John Cena made his long-awaited return to WWE television on Sunday (July 18) night.
The 15-time World Champion made a surprise appearance at the end of the Money in the Bank pay-per-view following WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns‘ victory over WWE Hall of Famer Edge in the show’s main event.
Cena, who has typically gotten a mixed reaction from WWE crowds during the past decade, returned to thunderous cheers when his music hit the speakers at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, as the live broadcast went off-air.
WWE shared footage of Cena addressing the Fort Worth crowd and acknowledging its uncharacteristic excitement after its broadcast concluded.
“It’s so weird because I’m used to you guys telling me how much I suck, man this feels pretty good,” Cena said, smiling as the crowd responded with more cheers. “I see this dude’s sign over here, it says, ‘If Cena shows up, we cheer,’ is this like Bizarro World? What’s going on?”
Cena also announced he would be kicking off Monday’s episode of RAW to tell his “motivation” for returning in a video shared on WWE’s official Twitter account.