When Will John Cena Return to ‘SmackDown Live’?

John Cena SummerSlam, John Cena WWE, John Cena Monday Night Raw

John Cena enters the ring at SummerSlam 2015. (Getty)

WWE superstar John Cena has been missing from SmackDown Live for over two months now, with his most recent appearance being at No Mercy in early October. So where is Cena, and when will he be coming back?

Luckily for Cena fans, the 15-time champion will be officially returning to SmackDown Live on Tuesday, December 27th. On Twitter, Cena recently expressed his excitement and told all of his fans to get ready for him.

John Cena was away for so long because he was filming the second season of American Grit, a Fox reality series that he hosts. In this show, contestants compete in a series of challenges that are modeled after military exercises. It did quite well in its first season, and when Fox renewed it for Season 2, Cena agreed to return as host. He has also been kept busy lately with other gigs like hosting an episode of Saturday Night Live 

So how will Cena re-enter the SmackDown Live storyline? He has been humiliated by AJ Styles several times over the past few months, the first time being at SummerSlam back in August. Styles defeated Cena, and Cena was so humiliated that he actually removed his “never give up” armband and left it in the ring. Styles kept this armband and brought it out on SmackDown Live later on, touting it as proof that he’s the champ that runs the camp.

Cena was then gone for a while, but he returned in order to challenge AJ Styles to another match. That ended up becoming a triple threat with Dean Ambrose thrown into the mix, and it took place at No Mercy. But once again, Cena was defeated by AJ Styles, and he has never shown his face on WWE programming ever since. How will Cena make his return? How will he come back from giving up after a major defeat when his slogan is literally “never give up”?

Cena is a contender to win Royal Rumble this year, and he said on SmackDown a few months ago that he wanted to win the World Championship one more time before he retires. Will Cena be officially announced as a Royal Rumble participant next week? And will he once again make it known that he’s going after the World Championship, setting his sights on AJ Styles a third time?

We’ll find out next week when SmackDown Live airs at 8:00 p.m. on the USA Network.