John Cena Thinks It Would Be ‘Financial Suicide’ for Someone To Court Him Into Another Match, Discusses Ideas for John Cena Classic

During a recent interview with Us Magazine, former WWE Superstar and 17-time WWE Champion John Cena addressed fans chanting for him to have “one more match” at WWE Backlash, how it would be financial suicide for someone to court him into a position to have another match, his ideas for the John Cena Classic, and more. Below are some highlights:

John Cena on Fans Chanting One More Match at WWE Backlash and How It Would Be ‘Financial Suicide’ To Court Him for Another Match

“I hate speaking in absolutes … ‘Never’ is a strong word. It would be financial suicide for someone to court me in a position where I would have another match, and I truly mean that. So if you’re in the business of torching currency, that’s the only way to get me back in the ring. Aside from that, the reason “one more match” resonated so well for me, first of all, I got to express to the fans of how fulfilled I felt when I retired. Second of all, the interest of an audience being like, “We want to see you again!” gets me excited for the new idea of the John Cena Classic. We can do this again. I’ll be there. It’ll be fan-forward and fan-first. I won’t be so focused on, ‘Man, this match means everything to me. I’ve got to make sure I give all I have when the music plays and I’m under the lights.’

“I get to watch other performers, so I can kind of be the ambassador for the event, and I can get out there and meet with people that matter most in my life, the fans. I really can’t wait for this thing to find its legs, for us to get a city and a date and move forward. And I can’t wait for it to happen. So when I hear “one more match,” I hear [that] there’s still interest, the heart still beats. I’m trying to think in my head, How can we gear this to where I can be there, be active and be included but allow others to do the thing I can no longer do. I hope we have it with the John Cena Classic.”

On the John Cena Classic Still Being a ‘Work in Progress’

“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. 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.”

On If There’s a Superstar He Wants in the Tournament

“That’s always the question: Who do you think is next? I’m the living example of no one knows. You guys were going to fire me. And here we are, moving the intellectual property forward in a way where it can give back opportunity that doesn’t rest on my shoulders. … The template is the Arnold Classic. The first Arnold Classic, Arnold Schwarzenegger is the attraction. Now that exposition has become so large and so fast, Arnold still goes. He loves it, but there’s so much more there. And if we don’t try new stuff, we won’t know where we land. And this is new for our audience. There’s a lot of questions, a lot of polarizing attitude, which is great because I’m a polarizing guy. In the huge middle block of my career, there’s a lot of folks cheering and a lot of folks booing. [Wrestling commentator] Michael Cole called it polarizing, so I like that sort of intrigue heading into this.”

On the Confusion and Backlash Over the Announcement

“Great point. I dropped so much information on the audience, and I didn’t … it’s not complete. There’s still more information to give. We’re gonna have a new event. We’re gonna crown a new champion, and everyone qualifies for the vote, and there’s going to be a vote. What does that mean? Well, if you want to vote for the winners, vote for the winners. That’s fine. I just want to let you know that if somebody busts their hump and wins your heart and wins your vote, you can vote for them. That’s an important piece to get out, because we’re trained that only winners qualify. So that, in itself, is a landslide of questions: ‘Oh, this just turned my world upside-down. I don’t even know if this is gonna work!’ Neither do I, but I think it’s bold enough to try, because in the early stages of my career, I lost a lot, but people would walk away being like, ‘That’s that rapping guy.’ So I really won; I won their heart and I won their vote because they kept showing up. I’m literally trying to encapsulate the early stages of my journey into one night of exhibition contests. So we’ll see. I can promise you this: You will get my all for this thing, absolutely.”

The John Cena Classic tournament is rumored to be in the works for the end of the year. WWE has not yet announced the official details of the tournament. Cena’s next movie role is the comedy, Little Brother, which arrives on Netflix on June 26.