John Cena’s new tournament is supposed to be one of the big attractions of his farewell run, but Jonathan Coachman already has a problem with how WWE is selling it. As far as he’s concerned, telling fans about “loyalty” and then apparently making them pay before they can vote is a pretty strange way to reward them.
Speaking on The Coach and Bro Show, Coachman and Vince Russo got into the John Cena Classic and the lack of actual information WWE has provided so far. Cena has announced the tournament, the championship and Cody Rhodes as its first participant, but Coachman pointed out that fans still haven’t been told exactly how the thing works or what they’re even voting on.
“Vince, it was all smoke and mirrors to me. There were no rules. There was no, ‘This is what it is.’”
What really rubbed Coachman the wrong way was how Cena tied the announcement into his famous “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect” message. Cena talked about respecting his loyal fan base before revealing that voting would be exclusive to Club WWE members, and Coachman thought the whole thing sounded pretty backwards.
“There was no—and then it came. And this is what I really have an issue with. He said, ‘My brand is about hustle, loyalty, respect. So, I’m going to respect our loyal fan base right now and put the voting in only Club WWE.’”
To Coachman, there’s really no complicated way of looking at it. Fans are being told they can participate, but if that participation requires a paid Club WWE membership, he sees it as WWE putting the vote behind a paywall before anybody even knows what the vote actually does.
“So essentially, they’re putting the voting behind a paywall. So if you want to vote for something, we don’t know what that is yet, you’re going to have to pay to do it.”
That’s where Coachman felt Cena’s loyalty pitch started falling apart. If this is supposed to be something special for the fans who have supported Cena and WWE for years, he couldn’t understand why paying for another membership would be part of the deal.
“Vince, how is that rewarding the loyal fan base?”
Russo had his own issue with the whole setup, and his concern went beyond the money. Even if fans sign up and vote, Russo questioned whether WWE would seriously change its plans based on those results rather than simply going with whatever it already wanted to do.
“Yeah. And let’s be honest, are they really going to adjust this tournament or add to this tournament by your vote? Are they really going to do that anyway?”
Russo wasn’t finished there, because he also wondered how fans would know whether their votes were legitimately determining anything. That opened the door for Coachman to immediately have some fun with Russo’s own history when it comes to wrestling and voting.
“So, number one, you’ve got to be in the club to vote. And number two, how do we know they’re going to shoot straight with that to begin with?”
Coachman knew exactly where Russo was going and jokingly told him to knock it off. Considering Russo has some history with wrestling-related voting controversies himself, Coachman couldn’t resist throwing that one back at him.
“You need to stop right now. You need to stop right now, Vince. It’s not like one of us was ever a part of a voting contest.”
Coachman eventually made an important distinction, though. He doesn’t seem to believe Cena personally dreamed this up as some cash grab, and actually thinks Cena probably believes he’s giving fans something worthwhile. His suspicion is that Cena has been convinced to heavily promote Club WWE and may not realize how the pitch comes across from the outside.
“I will say this, and I would tell him if he’s standing here right now, I think in his mind that what he’s doing, he really thinks he’s doing it for a good reason. But he has been convinced that Club WWE is his thing, and you’ve got to push Club WWE.”
That’s where Coachman thinks Cena should probably look at the situation from a fan’s perspective. Saying “loyalty” and “voting” while apparently requiring people to spend money to participate doesn’t exactly sound like much of a thank-you to the audience.
“And I don’t know if he realizes how it looks to the public when he’s like, ‘Loyalty. Voting.’ I mean, you’re asking basically people to pay $100 to vote. That’s what you’re trying to do.”
For Coachman, that was really the biggest problem. Whatever WWE is trying to accomplish by tying the John Cena Classic into Club WWE, he doesn’t think this kind of paid-voting pitch represents the Cena he knows.
“And that’s not who he is. That’s not who he is.”
Making matters even stranger is that WWE still hasn’t properly explained what Club WWE members will actually be voting on. Dave Meltzer previously reported that the original idea involved fans deciding who advanced in the tournament regardless of who won the actual matches, but that concept reportedly ran into some obvious logistical problems and was being reconsidered.
So WWE has a tournament, a new championship, Cody Rhodes and some kind of fan vote — but the people being asked to pay for that voting privilege still don’t know exactly what they’re buying into. Until WWE finally explains the rules, Coachman’s criticism of the paywall is probably going to be one more question hanging over Cena’s new tournament.
Would you actually pay for Club WWE just to vote in the John Cena Classic, or does Jonathan Coachman have a point about how weird that looks alongside Cena’s loyalty message? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
