Wrestling Veteran Explains the Shocking Truth About Heel John Cena

John Cena is no longer a heel.

John Cena’s heel arc began at Elimination Chamber earlier this year when he sold his soul to The Rock and beat up Cody Rhodes after the men’s chamber match. Following his victory, The American Nightmare joined him in the ring to celebrate alongside him, only to become a victim of his vicious attack. Rock and Travis Scott also did quite a number on Rhodes that night.

John Cena went on to WrestleMania to defeat Rhodes to become the 17-time World Champion. As an act of revenge, Rhodes won the King of the Ring tournament to challenge The Never Seen 17 at SummerSlam. On SmackDown before WWE’s biggest summer extravaganza, Big Match John reverted to his babyface character and lost to Rhodes at SummerSlam.

How John Cena Made His Heel Turn a Success?

Critics and fans alike widely appreciated Cena’s heel run. Speaking on The Four Horsemen Network podcast, wrestling legend Magnum TA explained the shocking truth behind Cena’s heel run success. He stated that John Cena’s heel run worked so well because he was honest, used real-life issues, and wasn’t afraid to say the things people didn’t want to admit. This made his character feel genuine and kept him interesting to the fans.

He pointed out that Cena’s journey had many ups and downs, and he faced a lot of mixed reactions from fans; some people strongly disliked him, while others still supported him. Despite doing many good things, like making wishes for kids, John Cena had to deal with criticism and negativity. The Cenation Leader was smart about using fans’ real feelings and the changing culture in his performances.

He would often say things that were true but uncomfortable for people to hear, which made his heel character believable. The world was changing, and John Cena understood and talked about those changes openly, sometimes making points that needed to be said, even if they were unpopular.

Isn’t it funny. When you think about his career you think about the ups and downs and things he had to go through because there’s got to be some truth to the rhetoric and he was very good at weaving that in and he fought for years with half of them hating him, half of them still liking him, doing the right thing and all the
Make a Wish he did and all the good things he did.

But he went through that cultural change before the world went through a really big cultural change and saw all that happen and talked to people about it and really common sense, good psychology and everything else. And he used that, leaned into it hard as a heel. And you know, it really wasn’t anything he was saying that wasn’t correct. He just told people stuff that they didn’t want to hear, it’s cool. [31:51 to 33:00]

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