WWE legend and 17-time World Champion John Cena appeared on The Rich Eisen Show to discuss various topics, including the concept of last December’s Saturday Night’s Main Event, which featured his retirement bout.
Cena said, “Man, I can tell you I’m pumped, and I can tell you this is an idea from me, and I can also tell you that this is going to get a lot of chatter, too, because the audience is kind of every which way, but loose on this. I got this idea from that last event, that Saturday Night’s Main Event, where Gunther and I were to close the show. But the idea for the opening of the show and the way I wanted to promote it was instead of doing, you know, a 90-minute tribute showing highlights and interviews of folks to essentially my career, there’s no pay it forward there. So I chose to use the rest of the evening as showcasing marquee superstars as a way to get crowds in the building and keep them excited. You hear the music of your favorite superstar, and that’s great, and pair them up against the future of our business. Names like Sol Ruca, Je’Von Evans, and certainly Oba Femi, they all kind of debuted on our grand stage that day. I thought the event went well. Not only was it well received by the audience, sans my part in the ending, which is okay, because I’m a polarizing guy; I can bear the weight on my shoulders.”
On the origins of the John Cena Classic concept:
“When I promoted it, people enjoyed the idea. When we executed it, people enjoyed the event, and more importantly, the talent. It’s not like the talent aren’t excited for an event, but the talent felt like they were part of something new, and that was really important. So I got the idea from there, and then I kind of wanted to extend it a little bit more. I’m like, ‘How can we involve the fan base?’ So that’s where the fan vote came from, and then I tried to take it a little bit further in saying that, like, “Man… if you’re a talent and you go out and you actually tear the house down but you’re this close to winning and maybe you come short, you still have the opportunity to be in the running to see if you won the fan vote enough to be crowned champion.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
