Bret Hart Believes John Cena Was A Good Heel

Bret Hart has given his thoughts on John Cena and Cody Rhodes.

After years of being the ultimate WWE babyface, John Cena shockingly turned heel at Elimination Chamber to align with The Rock.

However, his subsequent run was underwhelming for many, especially after it became clear that The Rock wouldn’t be returning to television.

On the eve of SummerSlam, Cena dropped his heel character and returned to being a babyface. In a promo on SmackDown, he said he’d been pretending to be someone he’s not after being hung out to dry by others. Although they weren’t named, this was a reference to The Rock and Travis Scott, who were also involved.

At the summer spectacular, Cena lost the Undisputed WWE Championship to Cody Rhodes and cemented his babyface turn along the way. And despite heavy speculation online, Rhodes also failed to turn heel.

Bret Hart Backs John Cena’s Heel Run

In an interview with the Rap on Wrestling Podcast ahead of SummerSlam, Bret Hart was asked about a potential ‘double turn’ during the match between Cena and Rhodes

While The Hitman initially cast doubt on Rhodes’ ability to become a heel (at least yet), he suggested that Cena had surprised him by making his own heel run work.

“I don’t see Cody turning heel. Not yet. I don’t know if like, I don’t know if Cody could turn heel. Like, I don’t know. It’s a whole different pair of boots to wear when you’re heel.

Like, it’s a different thing and I say that with now looking at John Cena, who I used to say for years, that’s the one guy that could never turn heel because he was just too much of a baby face and too much of a hero and too much of a guy that kids looked up to and was a natural baby face, and his style, like his wrestling style.

I can remember when I was, when I turned heel years ago, back with Jim Neidhart, the Hart Foundation. I remember doing drop kicks on guys, and I remember guys going, ‘heels don’t do drop kicks, what are you doing?’ and I’m like, because I turned heel I forgot every move that I ever did. Now all I know how to do is cheat now?

But with John Cena, his style, I never saw him ever being a bad guy. He just, to me, was a good guy through and through. I kind of used to say the same thing about Hulk Hogan, that he could never be a bad guy, that he was too sort of cemented into being a baby face. But I will say that John Cena has surprised me and has turned out to be a good heel.

I guess if you think about it and you know you can do it, I do think there’s a lot that- you can be a great babyface and not be a great heel, and you can be a great heel and not be a great babyface. They’re not naturally… They’re not just givens that you can do either one. You have to understand what’s the best way to do it.”

By contract, JBL claimed that John Cena’s heel run was a failure, and worked better on paper than in execution. He added that fans’ simply didn’t want to boo Cena, especially so close to his retirement.

H/t to Fightful