New Info on Roman Reigns' WWE Status and John Cena's Backlash Announcement

Roman Reigns has publicly stated that he's sticking around for the entire summer, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Regardless, his relationship with WWE is reportedly just fine.

The reigning World Heavyweight Champion is just hours away from defending his title against his cousin, Jacob Fatu, at Backlash, and he's also being advertised for Clash in Italy at the end of the month. He will apparently be taking some time off once the calendar flips to June.

The Tribal Chief was originally promoted for a number of shows that month, but those advertisements were later pulled and attributed to a clerical error. Naturally, what appears to be a simple, albeit major, oversight became the catalyst for some wild internet rumors regarding The Tribal Chief.

During the latest episode of WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select, the guys were able to provide some additional information on the gossip, which had previously been refuted by colleague Sean Ross Sapp.

"In recent weeks, there were completely unfounded rumors that Roman Reigns was unhappy with TKO and WWE after his June dates were removed [and] promoted in error. Sean Ross Sapp immediately debunked that rumor," WrestleVotes said. "There is no concern from WWE or TKO about Roman Reigns leaving the company, and his place in WWE is firm. He's still factored in to WWE creative in a huge way."

The reported reason why Roman Reigns is not being utilized in June is that there are no plans to book him for Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia. He's expected to be back shortly after to start his SummerSlam program. He'll likely still be the World Heavyweight Champion by then, as Reigns is a heavy betting favorite to retain his title against Jacob Fatu at Backlash Saturday night.

What does John Cena have up his sleeve at Backlash?

John Cena will be making his second post-retirement appearance on WWE programming this weekend. After serving as the host of WrestleMania 42, the Never Seen 17-Time World Champion will be appearing at Backlash to make what he promises will be a history-making announcement.

The boys on WrestleVotes Radio have done some digging into said announcement, and it appears that the expectations of many are accurate.

"The internal expectation is that John Cena's appearance at Backlash is tied to Club WWE and its upcoming launch. There are high expectations for this new initiative, and one source said that John Cena being established as the face of the announcement is a huge boost."

Given how things went down at the 'Showcase of Immortals' this year, it would certainly make sense in another universe for Cena to put the jorts on one more time and be revealed as Danhausen's mystery tag team partner in his match against The Miz and Kit Wilson.

Don't get your hopes up, as that most certainly will not be happening. Cena has reiterated numerous times that he has no desire to lace up his boots again. He's hoping to start a new trend for wrestlers to actually stay retired, once they've retired.

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