John Cena Comments On Plans For WWE's John Cena Classic Later This Year
This past May, John Cena appeared at WWE Backlash to announce a new tournament titled "The John Cena Classic," where younger stars and "WWE NXT" talent will go head-to-head main roster performers. Throughout the summer, it was rumored that the tournament would take place in December, the same month where Cena wrestled in final match against GUNTHER at Saturday Night's Main Event last year. On Monday, Cena confirmed that the tournament is scheduled for December in an appearance on "Busted Open Radio," and shared his vision for the entire competition.
"Can we take a personal IP? Let's use Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin or The Rock, so now let's translate that to John Cena. What does John stand for? Hustle, loyalty, respect. As a human, perseverance, hard work, overcoming odds, adversity, virtuous behavior. So let's create Saturday Night's Main Event, do it over again and put the John Cena IP, the familiar IP that fans know. I'll be there as an ambassador and then just give folks a great opportunity. Non-cannon, non-storyline. Let's do what we did Saturday and do it again and just have a night off ... it's not active riveting programming like the storyline stuff, so we get a week off of storylines."
John Cena comments on the possibility of his tournament being a failure
Although he's beyond excited to be the face of WWE's newest tournament, Cena is prepared for the competition to fail and to not resonate with fans. However, the "Never Seen 17" stated that he rather present the tournament and people dislike it rather than not deliver a new product at all.
"It might be a bust, like I'm not saying 'Ah, man. We got this in the bag.' The internet is vocal, honest and active and we might do this and be like 'What the f*** was that? You guys missed here, this was awful.' But I want to try. And performer to performer, you got to go out there and try, and when you stop trying, that's when you're going backwards."
Cena continued by arguing that the tournament is a risk-free experiment, explaining that if a young star surprises on the night, they might be given a new opportunity ahead, but if they don't impress, they still have WWE's developmental system to fall back on.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.