John Cena has been the good guy for decades now. Whether it is his involvement with the Make a Wish Foundation or the literal fact that kids everywhere have looked up to the legend all this time, it made sense that John Cena would remain a face throughout his wrestling career. However, he recently shocked the world by turning heel at WWE’s Elimination Chamber in Toronto, especially since he is so close to retirement. Looks like the wrestler wanted to end on an unpredictable note!
However, this shouldn’t be so surprising to WWE fans, as John Cena himself talked about the very real possibility of him turning heel almost a year before he actually did.
John Cena surprises fans by turning heel
After John Cena won WWE’s Elimination Chamber event, which took place on March 01, he earned the opportunity to face Cody Rhodes in the upcoming WrestleMania 41 (April).
Rhodes joined him in the ring to congratulate Cena and respond to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson‘s demand that he sell his soul to him. When Johnson showed up at the moment with Travis Scott and asked Rhodes for his answer, he declined, causing Cena to “celebrate” in the ring.
Cena then embraced Rhodes in a friendly hug, or so it seemed. As the camera focused on the Peacemaker actor’s face, his smile turned sinister. The Rock made a throat-slashing gesture, and that was all it took for Cena to kick Rhodes in the groin, officially turning heel.
You can watch the moment below:
I’ve watched wrestling for almost 20 years and this is the single most insane thing I’ve ever seen in professional wrestling. They really did it. They turned John Cena heel. This is REAL TO ME. pic.twitter.com/BB8MmBe7Os
— AEW Out Of Content (@zerocontextAEW) March 2, 2025
And that’s how WWE’s good guy became the villain. During the post-event press conference, Cena didn’t bother to address what just happened in the ring and simply dropped the mic – literally – and walked out. Looks like it is the end of an era and the start of another. Will he come back to the light?
John Cena fans should’ve seen this coming
Why? Well, because the guy literally told us so, albeit in riddles.
During his appearance on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet back in 2024, Cena was asked to imagine a world where The Rock and John Cena would both be heels at the same time.
The wrestler didn’t seem quite blown away by the prospect as he knew that that is something that is “supposed to happen” at one point or the other. Citing the course of human life, Cena stated,
So, the weird thing is that’s supposed to happen. Like, if you think of the course of human life, no one is perfect and it’s very tough each day to wake up and live a good life. It’s tough to be mistake free. So that’s like human trajectory. We all go through patches where we, you know, make decisions agaisnt our value system. We all turn heel at one point, it’s just a matter of if you see the light. I think that’s what makes a lot of the characters redeemable is if you take a really good, good guy and then have them them lose their way.
He compared the situation to that of Darth Vader’s, stating, “It’s Darth Vader in ‘Star Wars,’ but you want to root for him because you don’t give up on that guy. You know there’s good in him.”
We are pretty excited to see this new chapter of Cena’s WWE life unfold. After all, a hero-turned-villain sure makes for an entertaining watch!
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
