WWE megastar John Cena announced on Thursday that he will be the host of the 2016 ESPYS in mid July
Wrestling fans will be the first to admit that there’s no bigger mainstream star in WWE and all of professional wrestling than John Cena. Love him or hate him, his longevity and his ability to invade popular culture throughout the course of his career have been near unparalleled. Now he’s about to take that to new heights as he’s reaping the benefits of WWE’s new working relationship with ESPN in a major way.
On Thursday, John Cena took to Twitter to announce that he will be the host of the 2016 ESPYS on July 13 in Los Angeles, CA:
Honored and excited to host the 2016 @ESPYS. Wednesday, July 13 will be a date to remember, I promise that. pic.twitter.com/W86wQtgiIP
— John Cena (@JohnCena) May 19, 2016
Obviously it’s a big honor for any celebrity or any athlete to be chosen to host the ESPYS. However, it’s particularly notable that someone like John Cena is getting the nod considering the space and medium that he occupies.
Even with WWE and ESPN working together, there’s still a bit of difference in how the network covers professional wrestling and how they’d cover something more legitimized like the NBA or NFL. So to see them look to wrestling’s biggest star for their awards show—an awards show that is almost surely not going to including anything from WWE—speaks volumes about wrestling and John Cena’s place in culture right now.
As far as how good of a host he’ll be, Cena if anything is personable and can be wholly likable. Whether you like him in WWE or not, he’ll almost surely crush it at the ESPYS.
For all your WWE coverage, stay up to date with the FanSided hub.