What John Cena Really Wants To Accomplish With WWE “John Cena Classic”
John Cena has big plans for the “John Cena Classic” in WWE, even though all the details haven’t been sorted out yet.
After retiring as an active WWE superstar in December 2025, the 49-year-old John Cena made it clear that he wants to remain an active part of WWE, even though he isn’t going to wrestle anymore.
At the WWE Backlash PLE in Tampa, John Cena announced the inaugural John Cena Classic event, which will feature a range of WWE superstars at different experience levels. There will be some sort of tournament; fans will be able to vote on the winners, and someone will be crowned champion as well.
While it all sounds wonderful and a good thing for WWE, John Cena also faced criticism for the announcement because perhaps it was made too soon, since there aren’t that many details known about it.
It has been rumored that the John Cena Classic would take place later in 2026, but it’s not yet known when.
John Cena Wants The “Classic” To Involve WWE Fans
In an interview with Us Weekly, John Cena sounded like he wanted to get even more involved in the “Classic” by making appearances on Raw, SmackDown, and even NXT to talk to talent about being in the tournament.
“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. 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.”
As he continued, Cena made it clear he wanted the fans at home and in the arenas to participate in the “Classic” as much as possible.
“I’d love to do a card reveal where you realize the event, and these are the matchups. 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.”
In the same interview, John Cena also responded to critics of the “Classic,” admitting that he presented a lot of information without details, but that it would come out in due time.
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