John Cena Addresses Plans For WWE John Cena Classic: ‘We’ve Got To Figure Out The Fan Vote, I Do Not Want It Hijacked’

WWE

Announced at this year’s WWE Backlash, The John Cena Classic has seen the star himself address plans for the event, which he called a work in progress.

On May 9, John Cena took to the ring to announce The John Cena Classic, with a new champion to be determined by fan vote.

While concrete details for the mechanics of The John Cena Classic are still to emerge, the retired WWE star shared an update during a recent interview with Us Weekly, saying:

“It’s still a work in progress. What I want to see is a night of exhibition matches. I always try to say to young talent, “Tell me who you are in one sentence.” The John Cena Classic is WWE’s All Star game. That’s the sentence. And then we branch out from that.

“I envision a world … where it’s exhibition matches, WWE superstars competing with NXT superstars. … Maybe they’re on the same team, maybe they face off at each other. … I think the bracketology is interesting.”

It appears that Cena may be a busy man when it comes to bringing the Classic together, as he explains:

“I love a world where I personally invite the talent to participate so they know how much it means to me. That means more trips to Raw, more trips to SmackDown, more trips to NXT. We have reveals of all this stuff. We tell everybody where it is when it is. … We’re going to debut a new championship. So I’d love the audience to see that. I’d love the participants to see that before. I’d love to do a card reveal where you realize the event, and these are the matchups.”

With fan voting as a fundamental element of The John Cena Classic, the retired WWE star was well aware of how that may be a major hurdle when it comes to fairness, stating:

“We’ve got to figure out the fan vote. I do not want it sabotaged. I do not want it hijacked. I know there’s a lot of burner accounts out there, and there’s a lot of bots out there. Audience participation is what I want, like fair audience participation, because I’m the success story.

“I’m trying to encompass my journey in an evening. I was the WWE last pick. I was going to be fired. I was given a second chance, and not a main-event second chance. I started on the minor league shows. I started on the weekend shows, live events, winning over one fan at a time.”

“This is a night where you can put down your business card and say you’re going to remember this name. And if you’re already a champ and you participate in the event, you can say that’s why I am.

“It’s truly just an exhibition of our best and brightest of today and tomorrow, and you never know what’s going to happen.”

Following the announcement at WWE Backlash and the lack of further details after the event, fans were left a tad baffled by what to expect, something that Cena would address, saying:

“I dropped so much information on the audience, and I didn’t … it’s not complete. There’s still more information to give. We’re gonna have a new event. We’re gonna crown a new champion, and everyone qualifies for the vote, and there’s going to be a vote.

“What does that mean? Well, if you want to vote for the winners, vote for the winners. That’s fine. I just want to let you know that if somebody busts their hump and wins your heart and wins your vote, you can vote for them.

“That’s an important piece to get out, because we’re trained that only winners qualify.

“So that, in itself, is a landslide of questions: ‘Oh, this just turned my world upside-down. I don’t even know if this is gonna work!’

“Neither do I, but I think it’’s bold enough to try, because in the early stages of my career, I lost a lot, but people would walk away being like, ‘That’s that rapping guy.’ So I really won; I won their heart, and I won their vote because they kept showing up.

“I’m literally trying to encapsulate the early stages of my journey into one night of exhibition contests. So we’ll see. I can promise you this: You will get my all for this thing, absolutely.”

It was previously reported that the format of The John Cena Classic was yet to be determined, along with the date and location.

A Classic.. What, Exactly?

It’s difficult to quantify The John Cena Classic, given the lack of concrete details beyond it’s open to main roster and NXT stars, there’s going to be a champion, and the fans decide.

The Mae Young Classic and the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic were both tournament-style affairs, across multiple weeks. “We’re gonna have a new event” could very well be open to interpretation, although it would make sense for The John Cena Classic to follow the tournament format, leading to a final at either a WWE PLE or Saturday Night’s Main Event.

It’s been an age since the days of Taboo Tuesday or Cyber Sunday, two events that saw fan interaction to determine elements of matches, and the landscape has changed a lot since the early 2000s.

Involving fans in the championship decision is a bold move, as Cena notes, particularly if votes are collated from social media platforms.

Beyond a simple post asking fans to tap on whoever they want to win, the mechanics of managing bot voting is going to be a challenge all on its own, particularly with how sophisticated these rogue systems have become.

There’s always the possibility that The John Cena Classic vote could fall under the remit of Club WWE, the membership program that was announced in April. Also announced and championed by John Cena, it is yet to deliver much more substantial than just a “reserve your spot” page online.

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