Is Cena's heel run a bust?

Express Tribune

18-05-2025

On March 2, John Cena did the unthinkable and turned heel after more than two decades. He turned on Cody Rhodes and sold his soul to The Rock. In what's his last year as a wrestler, he defeated Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 to make history again and win his 17th world championship, breaking Ric Flair's record. At WWE Backlash, Cena defeated his old rival Randy Orton in what was possibly their last one-on-one match to retain the title.
When the turn occurred, it was compared to Hulk Hogan joining the NWO as to how industry-changing it had the potential to be. However, despite all the right elements, the weight that Cena's name, accolades and the gravity this historic achievement carries, the heel run so far hasn't lived up to the hype it had on paper. A number of issues have accumulated and left the fans underwhelmed with the run since March. But the biggest issue with Cena's heel turn might not even be Cena himself.
Ruining wrestling
In his first promo after the heel turn, Cena said he wanted to "ruin wrestling" and turned on the fans since they never respected him even when he was a good guy. That is a fact. The fans turned on him soon into his Super Cena days as most other fan-favourite stars didn't get their due recognition and opportunities in the company due to him being at the top. It frustrated the fans for years.
After a significant time away, fans have come to appreciate Cena again but that wasn't always the case. Therefore, when he turned heel months away from his in-ring retirement, fans were elated. But Cena's logic and motivation left a lot to be desired.
Performing as a heel doesn't just mean wearing a boo-boo face and blaming the fans. A heel persona is relatively easier than being a babyface since it allows wrestlers to be more interesting characters. When in a rut, they even demand to turn heel so they could save their careers. And it has worked countless times, including with Cena in early 2000s.
Cena doesn't need to save his career at this point. He has done it all many times over. And yet the entirety of his heel persona can be summed up in a frown and the typical "all you people" lines sprinkled with one-liners right out of a fraudulent motivational speaker's speech.
It cannot be possible that Cena has forgotten how to be a heel. He used to be a fantastic one before he became the top guy. The Doctor of Thuganomics persona still lives in fans' hearts even after two decades as that's what catapulted him to superstardom. Wearing a chain and lock, and rapping and dissing his opponents made the crowd love him. But now, the only way you can tell Cena is the bad guy is because he doesn't smile anymore and keeps a permanent frown on his face.
In his promos, Cena keeps repeating he will retire with the championship and ruin wrestling and that he's the last real champion. But why does he want to ruin wrestling when he's the one who has reigned at the top for about 20 years? A heel turn of such magnitude should have a stronger motivation behind it.
The run is also undermined by Cena's lack of weekly scheduled dates. The weeks-long wait between each appearance also leaves fans dissatisfied since upon each return, they are offered similar ambiguous promos with no answers.
No Final Boss
The motivation of the turn was teased when it happened. This is why perhaps the fans' dissatisfaction with Cena's heel run isn't entirely due to Cena himself, but The Rock.
Dwayne Johnson's Final Boss persona was the best thing in wrestling during the buildup to WrestleMania 40 last year. The fans expected a follow-up this year due to his involvement with Rhodes. He appeared and offered the champ to sell his soul. When Rhodes refused, Cena accepted and the two former rivals beat Rhodes to a bloody pulp (along with a stiff shot from rapper Travis Scott that resulted in a broken eardrum and a black eye).
However, in the last two months, The Rock disappeared and has had no involvement in this story that he kickstarted. In fact, even Cena and Rhodes have barely mentioned the Final Boss, leaving fans with unanswered questions.
During a podcast appearance, The Rock said he felt the character did his job and he stepped out of the spotlight to put more focus on Cena and Rhodes who were to main event WrestleMania for the title. Even during the match, only Scott appeared to interfere and help Cena, rather than The Rock himself.
But the Final Boss character is needed back to answer the questions about why he and Cena joined forces. What did he offer to Cena that he sold his soul to him? Why did he want Cody in the first place? And what did The Rock give Cody last year after WrestleMania? And what's next now that Cena has got the world title?
In over two months, there has been no progression in the story. WWE has only been offering random side quests for Cena to keep the reign. It's essentially a failed magic trick, where a rabbit doesn't pop out of a hat, so you distract the audience with card and number tricks, and claim that was the plan all along.
But WWE hasn't convinced anyone yet that this was always the plan. Of course, this is easily fixable if The Rock returns and they provide some answers. But so far, it just seems like a pointless move.
When Cena turned, he had already won the Elimination Chamber match and had a guaranteed title shot. He didn't need The Rock's help. So, now the payoff, if or when it comes, has to be much bigger than that to do justice to the story.
According to reports, The Rock (who's a member of the board of directors at TKO Group, which owns WWE) wanted Rhodes to turn heel, but WWE refused, considering his popularity. The next best option was Cena. The Rock played along at first and then left them hanging to figure it out themselves. Whether there is any truth to these reports by the dirtsheets and wrestling journalists is irrelevant at this point.
Such speculations will naturally spread among the fans when the story is flawed and character motivations aren't clear. Rest assured, WWE must tie up the loose threads and make sense of this heel run before the fans stop caring about bad man Cena, which has already started happening with the increasing cheers for the Hollywood star.