John Cena’s Heel Turn Feels Like Cinema To WWE Legend
A legendary WWE superstar who knows John Cena well feels like Cena “will do everything that he can to make you despise him.”
The wrestling world is still talking about the shocking end of WWE Elimination Chamber when John Cena turned heel on Cody Rhodes by siding with The Rock (aka The Final Boss) and Travis Scott.
That heel turn from Cena happened after he won the Men’s Elimination Chamber match to earn a WWE Title match against Rhodes at WrestleMania 41.
After Cena kicked Rhodes in the groin, the trio of Rock, Cena, and Scott beat up Rhodes for several minutes while the Toronto crowd with 35,000+ people booed Cena.
Matt Hardy is a future WWE Hall of Famer who knows John Cena well since Hardy was already established on the roster in 2002 when Cena debuted as a rookie. Like Cena, Matt is still wrestling as a TNA Tag Team Champion who has also competed in WWE NXT recently as well.
While speaking on his The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt joined the millions of people who have praised John Cena for finally becoming a bad guy in WWE after more than 20 years as a babyface.
“I thought it was very well done. I thought it was great, I think it is good for business, I think John was very generous in being up for it and I would imagine he’s pretty excited for it with everything being considered.”
The discussion continued with Matt talking about the “this is cinema” meme that is done a lot in today’s world, but in this case it is justified to call it cinema. Matt also praised WWE for executing it perfectly.
“You know, you see people post all the time and this whole meme is done to death nowadays, where they put this is cinema. When you see the thing where he pulls him in, he hugs him, the facial expression changes, Rock looks at him and does the thing, that was cinema though.
He backed off, kind of smiled again, then kicked him in the nuts. The way it was executed was done perfectly, it was shot perfectly, the storytelling of that moment was huge and I think that is something that is going to be a huge positive and plus for WWE business over the next few months leading into WrestleMania.”
John Cena Is Motivated To Be A Great Heel To Show He Can Do It
As Matt Hardy continued, he spoke about how a lot of pro wrestlers want to have success as a babyface and a heel to show that they can do it. That will likely happen with John Cena as well.
“I think for his final year, if it does legitimately end up being his final year, which it seems like it’s going to be, I feel like he would want to work as hard as possible, he would want to make it memorable. He would want to supply wrestling fans with indelible memories and I think turning heel would be something that he would totally have on the plate already. I think that would be one of his ideas as a way to go, to do something totally different and fresh that he’s never done.
I remember Ric Flair used to say this all the time, he said, ‘It’s one thing if you can get over by being a great babyface, guys who do babyface their entire career and they’re never heel, I think they’re good at what they do but they’re not the most talented in pro wrestling. The most talented performers in pro wrestling are the ones who can be on top as a babyface or the ones who can be on top as a heel. You make people absolutely love you and adore you or you can piss them off and make them think you’re the ultimate a**hole.’
He said, ‘I can do both, Ricky Steamboat couldn’t, you tell me who’s the better performer overall.’
here’s a lot of sense in that as well because it is really important to have that ability and that duality to play both sides. I think John is going to put a lot of pride behind this heel turn, he’s gonna work really really hard to be the opposite of what he was, the guy with the hustle, loyalty, and respect.
The guy who did all the make-a-wishes and set records and was just the face of WWE. I think he’s going to go the complete opposite direction and he’s going to do everything that he can to make you despise him.”
Due to filming commitments, John Cena isn’t expected to address his heel turn until the March 17th episode of Raw in Brussels, Belgium, so fans will have to keep waiting to hear why the Cenation leader did what he did.
John Cena will challenge Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas in what will likely be the night two main event on April 20th.