If you had any doubts over the star power of John Cena in WWE, the ticket situation for the December 30 Smackdown should explain it all.

Up until two weeks ago when the December 30 Smackdown was still just a regular Smackdown episode, WWE had around 8,000 seats sold at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, which is considered to be already very good.

When the news came out that John Cena was going to be appearing and then last week it was revealed that Cena was wrestling, teaming with Kevin Owens to take on Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn, tickets moved fast. Really fast.

According to ticket tracking service @WrestleTix, WWE sold another 4,600+ tickets since the Cena announcement came and there are now 12,089 tickets out, with less than 500 for the current setup to sell out. More seats are likely to be added if WWE continues to sell tickets to this show at a fast rate.

This will be John Cena’s first match of 2022, keeping his 20-year record of wrestling every year.