WWE Stars Not Wanting To Work Together To Make Each Other Look Good In John Cena Classic A Major Issue, Says Lance Storm

WWE

Former WWE Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion Lance Storm has pointed out a fundamental issue with the planned John Cena Classic event.

Cena announced the new event at WWE Backlash on Saturday, saying it’ll consist of main roster vs NXT matches with fans voting to determine the John Cena Classic Champion.

The fan voting component has led to a number of potential problems, with Lance Storm on Wrestling Observer Live today naming a glaring issue – why would wrestlers want to work together to make each other look good?

He explained:

“When getting the championship, getting the push, potentially facing a less experienced NXT worker, why would I wanna make them look good and potentially earn them votes, which could sabotage my own career?

“If I’m a $500,000 main roster guy and I’m in there with a $75,000 a year NXT guy, why would I use my skill and my experience to make him look good, because if he wins the popularity contest and wins and gets the push to the championship, I could lose my job.

“Because there’s gonna be a TKO executive going, ‘Well why are we paying this guy that lost the fan vote and is less over than this NXT guy that works for way less money?’

“If I know ahead of time, ‘Hey, you’re getting a push, we wanna protect this guy,’ okay, I’ll make him look good. But if I don’t know who’s winning or losing the actual fan vote, it’s no longer in my interest to make the guy look good.

“You’re completely contradicting the entire basis that this industry has been founded on – that’s the predetermined nature, which allows us to go and present the story that’s been predetermined.

“But with the vote happening afterwards to see who the fans want, it’s no longer a predetermined sport and I’m no longer wanting to give my all to make someone else look good.”

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More Problems With The John Cena Classic

John Cena himself has already admitted that this new event might not be perfect and might even be a “total failure,” and there are certainly a number of issues that need ironing out even at this early stage.

The whole ordeal is said to still be a work in progress, but beyond what Lance Storm explained, there are plenty of issues with putting the votes in fans’ hands at all, mainly that things could easily be hijacked by any group of people who have a motive other than to vote with sincerity.

How would the results of the matches and the voting affect talents’ spots on regular TV? As Storm explained, there could be knock-on ramifications for careers if, for example, an NXT talent was voted more popular than a main roster talent.

The whole thing needs ironing out, and while that process will certainly happen, we’ll have to see what problems remain at the end of it.

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• John Cena Classic
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