John Cena just cleared up a pretty big misconception about the John Cena Classic — because despite the name, this thing isn’t actually going to be a tournament. There’s no bracket, nobody is fighting their way through multiple rounds, and winning your match doesn’t even guarantee you’re leaving with the championship.
Speaking with Rick Ucchino of The Takedown on Sports Illustrated, Cena revealed that the December 14 event will instead be built around WWE main-roster stars facing NXT talent. He compared it to the December 13, 2025 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, which featured his retirement match against Gunther.
“They’re all gonna be current [main roster stars] versus NXT. It’s very much like Saturday Night’s Main Event, and I love that December 14th 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.”
That’s not the only surprise. WWE is actually planning to crown two John Cena Classic champions — one man and one woman — and the winners won’t necessarily be whoever picked up victories during the show. Instead, Club WWE members will vote for who they thought stood out the most. Basically, think less King of the Ring and more All-Star Game MVP. Cena wants voting to open as soon as the final match ends. If everything works on the technical side, WWE would then come back from commercial and immediately reveal the two winners.
“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 doesn’t want this to be some random one-night experiment that disappears afterwards either. He’s hoping the Classic eventually becomes an annual WWE tradition, taking inspiration from things like the Arnold Classic, fan appreciation events and All-Star games.
“This is where I see, hopefully, my future in WWE lying, as a beacon of opportunity. I wanna try to create [something like] an Arnold Classic. I took a lot from the Arnold Classic. I took a lot from fan appreciation nights. I took a lot from All-Star games, but I wanna create that situation where fans can come to an event they know every year, they know what the situation is, and we’re in the pilot.”
That makes WWE unveiling the John Cena Classic Championship on the November 2 Raw a little more interesting in hindsight. Cena showed off the custom title and Cody Rhodes was revealed as the first main-roster participant, but now we finally know what everyone is actually competing for. So forget the brackets. The first John Cena Classic is basically WWE vs. NXT with a popularity-meets-performance vote at the end, and Cena is hoping December 14 is only the beginning.
What do you make of the John Cena Classic actually being a main roster vs. NXT showcase instead of a traditional tournament? Let us know what you think in the comments.
