excitement and strong viewership for Raw on Netflix.