John Cena’s heel turn adds unpredictably to WrestleMania 41 match
The John Cena heel turn has 1.8 million views in 10 hours on WWE’s YouTube.
WOW pic.twitter.com/OMhqRT3gW8
— Fightful Wrestling (@Fightful) March 2, 2025
(https://x.com/Fightful/status/1896223677546684775)
For over two decades fans have wanted to see John Cena freshen things up, and on Saturday Night, their dream came true.
As Hulk Hogan did in 1996, going from hero to villain, Cena finally switched at WWE’s most recent PLE (Premium Live Event) Elimination Chamber after winning the men’s chamber match.
The tremendous acting and facial expressions shown by The Rock and Cena made the moment all so shocking, with the slit of the throat from “The Final Boss”and Cena’s fake happiness turned into a brutal assault.
We got a John Cena heel turn before GTA 6 — and he’s in on the meme. https://t.co/Fjz3cg4MGs pic.twitter.com/ls8B24leU3
— IGN (@IGN) March 3, 2025
(https://x.com/IGN/status/1896523721847853220)
With chants of “you sold out” echoed by the 38 thousand in attendance at the Rogers Centre, an unthinkable moment, especially in Cena’s farewell tour when he was universally loved, all of it adds such a surprise and shock with it adding more uncertainty to WrestleMania.
There were times in his prime when Cena was getting loud boos or mixed reactions due to many fans getting fed up with the role Cena was playing and begging for a heel turn; the 16x champ even joked about it one time.
Instead, he played a blinder when the fans were starting to all love him due to him nearing the end of his career. They showed their admiration, and now he has chosen to go heel.
The weird thing is that WWE and Cena gave subtle hints along the way without anyone realising it. Returning to the Royal Rumble press conference, he declared himself for the Chamber match while everyone else had to earn their way into it.
The less-frequent appearances and taking the easy win back on Saturday Night, after Seth Rollins stomped CM Punk’s head onto the steel plate of the ring, with Cena aggressively locked in his STF submission and Punk passed out from it.
John Cena apologised to CM Punk after taking advantage of him getting screwed.
It showed his desperation to win #17.
The storytelling was excellent. pic.twitter.com/eUGERrxkPw
— Pro Wrestling Finesse (@ProWFinesse) March 3, 2025
(https://x.com/ProWFinesse/status/1896606151623790961)
This was once the man who stopped the easy win from happening back in 2011, coincidently against the man he defeated on Saturday Night. Desperation, the realisation that time is running out on capturing a 17th title.
This makes one of the main events of WrestleMania this year unpredictable because we are about to see Cena act as a heel for the first time since 2004, potentially extending the heel run post-Mania for a little bit.
Maybe as the WWE Champion, because if WWE sees fit, this could be a programme they feel could be extended and rehashed for their third biggest event of the year, SummerSlam, which has also expanded to two nights.
If it isn’t as the champ, then there are certainly a few programmes worth seeing with Cena now portraying the villain; everyone had a lot of fun seeing Cena and Punk in the final two of the Chamber match; they could rekindle their epic rivalry in different positions.
It would have been easy for Cena to rehash the classics and say his thank yous, but rather than playing it safe, the franchise and once-face of the WWE have rolled the dice, a fitting way to do it with WrestleMania being in a place where people are constantly rolling the dice.
