WWE fans were skeptical when the WWE World Cup tournament was announced for the latest Saudi Arabia special event, Crown Jewel.

And the first man who was revealed to take part in the eight-man knockout special was none-other than John Cena.

Of course, everyone else had to qualify to guarantee a place, but not Big Match John, whose 16 WWE Championships meant he automatically gained a berth [in that case, why didn't Ric Flair?]

However, rumours started to circulate two weeks ago that Cena would in-fact not be travelling to Saudi Arabia for the event because of strained relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and how it would impact his career in the film industry.

Cena was then officially written-out of Crown Jewel this past Monday night on Raw, when Bobby Lashley took his place in the tournament.

Brackets were then revealed, showing that there would be one Raw and one SmackDown superstar in the final, but it wasn't supposed to be like this until Cena pulled out of the show.

And Dave Meltzer has stated what Cena's original plans were for the event on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Via Ringside News, Meltzer has stated that Cena's original quarter-final bout would have been against Rey Mysterio, meaning that the brands would have been mixed up for the first round matchups.

Not only was he supposed to go one-on-one with the Master of the 619, but Cena was set to actually lose - some way to treat the man with the joint-most world championships in history.

There could have been a valid reason for this - Cena may still be filming the Project X movie with Jackie Chan in China, hence why he was only scheduled for one match, but maybe at this moment in time WWE see Mysterio as a hotter commodity.

We'll never know if it was really going to happen now as the leader of the Cenation won't be attending, and a lot of Saudi fans are probably bitterly disappointed, but the show must go on.

LISTEN TO OUR LATEST WWE PODCAST WHERE WE TALK TO XAVIER WOODS AND AJ STYLES, AS WELL AS REVIEWING WWE 2K19 AND OUR TRIP TO THE WWE PERFORMANCE CENTER

Please SUBSCRIBE to our GiveMeSport WWE YouTube channel where we have exclusive interviews and inside scoops.