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WWE announced this morning that John Cena, who had been presented since Wrestlemania 34 as a "free agent" will be returning to the ring at the 11/19 WWE Survivor Series PPV as the fifth and final member of Team Smackdown, facing Team Raw in a 5 on 5 Elimination tag team match featuring Team Raw Captain Kurt Angle, Finn Balor, Jason Jordan, Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman vs. Team Smackdown Live Captain Shane McMahon, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura.
Survivor Series will be Cena's first appearance for the company since losing to Roman Reigns at the No Mercy PPV several months ago.
Today's announcement comes after WWE rebooted plans for the PPV a week ago, making the decision to have AJ Styles capture the WWE championship from Jinder Mahal and replace him against WWE Universal champion Brock Lesnar.
The original plan for Jinder vs. Brock was to include John Cena as the guest referee, which was originally slated to be announced this Monday. PWInsider.com had initially reported Cena's role several weeks ago and confirmed it with multiple sources. We are told the changes were specifically made by Vince McMahon last week.
With Styles and Mahal swapping positions, the decision was made to add Cena to the Elimination match. That leaves Jinder Mahal as odd man out and his next storyline, as well as why the decision was made to remove him from the main event of the PPV just a week out, remains to be seen.
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