At WWE’s Elimination Chamber 2025, fans were stunned when John Cena turned heel against Cody Rhodes and joined forces with The Rock. Since then, Cena has blamed the fans for his actions and announced his plan to “ruin wrestling” by winning the WWE Title at WrestleMania 41.
While speaking with Alex McCarthy of The Daily Mail, Triple H was asked how difficult it was to convince Cena to become a heel.
“No, it was a conversation – without getting into the details – it was a conversation that when it was brought up, everybody… I think in John’s mind he was like ‘wow, I didn’t think you were going to say that. I love it.’ It’s a challenge to him. John’s not a complacent person, right? I think he would have done it and he would have done it happily and he would have done it for fans, but I think there would have been a piece of him that would have been like “alright, I’m just going to go through my day here. This now, I guess it’s no different than if a Hollywood role for any actor where they say ‘we’d like you to play the character you’ve played in 20 other movies pretty much and just do the same thing.’ It’s like “OK.” At a certain point in time they come and they give you something way off something you’ve ever done and you’re like ‘Wow, alright, that’s a challenge I’ve never done before. That energises you and gets your creatives juices going and excites you, it lights you up as a performer. This is going to be special because John is lit up about it. We’re lit up about it. It’s going to be incredible.”
Cena is scheduled for his last advertised appearance before WrestleMania on this afternoon’s Monday Night Raw, where he’ll confront Cody Rhodes.
