So, for a WWE talent to win the John Cena Classic, you don’t need to be booked to win your way through a tournament; the fans will vote for the winner at the end of the night.
This is like the inverse of the Brawl for All shoot tournament in 1998, isn’t it?
The bookers assumed going into that one that “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, a former All-American college wrestler, would come out as the winner, which would set up a Williams vs. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin match later in the year.
Except that, Williams injured his hamstring in a second-round match with Bart Gunn, and lost.
Gunn went on to win the tournament, the money match between Williams and Austin never happened, and the whole thing went down as the stupidest idea in WWE history.
Until now.
One of two things happens with this John Cena Classic:
- They actually do decide the winner based on the fan vote, and risk having smart-ass fans aligning together to put over the most improbable tourney entrant.
- The results are worked, and creative picks the winner to set up a money match for later in the year, like they wanted to do with Brawl for All.
I’m leaning toward thinking that we’re going to get the latter scenario; no way WWE is going to let fans determine the outcome of a big event.
They’ll do just enough to make it feel like it’s all on the up-and-up, giving us a “fan winner” or two that reverses the result of an in-ring pinfall or submission.
But in reality, this John Cena Classic thing is going to be a vehicle for somebody, not sure who, to get a push, and probably a shot at one of the two WWE world titles.
Cena had promised us ahead of his appearance on last night’s “Backlash” event that he was going to announce something groundbreaking.
Yawn.
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Chris Graham
