John Cena Not Turning Heel Was Right Decision Says WWE Rival
John Cena remaining in a babyface role for most of his WWE career was the right move, according to a WWE Hall of Famer.
The rise of John Cena in late 2002 happened when he took on the persona of a cocky rapper who was booed by the fans. By late 2003, Cena would become a babyface and he has remained in that role for over 20 years.
At WrestleMania 21 in 2005, John Cena ended the long WWE Championship reign of John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) in one of the big matches at the show. It was Cena’s first WWE Title win on the road to winning an incredible 16 WWE World Titles in his legendary career.
Throughout his run as WWE’s top guy, there were many fans and likely people within the company, who wanted to see John Cena just because he had been a babyface for so long. Plus, for many years, there were a lot of fans that would boo Cena perhaps because they were tired of him winning a lot of matches and titles.
JBL was a guest co-host of the Something to Wrestle podcast and he spoke about how wrestlers that were on the roster with Cena made more money because of him and he also agreed with WWE for not turning Cena heel.
“Those guys that were in that era, they owe Cena a lot, like their cars, their homes, their retirement [laughs] and all kinds of shit. Just like we owed Steve [Austin] in the Attitude Era, and all those guys that were on top. Cena sold so much merch.
I was in so many creative meetings, the commentators used to be in the creative meetings on the day of, not the original creative meetings, and I’d see so many guys, you could see a new writer come in who’s very ambitious, it’s not gonna be a few weeks before he pitches the idea of turning Cena heel [laughs], every single one of them would come up with it.
Vince [McMahon] was like, ‘No, he sells all our merchandise. What are we gonna do?’ It was the right decision. In hindsight, it was 100% the right decision not to turn Cena heel.”
John Cena Was Ready For A WWE Heel Turn When It Was Presented To Him
The future WWE Hall of Famer John Cena revealed in an interview that he was ready to turn heel when it was pitched to him prior to his WrestleMania 28 match with The Rock in 2012.
“It was Cena Rock 1. I got word that they were going to do it. I went out and recorded a new song. I went out and got all new gear. I wasn’t prepared for ruthless aggression, that was the last time I wasn’t prepared. I mean, I heard rumblings of we’re going to do it. And in 48 hours, I had a new track, a new studio mix theme song, final mix. I had seven new singlets, low-cut singlets with boxing-type robes. I already had the boots in storage, so I dusted them off. I was ready to go and already thinking about like what I could do with the story.
Okay, what is a heel? A heel is not just new gear. The objectivity or the message behind the singlet and the boxing robes and the boots is the exact opposite of what you saw with the street gear, the jeans shorts, the t-shirt, the ball cap, the sneakers, no, go the opposite route. And now lean into the opposite of everything you stand for.
So I would begin to not work as hard. I would show up less, I would be untrustworthy and unloyal. I would lack respect in what I did. Like all you have to do is turn that on its [head]. I would give up a lot. All those things you can take and make interesting stories. And this is the stuff that’s running through my head, not what moves can I do. It’s like how can I take the intellectual property that people are familiar with and twist it so it’s like this guy’s f*cking insane?”
As he continued, Cena explained why WWE ended up thinking it was a bad idea due to all of his incredible charity work and how beloved he was by a lot of fans.
“It’s everything I’ve come to love and now I genuinely hate it. And in being a real bad guy, and I think that was the conversation that was eventually had where it’s like, okay, it’s a bad idea.
I’m like, hey, I know this is going to sting but I’m not going to sell another T-shirt. I’m going to take all merchandise off the market. I’m not going to put on anything new. I’m not going to do any more appearances. I’m not going to do any Make-A-Wish. I’m not going to do anything like that. I’m going to be a bad guy to make your good guy so your good guy does all that. And that’s what I was like, we’re kind of in too deep. So it worked out the way it worked out. But bro, I was ready.”
As for what’s next, John Cena has said that he will be at the Raw Netflix premiere on January 6th as his 2025 WWE retirement tour begins.