Logan Paul Wants John Cena; WWE Rumors on Randy Orton's Status, Hit Row's Contracts – Bleacher Report

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.
Logan Paul Pushing for John Cena Match
After turning heads with a surprisingly great performance at Crown Jewel, Logan Paul has his sights set on another marquee match at WrestleMania 39.
On a recent episode of his podcast (h/t Muskan Sharma of RingsideNews.com), Paul said he texted has texted Triple H about potentially wrestling John Cena on the biggest WWE show of the year:
“After Crown Jewel, John Cena posted me on his Instagram, and then I saw an article saying he’s looking for an opponent at WrestleMania. I favorited it, responded with the eyes. Truthfully, I think me vs. John Cena would break the internet. I texted Triple H right away, ‘do you want to break the internet again?’ That’s a dream match. WrestleMania, in LA, on my birthday. Triple H, throw me a bone, give me a birthday present, let me take out John Cena. That’d be crazy.”
After Paul’s match with Roman Reigns on the Nov. 5 show from Saudi Arabia, Cena posted a picture of the social media celebrity on Instagram. There was no caption to go with it, but it seems like the 16-time world champion was impressed with what he saw.
Cena’s last appearance on WWE television to celebrate his 20-year anniversary with the promotion seemed like it was also being used to set up a future program with Austin Theory.
There were rumblings at the time about a Cena-Theory match taking place at SummerSlam, but it wound up not happening because of Cena’s television schedule.
Since WrestleMania will take place in Los Angeles, it might be easier to coordinate Cena’s schedule for a potential match. If WWE’s creative team thinks a Paul-Cena match would do bigger business than a Theory-Cena match, it wouldn’t be a surprise if that’s the direction they go in.
Update on Randy Orton’s Status
Randy Orton has been out of action since May because of a back injury. There have been rumors about his prognosis, but nothing has been officially announced.
While there is still no official update on Orton’s status, his wife, Kim, posted a picture on Instagram on Tuesday of the Viper in a hospital bed.
At the bottom of the caption, Kim wrote “If y’all only knew why this pic was taken.” She did include several emojis after that, including a crying laughing, sunglasses and smiling, and a kissy face.
It would seem unlikely if there was a serious problem that she would use those particular emojis.
Fightful Select (h/t Dominic DeAngelo of Wrestling Inc.) reported in June that Orton could be out for longer than originally anticipated and his back injury, which has been a problem for a while, could require surgery.
In September, per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), there was “a lot of concern” in WWE that Orton’s injury could be more severe than it was originally thought to be.
Anyone expecting Orton to return before the end of the year will likely be disappointed. It will be telling if we get to the Royal Rumble when WWE starts setting up its top programs for WrestleMania and he isn’t around.
Details of Hit Row’s WWE Contracts
Three months after Hit Row’s return to WWE, details of the new contracts signed by all three members have been released.
Per Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select (h/t H Jenkins of RingsideNews.com), the trio signed matching three-year deals that will expire in the summer of 2025.
Ashante “Thee” Adonis, Top Dolla and B-Fab are among the many performers Triple H brought back to WWE when he took over as chief content officer in the wake of Vince McMahon’s retirement.
All three members of Hit Row were released from WWE in November 2021, one month after making their main-roster debut on SmackDown. The group originally included Swerve Scott, but he signed with All Elite Wrestling in March, following his release from WWE.
Hit Row has primarily been feuding with Maximum Male Models since returning to WWE in August. They haven’t been featured on television since Adonis and Top Dolla teamed with Shinsuke Nakamura to defeat Legado Del Fantasma on the Oct. 28 episode of SmackDown.
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