In an interview with CBS Sports and SHAK Wrestling, John Cena addressed criticism while talking about the recently-announced John Cena Classic.
The former WWE Champion announced the upcoming event and championship at Backlash, revealing a one-night event featuring wrestlers from NXT and the main roster vying for a title won via fan vote.
Noting the criticism of such an event, Cena looked back Saturday Night’s Main Event in December 2025, a night that shared a similar concept of the present and future of the company facing off:
I was a small piece of that night. The larger scope, and in the media going into it, was, ‘Oh man, this is kind of a cool thing. Yes, the night could be all about John, but in essence, we’re getting to see John do his thing, but somebody’s gotta earn the right to face John, so that’s cool, you’ve gotta earn the respect to do it. And at the same time, we’re gonna get to see some new faces go against our familiar Superstars.
Continuing on, Cena shared his thoughts on the John Cena Classic becoming an All-Star game of sorts for the company:
I was there in the arena, the night rocked. It was great. The crowd was fantastic. Sure, the retirement match had a lot of buzz behind it, but they were on their feet for all the matches. So my brain started working, I’m like, ‘We should do something like this.’ I guess to sum it up in a sentence, I know I dropped a lot of information at Backlash, I think to sum it up in a sentence, it could be a version of WWE’s All-Star game.
Cena responded to the criticism to the concept, particularly the fan vote overriding wins on the night, with the following:
Now, I’ve heard the perspective of, ‘Wins and losses don’t matter.’ That’s a very valid point. I love listening to feedback. We’ve gotta figure out the fan votes; there’s still a lot to be done. But you can vote for the winners. You just can also vote for everybody. And that’s a first-time.
There is no official date or location set for the John Cena Classic as of this writing.
Source: F4WOnline