John Cena Reveals New Details About the Upcoming John Cena Classic [Exclusive]

John Cena is adamant that he's done as an in-ring competitor.

What that means is no Attitude Adjustments for nostalgia’s sake, no special guest referee spots, and under no circumstances will he ever fall down again. He is strictly a company diplomat, but he's using that position to give back to the WWE Universe in a different way.

The Never Seen 17-Time World Champion returned to WWE programming last week to announce that the inaugural John Cena Classic will take place on December 14 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.

BREAKING NEWS: @JohnCena just announced the John Cena Classic will take place on Dec. 14 at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex! pic.twitter.com/VZk9lam17L
— WWE (@WWE) November 3, 2026

"This is where I see, hopefully, my future in WWE lying, as a beacon of opportunity," Cena told The Takedown on SI. "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."

Cena cleared up misconceptions about the event during our conversation, noting that it will not feature a bracket-style tournament, as some had speculated. The John Cena Classic will instead be centered around a series of exhibition matches, very similar to the night he retired last December.

"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."

The John Cena Classic will crown a Men's and Women's Champion

It was at Saturday Night's Main Event where Cena rather controversially tapped out to Gunther in his retirement match, finally giving up in a poetic gesture that showed his time as an active competitor had come to an end.

That night also featured then NXT stars Oba Femi, Je'Von Evans and Sol Ruca facing off against some of the biggest stars in WWE, the foundation upon which the first-ever John Cena Classic is being constructed.

One of the most discussed elements of the event is the John Cena Classic Championship, which will be awarded via Club WWE fan vote. Yes, that means the eventual winner of the title belt very well could have lost their match on December 14. However, if you think of the John Cena Championship as more of an MVP award, it's a much easier pill to swallow for those who have an issue with the concept.

Just make sure to take two of them, because Cena revealed to The Takedown on SI that more than one John Cena Championship will be awarded this year.

"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."

As of this writing, only two of the invitees are publicly known. Three-time WWE Champion Cody Rhodes was revealed as the number one entrant last Monday night on WWE Raw, a decision that Cena described as a necessity.

"I love Cody so much," Cena said. "I needed a first invitee who is a cornerstone, franchise player, and a global name. And also someone who just loves all the minutiae of the business. Someone who will sit at a corporate round table all day, and then go talk to our historians in the warehouse, and then go do media only to have an hour cage match where he gets his eye busted open at the end of the night."

Two nights after he shared an in-ring embrace with his WrestleMania 41 opponent and gave a tip of the cap to an interrupting Randy Orton, Cena made an in-person appearance on a special Wednesday night edition of NXT. It was there that Zilla Fatu was handed an invitation to the John Cena Classic from one of his father's greatest rivals.

It turns out Cena has a personal connection to each and every one of the superstars that he's inviting to the inaugural event, and his rich history with the Anoa'i family made Fatu the obvious first choice from the NXT developmental system.

"I'm kind of honorary, you know? Rikishi was such a mentor to me, and goodness, did I go through hell and back with Dwayne. I remember talking to Joe Anoaʻi [Roman Reigns] in FCW like, 'Hey, man, you're saying you're this rich baller, and you're coming out in an ill-fitting suit. Be you, be authentic, and say what you mean.' Those are my earliest interactions with Joe, and then we've gone on to have such an incredible history together."

Cena also recalled doing a haka dance with Jey and Jimmy Uso while at a bar on a European tour one year and suggested they bring those moves into WWE programming.

"It was my love of all of them that, when everybody was like, 'Hey, we need somebody to put Solo [Sikoa] over,' I'm jumping up and being like, 'Give me the spike as many times as you can, then I'm not fighting back. Let's get you a place at the table, because I see greatness in you as well.'"

It was nearly three years to that day of his interview with The Takedown on SI that Solo Sikoa handed John Cena one of the most lopsided losses of his career, by someone not named Brock Lesnar, anyway, at WWE Crown Jewel.

Cena may no longer be able to put Zilla Fatu over in the same manner, but being able to stand in an NXT ring with him this past week was an incredibly emotional moment for him, because of the love and respect he has for Zilla's father, the late, great Umaga.

Fatu has already developed a great connection with WWE fans during his brief tenure with the company, and that will make him a strong contender to win the Men's John Cena Classic Championship right up until the final votes are tallied.

Lexis King and Zilla Fatu | The CW Network

As for the rest of the competitors from NXT, their invitations were filmed last week while Cena was in Orlando. Their identities will be revealed in the coming weeks, with the John Cena Classic offering the biggest spotlight of their WWE careers to date.

"I love giving NXT kids a chance to debut on Raw after years of being down there. Some of the folks we invited are three, four years in the NXT system, and they're finally getting a shot. They were crying [Wednesday night], dude. It was great."

The jury is obviously still out on the long-term viability of the John Cena Classic, but every major event has an origin story. It wasn't long ago that the concept of the Money in the Bank briefcase was foreign to the WWE audience. Cena is just grateful for the opportunity to create opportunity for others.

"I gotta thank Paul Levesque, and I gotta thank Nick Khan for being like, "Yeah, man, we'll try it." Saturday Night's Main Event seemed to work. We got Sol [Ruca], we got Je'Von [Evans], and we got Oba [Femi], and those three are thriving right now. So, what do we got to lose? We'll try it, and if it stinks, like, whatever. We don't have to do it again next year."

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