John Cena says he accepts that his heel turn failed, and that he is glad he tried it anyway. Cena went back over his final year with Graham GSM Matthews on WrestleRant, and split the question of whether it worked into two parts.
“As far as ‘Did it work?’ There are a lot of aspects to that. From a business side, we didn’t have a seat left. People watched in numbers. I don’t know if it didn’t work from a business standpoint, but then there’s a creative standpoint,” Cena said. “Sometimes, blockbuster movies are poorly reviewed by critics. I understand where, critically, people are like, ‘This isn’t what I wanted.'”
He said the version he wanted was never possible inside the time available.
“Intrinsically, I would’ve loved to have a chance to literally ruin wrestling. To wrestle so poorly that people just wanted to see me go and wanted to see a hero thwart me,” he said. “We didn’t have that kind of time, and that would not have been good for business. That would’ve made people stop coming to shows and the numbers go down.”
He also made the point that the alternative would have left the question open forever. Cena said that had they never done it, the what-if would have been material for writers indefinitely, and that at least now there is a real answer.
The turn was not his idea. Cena said it came from Paul Levesque, WWE’s Chief Content Officer.
“It wasn’t my idea. It was Paul’s idea. He asked me, and two seconds later, I said yes. Just like facing Brock or tapping out to Gunther. ‘Yes.’ That’s how I do business,” Cena said. “Yes, just let me tell the story my way. If we never did it, I would’ve been fine. In reflecting, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Levesque has told the same story from his side. He said on High Performance before WrestleMania 41 that the safe option was a year of greatest hits, and that he went to Cena and asked what if they pulled the lever nobody had ever pulled.
Cena said the value of having done it is what he can now say to other wrestlers.
“I’m glad we got to do it because it helps me now when I speak to younger talent and say, ‘Be bold. Take chances. Don’t worry about failing,'” he said. “I come from a place of activity, not a place of privilege where I’m in some sort of protective bubble.”
He took the criticism head on rather than arguing with it.
“A lot of folks will say, ‘The heel turn failed.’ Okay, I accept that as a failure, but I swung boldly,” Cena said. “A lot of folks were upset with the finish of the last match. I accept that critique, and I feel great that I swung boldly in my final moment.”
Cena turned at Elimination Chamber on March 1, 2025 in Toronto. He won the men’s Chamber match, then The Rock and Travis Scott came to the ring and Cena beat down Cody Rhodes, using a gold watch as a knuckle before handing it to Scott to carry on with. The three left together with the championship over Scott’s shoulder.
He beat Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41 for a record 17th world title. He was back to a babyface on the August 1 SmackDown ahead of SummerSlam, five months after the turn.
The gap between the two is where the criticism sits. Scott appeared once more after Toronto, distracting Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 to let Cena win the title, and that was the end of his involvement. The Rock did not come back at all.
Paul Heyman addressed it on The Ariel Helwani Show that August. He confirmed there had been a planned payoff involving both men and said it fell apart and WWE moved forward without it. On The Rock specifically, Heyman said he had never been advertised or booked for WrestleMania and pointed questions about his absence at Dwayne Johnson and Brian Gewirtz.
Cena wrestled for the last time on December 13, 2025 at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event, tapping out to Gunther.
