More On John Cena’s Heel Turn
I’ve been wanting to talk about this a bit more but honestly I needed some time to really let it sink in. I would call that a good sign for the whole situation as the idea that something could impact me that much is a little hard to fathom. This was the definition of “they actually did that” and it throws so many things for a loop that it is going to take time to unpack a lot of it. I’m not even going to try to cover everything here but this is what has been going through my head since everything happened.
So the big story coming out of Elimination Chamber is that John Cena finally, honest to goodness turned heel after fans had been calling for it over the last…oh we’ll say close to twenty years. After the Rock gave Cena a signal, Cena attacked WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and left him a bloody mess, leading up to their title match at Wrestlemania in April. It’s the first time Cena has been evil since 2003 and…wow where do I begin with that?
The first thing that comes to mind of course is the Hulk Hogan heel turn at Bash At The Beach 1996, as Cena’s turn is this generation’s version. Cena has been the full fledged good guy in WWE for well over twenty years, which is even longer than Hogan had been wrestling when his turn took place. There is a large section of fans who have never seen Cena as anything but the All American WWE superhero and now that is all gone.
At the end of the day, this is quite the bold move for WWE, but assuming Cena keeps to his word about leaving at the end of the year, why not? Cena is going to be a major star no matter what he does and now he gets to go in a completely different direction. Yeah he’s been a heel before, but that was back when Cena was little more than an amusing midcarder. This is all timer Cena as a heel and that is universally different than anything he has done before.
So where does this lead? Well odds are it’s going to lead to Cena being absolutely awesome as a heel, as there is a good chance that he knocks this so far out of the park. Cena has shown that he is a great talker and can make almost anything work, and if he walks out there in a suit and talking down to the people, it’s going to be incredible. Throw in the chance that he gets the record for World Titles at Wrestlemania and it’s going to work very well. At least in theory.
To wrap it up, the fact that I’m watching the Daily Show as I’m typing this up and the show is using Cena’s heel turn to compare this to international politics should show you just how big of a deal this is. It might not be the game changer that Hogan was in 1996 (as there are too many differences today for it to really do that) but this is a huge deal for a lot of fans and there are some major doors open that have not been there for a very long time.
My only concern with this is breaking the world title record feels like a Babyface moment but the only way I could see it happening now is Cena loses at WrestleMania loses again at Summer Slam rock beats Cena down the next night and goes through the post SummerSlam 1991 of sergeant slaughter’s I want my country back with I want my c nation back and then he spends the final four months of the year working his way into the fans trust and good graces and then I’m not sure on the calendar but he finally wins the world title on New Year’s Eve just before he rides off into the sunset or at least the last WWE show of 2025.
The only issue I have with the turn is that for Rock’s plan to work in the event Cody refused was for Cena to win the chamber which he didn’t help him at all with. That’s a pretty big gamble for a mastermind villain even if it is John Cena you put your faith in. Anything can happen in a chamber match.
I understand what you’re saying but even if someone else won the chamber and Cody turned rock down rock would have probably been confident he could have persuaded Cody’s other potential opponents to work with him
The Rock could just use his Board powers to insert John into the main event.
To be honest, i thought punk would’ve won the chamber and cena would’ve still be inserted into the main event thanks to the the rock, and considering CM Punk’s determination for a main event spot at wrestlemania, it could’ve killed two birds with one stone, but what happened was still shocking.