John Cena Reveals New Details for John Cena Classic & His Reason For Selecting Cody Rhodes and Zilla Fatu As First Two Competitors

As noted before, the November 2nd WWE RAW show in Brooklyn, New York featured the official announcement of the John Cena Classic will be taking place on December 14 as a special episode of WWE RAW at the Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Sports Illustrated’s The Takedown on SI held a recent interview with Cena. One of the topics discussed included Cena revealing that there is not any kind of tournament component to the John Cena Classic and instead each matchup will be an exhibition match featuring a main roster star against a NXT talent. Cena also stated that a John Cena Classic Champion will be crowned on both the men’s and women’s side at the end of the night’s show.

“They’re all gonna be current [main roster wrestlers] versus NXT. It’s very much like Saturday Night’s Main Event [when Cena had his retirement match], and I love that December 14 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.”

Cena also confirmed that voting for the John Cena Classic will be done on Club WWE and he hopes that this will be a quick process with voting starting right after the main event. Cena also stated that the winners will then be announced before the show goes off the air.

“Hopefully, if we have the technological acumen to do this, as soon as the last match is over, it’s kinda like American Idol… voting’s open now to Club WWE members. And when we come back from commercial break, we’re gonna award the women’s champion of the night, and we’re gonna award the men’s champion of the night.”

Cena also gave his thoughts about if the John Cena Classic concept “stinks,” then the Classic would not be happening again next year.

“I gotta thank Paul Levesque, and I gotta 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.”

Cena also gave his thoughts about inviting NXT talent to the John Cena Classic.

“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 [Wednesday night], dude. It was great.”

Cena also gave his thoughts about his reason why he selected Cody Rhodes as the first entrant in the John Cena Classic.

“I love Cody so much. I needed a first invitee who is a cornerstone, franchise player, and a global name. And also someone who just loves all the minutiae of the business. Someone who will sit at a corporate round table all day, and then go talk to our historians in the warehouse, and then go do media only to have an hour cage match where he gets his eye busted open at the end of the night.”

Cena also gave his thoughts about his reason for selecting Zilla Fatu for the John Cena Classic.

“I’m kind of honorary, you know? Rikishi was such a mentor to me, and goodness, did I go through hell and back with Dwayne. I remember talking to Joe Anoaʻi [Roman Reigns] in FCW like, ‘Hey, man, you’re saying you’re this rich baller, and you’re coming out in an ill-fitting suit. Be you, be authentic, and say what you mean.’ Those are my earliest interactions with Joe, and then we’ve gone on to have such an incredible history together.”

Cena also gave his thoughts about him on putting over Solo Sikoa in their singles match several years back.

“It was my love of all of them that, when everybody was like, ‘Hey, we need somebody to put Solo [Sikoa] over,’ I’m jumping up and being like, ‘Give me the spike as many times as you can, then I’m not fighting back. Let’s get you a place at the table, because I see greatness in you as well.’”