John Cena Says He Didn’t Have Time To Tell The Right Story As A Heel, But Has No Regrets

The wrestling world was shocked at WWE Elimination Chamber when John Cena turned heel and aligned with The Rock.

Cena went on to win the Undisputed WWE World Title from Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41, and remained heel until WWE SummerSlam. Though he feuded with Randy Orton, R-Truth, and CM Punk, fans didn’t fully buy Cena as a heel after two decades as the franchise face.

Speaking to Bill Simmons on The Ringer, Cena reflected on his heel turn.

“In our business, when you hear negative noise, the knee-jerk reaction is to jump on the audience and turn heel. That’s not what I was told. The person who can make those decisions, and the creative body making those choices are saying, ‘We’re not doing that.’ Even now, in some cases, let’s take the year of retirement. I think a lot of people were wondering, ‘What would happen if John Cena turned heel?’ When I did, it left a taste in people’s mouths that they didn’t like it. They wanted other stuff. ‘I wanted a music change, a uniform change, to act like this.’ I got 11 months to do this. 36 TV appearances. It takes five years to get a guy over, regardless. If you turn him, it’s going to take a year or two on television for it to sink in, especially if you really want to get into it and be able to flip and get a performer to get a flip on the other side when it’s time to turn again. I don’t have the time to tell the right story. That’s beside the point because I’m told, ‘We’re going with this story.’ We sure are. I’m going to do the best I can. To be able to hear the audience be surprised and then be like, ‘This is not what I want.’ It’s not that you may or may not have wanted me to turn bad, it’s that a lot of people started to realize, when I came out at the Intuit Dome, 36 dates, that’s it. It’s hard to conceptualize. The first time I put a counter on after Vegas and it went down to 24, it was like, ‘Woah.’ 15 left, 12 left, 10 left. All this stuff is by design because I knew it had never been done, so how do I continuously send messaging of ‘you’re never going to believe it, you’re never going to get it.’ I have to reinforce the fact that this is it,” he said.

Asked if he had any regrets about the heel turn, Cena said, “Not at all. What is perfect? Perfect is never achievable. That’s a suckers chase. When I look back on it, could I have given any more than I did? Not a bit. I overprepared. I tried to to every corner of my emotional well-being. The cool thing is, when the audience began to turn, we turned. They helped it out. That dynamic was a little bit ahead of schedule for Cody and I, but it made for a great showing in the summer. ‘Let’s try John like this, I know we have limited time, but let’s do something really big.’ Okay, it didn’t work, it doesn’t mean I didn’t give it my all.”

Cena, as a babyface, lost the title to Cody at WWE SummerSlam.

John Cena is set to have his last match on December 13th against either LA Knight or Gunther. Fans can find his comments on his last match here.

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