After months of operating as the top heel in the company, John Cena made an abrupt turn back to a babyface on the final SmackDown before SummerSlam. WWE Hall of Famer JBL weighed in on the sudden change, giving his theory on why the company decided to abandon the highly anticipated heel run
A Great Plan That “Doesn’t Work”
Cena’s heel turn was one of the biggest stories in wrestling, a move many fans had wanted to see for over a decade. On the Something to Wrestle podcast, JBL suggested that the decision to end it was likely a simple case of a good idea on paper not connecting with the live audience in the way the company had hoped.
Fans Just Want To Love Him
Ultimately, JBL believes that after 20 years as the company’s top hero, the fans simply were not ready to boo John Cena and just wanted to celebrate him during his farewell tour.
“I think sometimes when you draw something up, it’s a great plan, and all of a sudden it doesn’t work. And I think that’s what it was… you put it out there on the field or the ring or wherever you put it out there to implement it, and it doesn’t work like you thought it would. And I think that’s what happened here. You got one of the greatest of all time, in John Cena, certainly on the Mount Rushmore of almost anybody’s Mount Rushmore for people. And he had something that was not resonating. I didn’t think it was resonating, you know, as well as the people wanted to see Cena. I’m not sure they wanted to see the heel Cena. I think they just wanted to like, ‘you know what? We just love this guy. We want to see him.'”
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