WWE legend and 17-time World Champion John Cena recently appeared on the Bill Simmons podcast, where he discussed several topics. One key point he mentioned was his pitch to WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque to allow NXT talent to compete at Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Cena said, “In trying to create the atmosphere for the last match, folks in creative were like, ‘Hey, we want to do like this tribute thing.’ And I — I never booked myself, but I called Triple H. And I said, ‘I have an idea. You’ll know how to do this, because I don’t know how to write television. But I think if we do a tribute show, one of two things are going to happen. It’s either going to be too much or too little, which means it’s not going to be good. Why don’t we take Saturday Night’s Main Event. Everyone knows it’s John Cena’s last match. The video packages, you want to trickle in there throughout the night, no problem. Then we go to the match, have the match, that’s the night.’”
He continued, “‘But beforehand, on a night I know people are going to be tuning in. We’re going to have a sold out [show]. It’s going to be definitely an item, a ticket you want to have in your hand. And that last piece of of relevant energy that I can get an audience member to tune into. Show the future of your business. Have top name WWE superstars. CM Punk, Charlotte Flair — you put it together how you want. Have them have non-canon exhibition matches with the future of the business. Bring kids up from NXT. Get them in a building with real noise, with real energy. Let him get under the bright lights. Maybe, just maybe, like, [they’ll think] ‘I want to be here.’ You know what I’m saying? And they get to to wrestle people with experience and wisdom, and in non-canon, exhibition matches, where nothing’s on the line. It’s just a chance to see — it’s a chance to hear the music of your favorite superstars against someone, you have no idea.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
