John Cena Admits Errors In Marketing WWE's NFT, This Is The Cause
JAKARTA – Professional wrestler and actor, John Cena, said fans only bought 7.4% of World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, the nonfungible token (NFT) he provided last month.
Speaking at the 2021 Florida Supercon on September 12, Cena said it was a mistake to market his NFT WWE as part of a package with physical collectibles, such as hats, shirts, bracelets, belts, towels, autographed images, and other digital collectibles. The organization offered 500 gold tier packages with NFT for US$1,000, but only a small part of it was sold.
“I talk a lot about failure – this idea failed,” Cena said. “Me and the people at WWE think $1,000 is a fair price. But we were wrong. We were completely wrong.”
“We sold 37 of them. It was a fatal failure," Cena said.
Cena and WWE released two NFT tiers for wrestling stars: a 24-hour "John Cena Platinum NFT" auction and a limited-edition 500 NFT as part of the aforementioned physical collectible pack the following day. NFT platinum reportedly retails for $21,000, with the highest bidder receiving VIP tickets along with accommodation to watch WrestleMania 38 in Dallas or WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles.
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The WWE veteran promoted the crypto space on social media long before the surge in popularity over NFT. Prior to Bitcoin (BTC)'s rise in 2017, when its price was at US$4,000, he tweeted an image of the physical token. Retired professional wrestler The Undertaker, who was also part of WWE until 2020, has even been featured in the NFT collection.
It's unclear whether wrestling fans are deterred by the price of the NFT. Cena himself estimates the digital artwork is actually only worth about $500.
In July, an entrepreneur launched a simultaneous auction for job applications from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and the same NFT. The physical paper ended up selling for US$343,000, while the final bid for the NFT was 12 Ether (ETH), or around US$27,460 at the time.