Full Story Behind John Cena’s WWE Heel Turn Finally Revealed By Triple H

John Cena’s heel turn at the 2025 Elimination Chamber was one of the best in recent history.

It was a twist that no wrestling fan saw coming, leaving them consumed by an emotion they struggled to process.

Cena would go on to win the Undisputed WWE Championship by defeating Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41, becoming a record 17-time world champion.

WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H spoke about the turn recently, detailing how the wheel for it got set into motion, which involved various parties.

There are five people that I talked to with a move this big. It’s Rock. Obviously it’s Cody. Cena, Travis Scott, who we wanna help build this idea around, and then WWE President, of course, Nick Khan.

So, my first call is to Nick, who is also a board member along with Rock. I run the idea by him. Nick basically says, “Love all of it.” So, my next reach-out to that point is to Rock. I hit him with “What if…What if hear me out on this,” and he just listens and every now and then through the conversation, he would go, “Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm…” And I got to the end and he was like, “Wow, um, man, I gotta tell you. I think that’s genius, like, let’s you know…” And he immediately started riffing thoughts and ideas, right? So, we probably spent like another 30 minutes on the phone together talking about this, and the more we talked about it, the more we were both getting excited about it and, like, into it.

My next conversation is with Travis Scott. I make sure Travis Scott is comfortable with the creative. He loves it, and says, “Let’s do this.” Somewhere in there, Cody hits me back. I get with Cody. When I hit him with it, he’s like, “Holy sh*t! I didn’t think that’s what you were gonna say. Wow, that’s really cool.”

Then, I talked to John. John’s the best. He was like, “Well, before you say it, just know, if this is what you believe in, I’m in.” I said, “John, okay. Let’s take the bullsh*t hat off. Now, this is not…the head of creative talking to you, and, you know, you, the performer.” I said, “I’m asking John Cena, the human being. Paul Levesque is talking to you. Give me your gut.” This impacts John Cena, the real-life human being, and it impacts his movies, and it impacts his PR schedule and impacts everything. We’re honest with each other. I said, “Give me your gut. You like it or you don’t.” And he was like, uh, “I like it a lot, actually.” And when I hung up the phone with him, within a minute, minute and a half, I’ve gotten like three different texts from him of thoughts, ideas, and so, I’m like, “Right, he’s…he’s engaged.”

So, once we get to that point now, it’s a coordinated effort. Everybody’s getting together. The Rock’s reaching out to Cody. Nick reaching out to Rock. Cody’s reaching out to Cena. Cena’s reaching out to everybody. So, one of the things that we all talked about on the phone was ‘let’s keep this tight.’ Nobody gets this information that isn’t on this phone call.

WWE: Unreal, WWE’s latest 5-episode docuseries, is now available for streaming on Netflix.

Rick Flair Not A Fan Of ‘Heel’ John Cena

In winning the world championship for the 17th time, John Cena eclipsed Ric Flair.

Recently, the Nature Boy spoke on The Ariel Helwani Show and discussed Cena’s current run as the company’s top heel.

Flair stated that John Cena was one of those wrestlers within WWE who could not be a heel, comparing him to Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat.

The thing about John, John is Ricky Steamboat. There’s nothing bad about John… You know, some guys like Jack Brisco and Ricky Steamboat, Sting and all that, they just can’t be a heel. And John, as great as he is all that, he’s just not a bad guy. He’s such a good guy.

John Cena will defend his Undisputed WWE Championship against Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam.

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