While John Cena will likely not be seen on WWE television for awhile, his return may be sooner than expected. After undergoing successful elbow surgery on his torn tricep, Cena stated that he will be ready to return for WrestleMania XXX. However, according to F4WOnline, his return may come sooner than that. They are reporting that WWE is privately talking about having Cena return at the Royal Rumble in 2014, which would give him five months off. That would put him in the middle of his four to six month timeline.
Before leaving on the August 19 edition of Monday Night Raw, Cena passed his microphone to an upset Daniel Bryan after losing his WWE Championship just minutes after defeating Cena. Some saw his departure as a symbolic passing of the torch to “The Beard,” Daniel Bryan as the face of WWE. Even though Cena was advised to cancel his match at SummerSlam, Cena still wrestled in order to put Bryan over. Further to the point of Cena passing the torch to Bryan, the latter has replaced Cena at WWE’s upcoming live events as Cena begins to take time off.