JOHN CENA SAYS SELLING 37 WWE NFTS WAS 'A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE' - 16th September 2021

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During a Q&A session at last Sunday's Florida SuperCon, John Cena talked openly about his first-ever WWE NFT -- something he called "a catastrophic failure."

WWE and Cena partnered up for the NFT launch on Friday of SummerSlam weekend which included a non-fungible token and a limited edition merchandise box that Cena personally curated. 500 gold tier packages went on the market for $1000 each.

However, the sale of those packages went poorly with Cena saying they sold just 37 of them.

By comparison, the silver edition Undertaker NFTs that went on sale during last year's Survivor Series sold out in 17 seconds with several releases bringing in a total of over $132,000.

"I talk a lot about failure. This idea failed," Cena said.

NFTs are non-fungible tokens: "a collectible digital asset which holds value as a form of cryptocurrency and as a form of art or culture." On recent investor calls, WWE president Nick Khan has pushed the idea of more NFTs in the future.

When asked about the price by a fan who liked the Super Mario Bros. III homage design of the t-shirt but couldn't afford the cost, Cena went into detail explaining the rationale.

He said that when WWE looked at the value of all the items, they came up with a $500-$600 retail value and in doing his own market research, he thought the price seemed fair given the value of the items.

"Why was it $1000? Because me and the folks at WWE thought it was a fair price point. We were wrong. We were absolutely wrong," he said.

Cena said he designs all of his merchandise and was "super proud" of the design, apologizing to the fan for the situation.

However, Cena used the negative experience and the question and spun it into a positive.

"it's ok to swing big. It's ok to be wrong and ok to take chances, but when you are wrong and do fail and you have a moment where you can learn, learn. Course correct, move forward, grow," he said.

(Wrestling Observer / Figure Four Online)