John Cena Shares New Information On WWE's Upcoming John Cena Classic

On the November 2 episode of "WWE Raw," John Cena finally announced to the world what his plans were for the highly-anticipated John Cena Classic competition. The brand-new format will air on a special episode of "Raw" live from Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida on December 14, where the stars of today will face off with the stars of tomorrow. 

Cena recently spoke with The Takedown on Sports Illustrated about the event and how it will work, revealing that the winners of both the men's and women's champions for the night will be determined via a fan vote on Club WWE in a similar manner to how reality television operates. "Hopefully, if we have the technological acumen to do this, as soon as the last match is over, it's kind of like American Idol... voting's open now to Club WWE members. And when we come back from commercial break, we're going to award the women's champion of the night, and we're going to award the men's champion of the night."

As for how Cena came up with the idea, it was simply a case of wanting to understand where his future lay in the WWE landscape now that he is retired. The 17-time WWE Champion always wanted to give back to the business that made him who he is, and by producing something that can not only provide opportunities to young talent, as well as entertaining the fans, the John Cena Classic is his way of giving back. 

"This is where I see, hopefully, my future in WWE lying, as a beacon of opportunity," Cena said. "I want to try to create [something like] an Arnold Classic. I took a lot from the Arnold Classic. I took a lot from fan appreciation nights. I took a lot from All-Star games, but I want to create that situation where fans can come to an event they know every year, they know what the situation is, and we're in the pilot."

When it comes to who will be part of the John Cena Classic, both Cody Rhodes and Zilla Fatu have already been invited, and more main roster and "WWE NXT" stars will be invited in the coming weeks. Cena had so much fun highlighting the "NXT" roster during the WWE Saturday Night's Main Event show in December 13 where he retired that he wanted to keep that date, and that idea of highlighting young talent alive.

"They're all going to be current [main roster stars] versus NXT. It's very much like Saturday Night's Main Event, and I love that December 14th is the date, because that's one year and one day from my last match. And as soon as I retired, on the way home, I was thinking about how I can [stay] involved. I love giving NXT kids a chance to debut on Raw after years of being down there. Some of the folks we invited are three, four years in the NXT system, and they're finally getting a shot. They were crying dude. It was great."

Cena has a history of wanting to give "NXT" performers a chance dating back to his WWE United States Championship open challenge in 2015 that gave main roster debuts to both Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. However, Cena had to thank the powers that be for allowing him to put on such an event knowing that if it doesn't go well, it probably won't come back next year. "I'm going to thank Paul Levesque, and I'm going to thank Nick Khan for being like, "Yeah man we'll try it." Saturday Night's Main Event seemed to work. We got Sol [Ruca], we got Je'Von [Evans], and we got Oba [Femi], and those three are thriving right now. So, what do we got to lose? We'll try it, and if it stinks, like, whatever. We don't have to do it again next year."

Please credit "The Takedown on Sports Illustrated" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to the original source for the transcription.