Backstage Details On Other Opponents Pitched To Face John Cena At WrestleMania 39

This Saturday night, Austin Theory will kick off WrestleMania 39 by putting his United States Championship on the line against the 16-time WWE World Champion, John Cena. And while "The Now" is the superstar who ended up getting to face the 20-year WWE veteran at "The Show of Shows," Fightful Select reports that he wasn't the only competitor gunning for the "Peacemaker" star. In fact, a couple of others who are also on the card this weekend were either pushed for or penciled in beforehand.

According to the man himself, we now know that Cena doesn't pick his own opponents. That said, Fightful reports that top talents within the company were attempting to work a WrestleMania match with Cena as far back as last summer. After all, Saturday's match against Theory will mark Cena's first WrestleMania singles match in front of a live audience since 2018 when he was soundly defeated by The Undertaker in just under three minutes.

Some within WWE were pushing for Cody Rhodes to work with Cena at one point, though Fightful notes that by August, his program with Roman Reigns had more or less been finalized. Additionally, as of fall, internal WWE documents showed Logan Paul as Cena's opponent while Theory didn't even have a match on the card. That would change by December, and shortly after, it was determined that Paul would be working with Seth Rollins.

Here's one last fun fact: You'd have to go all the way back to 2015, WrestleMania 31, to find the last time Cena competed in a one-on-one match at WrestleMania in front of a live audience that was promoted ahead of time. His opponent that evening was Rusev.