Linda McMahon Asked About John Cena’s WWE Heel Turn In Unique Place
It seems as if everybody is talking about John Cena’s WWE heel turn, even at the highest level of the United States government.
Linda McMahon was recently sworn as the the Secretary of Education as part of WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump’s staff during his second term as President of the United States.
For about 30 years, Linda was running WWE along with her husband Vince McMahon. While Vince was the Chairman who ran the company creatively, Linda was the CEO.
In addition to her behind-the-scenes roles, Linda was also a television character on WWE programming, oftentimes at odds with her husband and also making big announcements that made the fans happy.
At WWE Elimination Chamber in Toronto on March 1st, John Cena shocked the world by turning heel for the first time in 22 years as he aligned with “The Final Boss” The Rock against the Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. That turn by Cena happened after he won the Men’s Elimination Chamber match and earned a WWE Title match against Rhodes at WrestleMania 41.
That heel turn by Cena was seen by millions of people not just because they watched Elimination Chamber, but also because of all the views on social media. It was not just a pro wrestling story since Cena, and especially The Rock, are well-known outside of the wrestling world. That means people who follow sports, entertainment news and other outlets likely know about Cena’s turn.
An example of that was made by WWE’s Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who worked with The Rock to come up with the Cena heel turn story. Triple H is also Linda McMahon’s son-in-law since he’s been married to Stephanie McMahon for 22 years. While speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, Triple H revealed that Linda was asked about Cena’s heel turn at President Trump’s Address to Congress this past Tuesday.
“Just recently, John Cena, when we talk about generational stars, for 20-plus years, has been the ultimate good guy in WWE. For him personally, that’s just who he is. Done more wishes for Make-a-Wish than any other celebrity in history. He’s just an incredible human being. But his character, John Cena, his character has been the ultimate good guy for 20-plus years.
The Rock, who now has a character developed called ‘The Final Boss’, he’s on the board of TKO legitimately, but it’s part of the character, and he has all this power and control. He just used some of that power and control, and John Cena just turned heel, became a bad guy, for the first time.
This was one of the biggest stories we have ever done. Within a few hours, that moment had over 100 million views on social media, within hours. It was front and center on SportsCenter. It resonated everywhere. Jon Stewart used it as a vehicle to explain Washington D.C. and political power with a new administration.
I think it’s no secret my mother-in-law is the Secretary of Education, and she just had a moment the other day where she was walking out of the State of the Union, and the one question someone shouted at her was, ‘Ms. McMahon, as the new Secretary of Education, what do you think about John Cena turning heel?’ It resonated so massively. It transcended everything. It was water cooler talk around the globe and made headlines everywhere.”
Triple H Felt That John Cena’s Heel Turn Was A Powerful Moment
At the Elimination Chamber post-show press conference, Triple H tried to put John Cena’s heel turn into perspective in terms of what it means for WWE.
“I’ve been fortunate to be around a lot of the biggest things in this business in the last, say, 30 years, but I’m not sure I’ve ever felt a more powerful moment. The entirety of John Cena’s career, being the one guy you never really saw — in the beginning of his career or whatever — but as you move forward from that, when he really became John Cena, and the champion, you just didn’t see this moment coming.
When you get to a place in your career when you know undoubtedly, you have months left on your career and your dream and the thing that launched you to the rest of the world, to movie stardom, to everything else that he has in his life, it puts you in a different perspective and it puts you in a place that it’s now or never.
You can ride that out, and you can rest on the things that you have done, and you couldn’t really blame John for doing that.”
John Cena will likely explain his heel turn on the March 17th edition of WWE Raw because that’s the first time Cena’s scheduled for a WWE show after what he did at Elimination Chamber.