Last time out, I considered John Cena’s Elimination Chamber heel turn. WWE is clearly invested in building Cena as Cody Rhodes’ next Big Bad in the little time we have to get to WrestleMania.
Fans and analysts (fanalysts?) have already placed Cena’s actions on their Mount Rushmore of wrestling betrayals. For my money it’s up there, along with Andre the Giant ripping Hulk Hogan’s crucifix from his chest, Hogan defecting to the nWo and Randy Savage turning heel as champion. Bob Backlund’s manic chicken wing spree is my Lincoln Monument. I admit a certain historical bias. Wrestling plays fast and loose with its history, so it’s easy to name the events and people I watched growing up. Depending on your fandom, you may see things differently.
That said, there’s an emerging school of thought semi-articulated by CM Punk during a scathing RAW promo that Cena’s been the heel all along. If you’re a middle-aged dude like me, you might agree. While Cena spent the entirety of his run on top of the wrestling world positioned as a giant-slaying babyface, he has shaded his performances with heel mannerisms and leaned into the role to help get underdog opponents over. The thing is, to a vocal segment of WWE fandom, Cena has always been a heel. Throughout his “Super Cena” run as champion Cena drew deeply divided audience reactions. Pending his next appearance before a live audience, you could hear the division in dueling “Let’s go Cena!”/”Cena sucks” chants. If you’ve got Netflix, go dig up an old episode of RAW or a vintage pay-per-view. The most interesting thing about these chants is that the anti-Cena camp tends to be an octave or two lower than the pro-Cena folks.
Cena was vilified by what many consider WWE’s target demographic: males aged 18-35. Cena’s early years as champion were undermined by predictable storylines and a return to immobile monster heels means to establish the new champ as a superhero. Hulk Hogan fought Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy, Nikolai Volkoff, Kamala and Killer Khan. Cena beat the Big Show, The Great Khali, Mark Henry, Vladimir Kozlov and Kane. As a kid, these were titanic struggles between good and evil. As an adult, they were plodding matches couched in repetitive programs.
Coming off the adult content of the Attitude Era, older fans blamed Cena for WWE’s retreat from the foul language, violence and sexuality they loved, and an increasingly sanitized, corporate version of pro wrestling more suited to their younger siblings. If there’s one way to make a popular character desperately uncool, it’s associating them with your younger brother or sister. The “Cena sucks” chants never went away, but over time all but the most jaded grown-ups developed a grudging respect for the man. He improved in the ring and over time fought a broader array of opponents. I think Cena was also helped by the rise of what David Shoemaker calls “the Reality Era”, which saw kayfabe-confusing runs by Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. These champions split WWE’s audience and took some of the heat off Cena. Adult fans could watch thrilling wrestling exhibitions with their favorite former ROH talent, while their kids could cheer Cena in peace.
And Cena got over huge with children. He still is, or at least was until Elimination Chamber on March 1.
My son is 11. He started watching wrestling well into Roman Reigns hegemony. He was a Cena fan from the moment he saw the colorful outfits, the catchy rap music and the “never give up” catchphrase. I didn’t truly see Cena’s value until I watched him with my son. Cena was made for and marketed to kids, regardless of WWE’s official line on its appropriateness for children.
De-aging the WWE product is periodically necessary, even if it draws heat from older fans who feel left behind. I have a theory that however many bodies may fill arenas or stadium, and however many thousands of dollars those fans might spend on big event tickets, pro wrestling constantly chases the same fans, generation after generation. I never quite lost the bug, but I understood that with Cena at the helm, WWE was no longer marketing to me.
At the height of Cena’s torch-bearing run he was often asked about turning heel. WWE and wrestling companies in general are known to realign their characters in accordance with the audiences’ preferences. At some point virtually every heel crosses over from being booed to being cheered. To quote fellow lawyer Harvey Dent, “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” I still admire Cena’s response to these questions. He would say that to those who boo him, he’s already the villain, so there wouldn’t be much to gain from a formal switch.
There are several examples where Cena did play a subtle heel, often in response to an openly hostile crowd. He rarely crossed the line into full-on cheating (after all, there were still children in the crowd and watching at home), but he wasn’t afraid to goad the adults in the room.
If Cena was ever going to be booed, it was by the Hammerstein Ballroom audience for the first ECW One Night Stand pay-per-view. And boy, was he booed. Cena lost the WWE Championship in the main event to Rob Van Dam, following interference from white-hot heel Edge (who was himself embroiled in a feud with Cena that divided audiences—the kids who loved Cena versus the adults who dug Edge’s sleazy, raunchy bad boy act).
Van Dam had won his opportunity at Cena’s championship after winning the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania. In May, Van Dam announced his intention to cash in his briefcase against Cena at One Night Stand. Van Dam and Cena were both babyfaces, but by the end of the evening Van Dam threw his briefcase at Cena, then levelled him with a Van Daminator to the crowd’s approval. In June, the two men staged a contract signing. Paul Heyman appeared and foreshadowed the event, telling Cena that ECW fans couldn’t wait to boo him out of the building. Heyman brought along several ECW veterans to beat Cena down (and build sympathy), but again the crowd wasn’t having it.
This second WWE-sanctioned ECW show was notable for the audience’s extreme anti-WWE sentiment. The stars most associated with that brand were mercilessly booed and subjected to foul-mouthed chants throughout the evening. As surprising as Van Dam’s victory may have been, the most memorable part of the match was Cena’s entrance. As usual, Cena threw his T-shirt into the audience. The crowd threw it back. Cena tried again. And again. And again. Like a hometown baseball crowd rejecting an opposing team’s home run by throwing the ball back on the field, the ECW faithful made their rejection of Cena known. I’m sure Cena was used to grown-ups telling him he sucked. I wonder if he anticipated the sheer vitriol he received. It was worthy of the most dastardly heel. Chants included “F— you Cena,” “Same old sh-t,” “Overrated,” and “You can’t wrestle.” It seemed like the fans cheered Cena’s loss as much as Van Dam’s victory.
At SummerSlam 2013 Cena defended the WWE title against an ascendant Daniel Bryan. The match paid off a storyline where Bryan was repeatedly denied the title despite his momentum and the audience’s favor. Leading up to the match, Raw General Manager Brad Maddox had announced that Cena would choose his own opponent for the supercard. Cena polled the audience. Consistent with his embrace of retail politics, he chose Bryan, who was emerging from the hugely successful Team Hell No with Kane. Of course, Vince McMahon objected to this choice and began degrading Bryan, building fans’ sympathy leading up to the match. The odds were further stacked against Bryan when Triple H appointed himself Guest Referee.
The match itself was an even, back-and-forth contest that elevated Bryan as a main-event talent. Cena was always polarizing, but the Bryan storyline added an extra bass section to the boos he received. Bryan vs. Cena played a divide “professional wrestling” and “sports entertainment”, including an aborted Five Knuckle Shuffle fist-drop countered with a stiff kick by Bryan. Like Hulk Hogan before him, I’ve always thought Cena’s matches naturally skewed towards heeldom. He’s first and foremost a powerful brawler. Bryan won the title with another kick and a running knee—a different finisher considering Bryan was mostly a submission specialist (which would have gone against Cena’s “Never Give Up” schtick. Cena shook Bryan’s hand after the match, along with Triple H’s, and went to the back. Bryan’s celebration was short-lived, as Randy Orton left SummerSlam the new heel champion.
During his later runs with the United States Championship, Cena issued an “open challenge” to the WWE locker room. The semi-officially titled “John Cena US Open Challenge” not only helped raise the profile of several mid-carders it opened many fans’ eyes to the fact that Cena had developed into a strong, versatile in-ring worker. Cena won the title at WrestleMania 31, beating Rusev, The match was notable for moving Cena out of the main event.
As US champion, Cena fought a variety of opponents rather than the lumbering monsters and repetitive nemeses he routinely faced as WWE/World Champion. He defended the title against fellow do-gooders Dean Ambrose, Sami Zayn (in his RAW debut), Cesaro and Zack Ryder. Matching up against other good guys, Cena wasn’t afraid to lean into the boos he received. He still played fair, but sensing his title at risk, he amplified the “Ruthless Aggression” that he introduced to WWE. Along the way he muted fans’ criticism about his “Five Moves of Doom” offense and, against opponents who could bump and sell and base effectively, unveiled more than a few new tricks.
Cena’s most heel-ish run came during the lead-up to an impromptu match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 34. By this point, Cena was known to break kayfabe to advance important feuds, calling out opponents’ real life flaws and limitations as performers. The Undertaker had long been relegated to part-time status, leaving his Mania opponents with the job of building up their match solo. As important as Undertaker’s streak was, I thought this was unfair to the likes of Cena, CM Punk, Bray Wyatt or Roman Reigns—any of whom could cut a strong promo, but would have benefitted from more face-to-face interaction leading up to their matches. Brock Lesnar was fine, but then he had Paul Heyman speaking for him anyway.
In any case, by WrestleMania 34 Cena was out of the main event mix. McMahon had moved on to his unsuccessful attempt to cast Roman Reigns as WWE’s resident super hero. Cena was a “free agent” attempting to balance his WWE career with outside interests. He entered the Royal Rumble to earn a championship match but was eliminated. He qualified for the Elimination Chamber but failed to win. He also missed out in a pre-Mania Fastlane multi-man match. On RAW, Cena mused about attending the card as a fan before challenging The Undertaker directly and accusing WWE brass of preventing the match from happening. Receiving no response from The Undertaker, he cut a series of increasingly insulting promos in an attempt to get his match.
At WrestleMania itself, Cena sat in the audience (in full view of the camera) until he was informed that The Undertaker had in fact arrived. Deep into the mid-card, Cena made his entrance only to be confronted by Elias. Cena dispatched his musical foe quickly and started to leave, disappointed. The lights went out and following some theatrics The Undertaker emerged. Cena’s reaction—shock and awe—was full on heel as The Undertaker arrived to hand Cena his comeuppance. The match was short and The Undertaker dominated. He walked the ropes and hit a flying clothesline. Cena delivered his version of the Blue Thunder bomb and attempted his Five Knuckle Shuffle, only for Taker to perform a sit up, chokeslam and tombstone to put Cena away.
The Undertaker has since said he had misgivings about this match. He had hoped and trained for 30 minutes and got five. Moreover, he had to beat up John Cena despite his daughter being a Cena fan. Cena sought out Taker’s daughter after the match and told her he had no hard feelings. Keeping semi-kayfabe he admitted that he had said mean things about her dad and deserved the beating he received.
During the pandemic, Cena participated in a gonzo “cinematic match” against Bray Wyatt. Fans have already noted that Cena played heel often during this extended dream sequence, going so far as to don an nWo T shirt like Hulk Hogan did a decade earlier. In-universe, fans have already advanced theories that Cena’s turn actually started in this match (or was at least foreshadowed by it), or that the John Cena we have seen ever since is not the genuine article, but a double created by Wyatt—something out of Jordan Peele’s horror movie Us.
All that said, if Cena gets to a one-on-one WrestleMania main event against Cody Rhodes, I hope he wins. Cena’s current contract apparently runs for another ten months. Plenty of time to squeeze in a decent heel title run complete with screwjob finishes before dropping the belt back to Cody, getting turned on by The Rock and enjoying a final babyface redemption angle. Along the way I hope Cena builds a gang of thieves. Led by a heel Rock who is disgusted by the softness of the current product, let The Rock build an all-time Ruthless Aggression Travelling Wilburys: recruit CM Punk and Randy Orton to show the kids how it’s done. Give us a Survivor Series match so not to tax any one of these 40- or 50-year-olds too heavily, and then let them all find their own paths to the fans’ good graces.
As I write this, Rhodes has been champion for almost a year. He’s had several good matches but nothing I’d consider terribly memorable. Surprisingly, I think his best work came against Kevin Owens—and that owes more to Owens playing an unhinged heel carting around the Winged Eagle title belt. I do love any storyline that sees a heel proclaim him or herself champion. It’s the most inspirational gimmick I can think of.
Rhodes won the title by overcoming incredible odds, but his “story” feels like subplot of Reigns’ Bloodline saga. Post-1980s WWE booking wisdom states that the money lies in the challenger’s pursuit of a championship. It may be time to shake things up. At this point in their careers, a babyface Cena isn’t a threat to Rhodes. In his last outing he lost a curtain-jerking challenge to US champ Austin Theory. A heel Cena, relying on outside interference and in-ring chicanery, could plausibly beat Cody. He assumes the World Championship record currently held by Ric Flair (who has often attracted the wrong kind of attention in retirement). Cena could extend his reign by ducking the former champion until a Royal Rumble day of reckoning. Cody would stay strong, persevere, and climb he way back to the title fighting off a gauntlet of future Hall of Famers.
(Side note: As I write this Roman Reigns doesn’t have a WrestleMania match. I would be surprised if he weren’t somehow shoehorned into a main event. Maybe he takes over for Jey Uso against Gunther after Uso is himself Yeeted out of his spot?)
A heel Cena title run could certainly last through SummerSlam, and bring out a challenger that the babyface champ has never fought. A challenger whose style demands little in-ring and who performed short matches in his prime. A challenger who has indicated that he plans on formally wrapping up his own in-ring career with a retirement match sometime this summer.
It may be too late to set up a babyface battle, but one tantalizing prospect that comes with John Cena turning heel might just be your SummerSlam main event: How about Goldberg vs. John Cena?
