Ethan Page Rips Upcoming John Cena Classic

In an interview with The Takedown on SI, Page reminisced about his successful year in WWE, but eviscerated the upcoming John Cena Classic event.

The now retired Cena returned to programming last week to announce the details of the John Cena Classic. The event, which will take place at Disney World, will feature a lineup of main roster stars facing off against NXT talent in a series of exhibition matches. Cena himself has hand-picked each invitee and the overall winners will be chosen by Club WWE members.

So far, Cena has invited Cody Rhodes, Zilla Fatu, Kelani Jordan, Noam Dar, and Romeo Moreno to participate. Ethan Page? Not on the list and Page says he's more than ok with that.

"I do not live for the validation of another man, nor do I want to wear merchandise with another man’s name on it," Page said. "I’m sorry. I do not want to be gifted a jacket with some guy’s name on it so I can parade around and advertise him for another year, even though he’s already retired, and yet he’s back for some more glory... I do not need to be invited to any festivities that are not for me."

 "So now John Cena is Simon Cowell?"

Page took his criticism of the tournament further and called John Cena "the new Simon Cowell." Page compared the John Cena Classic to American Idol and took issue with how winners of the event will be crowned.

"Who’s going to vote for Ethan Page," he said. "I am the smartest man in professional wrestling, and you want me to put my success in the hands of the people who boo me out of the building? There is nothing I can do to win a single thing in the John Cena Classic.

"At the end of the day, you could win your match. I could submit the greatest NXT wrestler right now. I could pin them, knock them out, any kind of finish, and successfully defeat any NXT wrestler, and the fans could still vote for them to be the winner. Am I not understanding the concept of this?"

Now, Page said if he did end up getting an invite to the tournament, he'd take it out of spite and to prove a point. The John Cena Classic is set to take place on December 14. Cena will be on this week's episode of SmackDown to invite more participants to his event.

As for Page, his next opponent for the IC title is Rey Fenix. This week on Raw, Fenix defeated Chad Gable and Big Cass in a triple threat match to become number one contender for the title.

Prior to joining WWE, Page had a run in AEW. Prior to that, he was a part of TNA and various other wrestling promotions around the world.