Look, I like to entertain the odd speculative theory. I genuinely love it when the rumour wagon starts to pick up some speed – it’s a fun hype builder. But sometimes the grapevine is buzzing about something that sounds just too dang silly to be real.
Like actor/rapper/wrestler legend John Cena somehow having a presence in the world of Overwatch 2.
But here we are, less than 48 hours after the first real threads of possibility started to weave – and it’s starting to look a little too real.
Could John Cena be Enigma from the #Overwatch2 Invasion Teasers? 💪🏼
Cryptic messages appeared on certain streams today, leading users to an image with the letters "JC" and a font called "Felix-Antony"
John Cena's full name is: John Felix Anthony Cena 👀 pic.twitter.com/RBtlrqxZ8A
— Overwatch Cavalry (@OWCavalry) July 28, 2023
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To explain the goings-on, Overwatch 2 is rapidly approaching it’s big Invasion content release – bringing about a whole new season of content and the long desired PvE missions. As a fun little teaser for this big patch drop, players are noticing that quirky glitches and anomalies are appearing in their games – as if their Overwatch experience was being hacked and influenced by an outside source. Some of if manifests as onscreen code vomit, typical Hollywood hacker style; others actually show a hooded figure trying to reach out and make contact with the player.
People have been discussing it online, and of course dissecting it madly. The crazy thing is that in the soup of weirdness, the clues that seem to rise to the top all point to one figure: John Cena.
In the tweet above, people discussed how some of the code was actually listing the IRL initials of the Doctor of Thuganomics – as well as a very conveniently titled font name (a joy for the Typography nerd in me).
This was the part where I tapped out of the discussion – because it felt like a real reach. For the ropes.
But now there are more clues mounting, and they just keep pointing to the Chain Gang Soldier.
u/AaronWYL pointed out that the HTML Color Code is #042377, John Cena’s Birthday is 4/23.
The character-type is also listed as being: strong.
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🔎 https://t.co/5A01cgi5HG pic.twitter.com/CuicQnVFYR
— Overwatch Cavalry (@OWCavalry) July 28, 2023
So I find myself drawn back in to this discussion, and right when I am about to throw in the towel and accept that it is far too goofy to entertain such an idea – we see a cryptic little tease from the leader of the Cenation himself.
John Cena posted an Overwatch 2 pic on his Instagram. Of an Overwatch 2 developer chat where they are talking about collaborations. It’s either a masterful troll, or another solid breadcrumb on the journey to the truth.
John Cena may have hinted at his #Overwatch2 cameo 👀
Today, he posted a picture of him watching a Dev Chat from @PlayOverwatch on his Instagram. The squad were discussing collaborations at that time.
Could this be a red herring, or has the community figured it out? 🕵️ pic.twitter.com/I7Z8Nw3ozF
— Overwatch Cavalry (@OWCavalry) July 29, 2023
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This is a super salient point, because big John did exactly the same thing when he made an appearance in Fortnite. Just dropped a random image of the game, and then boom – he doth appeared.
Now, I need to be clear – I do not entertain any notion of John Cena becoming a playable character. Sure, he could fill a niche role on the roster as a tank that utilises some kind of stealth (heh), but in all truth I see him more as a marketing NPC to bring some pizazz to the Invasion content. Maybe he will have a small presence within the game – but more-so I imagine his platform will be different marketing outlets to build hype around the PvE content.
But at this point, who knows. Only a short while ago I didn’t even entertain the crazy thought of John Cena touching the Overwatch ecosystem. And yet, here I am convinced that it’s going to happen.
What a crazy world.
Do you think Overwatch 2 needs some Hustle, Loyalty and Respect? Am I going mad? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
