John Cena Names First Participant In Eponymous WWE Tournament

This past week on "WWE Raw," John Cena made his return to the company to officially announce details about the upcoming John Cena Classic event, which takes place on December 14. The 17-time WWE Champion has already invited Cody Rhodes to take part in the event, but the spirit of the event is for the stars of tomorrow to get their chance to shine. It's because of that fact that Cena showed up on the November 5 episode of "WWE NXT" to invite Zilla Fatu to take part in event.

Cena addressed the "NXT" audience by saying that he loves the WWE Performance Center and how it always breeds opportunities for the next generation. With that in mind, he introduced Fatu and formally invited him to take part in the John Cena Classic. Fatu expressed how grateful he was to be invited and how much it means for Cena to personally invite him, with Cena even saying he feels partially Samoan at times. Cena detailed his history with Fatu's family, including his run-ins with Rikishi, The Rock, and The Bloodline, before telling Zilla how much he loved his dad Umaga, who Cena wrestled many times. 

After the segment, Cena was backstage where he ran into Kam Hendrix, who asked Cena where was his invite to the event. Cena explained that no one who is actually great goes around telling everyone about it, and instead of thinking about the John Cena Classic, Hendrix needs to focus on what's next for him and what's important, that being his match against EK Prossper on next week's episode of "NXT." Cena will be appearing on episodes of "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown" in the coming weeks, as well as the WWE Survivor Series 2026 Premium Live Event to invite more WWE Superstars to compete at the event.