John Cena’s heel run during his farewell tour last year continues to be a contentious topic among WWE fans, with many praising the initial turn at the Elimination Chamber and the matches he had against his greatest rivals, while others criticized the long-term creative direction for his character. Ultimately, it was decided that Cena was going to “ruin wrestling,” and during the newest season of “WWE Unreal,” the “Never Seen 17” shared the thought process behind creating an evil version of himself.
“I have to formulate a why. Why after 23 years am I doing this? Well it could be, I’m the last of the old guard and I don’t like the new guard,” he explained. “What does that mean to ruin wrestling? That means to take the fun away from the fans. That means to win that championship with methodical, catastrophically boring work. To make people like, f**k this guy.”
Just two months after his heel turn, Cena would defeat Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Title at WrestleMania 41 in a match that was heavily criticized for its quality and the involvement of American rapper Travis Scott. Cena admitted that he intended for the main event of WrestleMania to be mediocre because he was trying to “ruin wrestling,” but realized the match was too disappointing.
“Everybody’s like, that’s it? What a sh***y main event. Yup, that’s what I was going for, watch the next one,” he stated. “And then I was explaining, like, that was too boring. Like, that was too bad. I think people are going to stop coming. The perspective was, hey, this isn’t heat on you, this is heat on the company.”
Triple H opens up about the challenges he faced booking John Cena as a heel
In the same episode of “Unreal,” WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque commented on Cena’s heel turn, explaining that he approached the 17-time World Champion about changing the direction of his heel run following WrestleMania.
“There was a certain point in time where I was like, alright, this ain’t working. You still got to deliver to these people. Hopefully, you’ll do it in a manner which they don’t like that. But you gotta give them your greatness still.”
Levesque continued by outlining the biggest challenge with Cena’s final year, explaining that it was difficult to come to terms with losing a character who has been the nucleus of the company’s storylines while beginning the road to WrestleMania the following month.
“You’re basically building up an entire year on saying goodbye to one of the biggest characters in the history of our business and then moving on. When John Cena wraps up with us in December, at that point, you start the first of the year getting ready for WrestleMania. So as this giant chapter closes, you have to start a whole new one, and one of the biggest focal points that you had all year long is gone … you also want to be able to explore the things that John hasn’t been able to explore.”
After WrestleMania, Cena told Triple H that his instincts were “spot on” about altering the direction of his character, which allowed him to still portray himself as a heel while delivering a better product in the ring.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Netflix” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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