WWE: John Cena Royal Rumble Return Plans Update, AJ Styles Mid Foot Ligament Injury & Potential Return Plans Update, Backstage Update on Michael Hayes & Brock Lesnar WWE Status

WWE’s Current Plans for John Cena Royal Rumble Return

John Cena has been absent from WWE programming since the WWE RAW premiere show on Netflix on January 6th. During his promo on the show, Cena had officially declared himself for the Men’s Royal Rumble match and stated that it would be the final Royal Rumble match of his wrestling career.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Cena arrived in Indianapolis this past Thursday ahead of WWE’s Royal Rumble 2025 event in the city on Saturday.

Johnson reported that Cena has been followed by a camera crew documenting his entire Royal Rumble weekend experience. Johnson also reported that WWE is gathering as much footage as possible for a future project centered around Cena and marking the beginning of his Farewell Tour for his retirement from in-ring wrestling.

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AJ Styles Mid Foot Ligament Injury & Potential Return Plans Update

As noted before, AJ Styles has been out of action for WWE since this past October due to a mid foot ligament sprain injury.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources stated that Styles was spotted in Indianapolis ahead of tonight’s Royal Rumble 2025 event in the city.

Sapp reported that it is currently not known if Styles has been medically cleared for an in-ring return not if he will be making his in-ring return at tonight’s event.

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Backstage Update on Michael Hayes & Brock Lesnar WWE Status

As noted before, former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit in January of 2024 against former TKO Executive Chairman Vince McMahon accusing McMahon of committing sex trafficking and sexual abuse towards her during her time in the company. Besides McMahon, WWE and former WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis were also named defendants in the lawsuit. Grant recently filed an amended lawsuit that included Brock Lesnar and WWE producer Michael Hayes among the new people who were specially named and allegations involving both.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Hayes is backstage at the Lucas Oil Stadium for tonight’s Royal Rumble 2025 event and is overseeing his production duties as usual.

In regards to Lesnar, it was reported that Lesnar is not in attendance backstage for tonight’s event and there has been little to no discussion by WWE officials regarding his potential return to the company.