John Cena gave his ill-fated heel turn everything he had.
At Elimination Chamber 2025, Cody Rhodes turned down The Rock’s offer to give him his “soul” in return for fame and fortune. However, The Great One had a Plan B, with John Cena shocking fans around the world when he gave The American Nightmare a low blow before beating him bloody to end the show.
While his initial turn was a huge moment in WWE history, the execution of his heel run did not go down well with fans. This was largely because, while fans wanted to cheer him as he embarked on his retirement tour, the 17-time World Champion was doing his best to antagonise them instead. Eventually, WWE gave in to the fans just before SummerSlam, and Cena returned to being the hero the WWE Universe wanted to see.
Reflecting on that period during an interview on The Ringer, Cena denied having any regrets about turning heel, saying he did everything he could to make it work.
“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. ‘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.”
John Cena’s Final Opponent Decided On WWE SmackDown
On the December 5th edition of WWE SmackDown, LA Knight took on Gunther in the final of The Last Time Is Now tournament to decide who will face John Cena in his final match on December 13th.
While Knight was the fan favourite, he couldn’t overcome The Ring General. After doing all he could to get the win, Gunther caught Knight with a chokehold that left him nowhere to escape.
Gunther will now look to take out Cena the same way when they meet at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13th in Washington, DC.
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the above transcription.
