John Cena made his long-awaited return to WWE television this past Tuesday, where he teamed up with Becky Lynch to defeat Andrade 'Cien' Almas and Zelina Vega on SmackDown Live.

The 16-time world champion put over the Lasskicker in a major way, and he could be doing more of these jobs in the coming weeks for up-and-coming stars - that's because he's not sticking around for the foreseeable future.

Since his appearance on the Raw before WrestleMania in April 2018, Cena hadn't appeared live on a Raw or SmackDown episode until New Years Day just gone.

He had been filming a new movie with Jackie Chan in China for the majority of the year, and will head off once again on January 20 to shoot a new film in Vancouver, Canada - meaning he will miss the Royal Rumble and potentially Mania season.

If you cast your minds back to his two-year feud with The Rock that started in 2011, Cena made  comments about Rock 'selling out' to Hollywood and not being there for his WWE fans.

Cena has since apologised for making such comments, presumably because they're slightly hypocritical considering what he's now chosen to do away from wrestling.

“I selfishly and in a very tunnel vision feud I would say, or grievance with Dwayne, tried to do whatever I could to harken him back to the WWE," Cena told Chris van Vliet whilst promoting the Bumblebee movie.

"Thank goodness he listened because we had some of the greatest entertainment that we’ve ever had on the program because of it.

"But from a genuine standpoint, if you’re taking it for more than entertainment, I’m sorry. I was wrong and I spoke out of ignorance.”

Now Cena has admitted Rock gave him some advice about advancing his acting career, which probably made him feel foolish about what he said about the Brahma Bull all those years ago.

"The Rock has been genuine enough to tell me to be myself," stated Cena.

"I think it was great advice. It came right at a time when I needed it. I tried some movies before, and they weren't really successful. The reason I was doing those movies was trying to create a business model.

"Then I looked back at myself and realised I just like telling stories. He gave me some pretty cool advice at unbelievable timing.

"He said: 'Hey man, they're going to like you, or hate you, for you. Be yourself. At least that way at the end of the day you'll feel good about your body of work."

Amen, Rock. Amen.