WWE
John Cena understood the assignment going into Elimination Chamber: Toronto in early March 2025. WWE chiefs told him they wanted to book a shocking heel turn during his retirement tour to make “a moment”. During his appearance on the Cody Rhodes led ‘What Do You Wanna Talk About?’ podcast, Cena offered: “The business is about making moments. There is nothing wrong with that”.
He pointed out that wrestling stories don’t always need “a 9-month trajectory” to work. Sadly, on this occasion, the complete absence of Cena’s cohorts The Rock and rapper Travis Scott badly hampered the narrative WWE planned to spin. Neither Rocky nor Scott played significant roles in the drama after Chamber, although Travis did show up during the main event of WrestleMania 41 (which wasn’t greeted favourably by most fans).
Cena revealed that he and Cody never had a chat about why Rock and Scott had largely vanished from screens. Instead, they were fully focused on what was coming next. They had to be. Further, John never blamed his onscreen allies for bailing the way they did: “Maybe it’s because you just had life, and that’s okay”.
Their absence forced WWE and Cena to pivot and lean into John’s abusive relationship with the core audience over the years. He addressed their booming “Cena sucks” chants by saying he’s always smiled through them but couldn’t do it anymore.
Eventually, JC turned babyface again over the summer once everyone realised that his heel run just wasn’t clicking.
Cena Understands Fan Criticism But Sees Silver Lining
WWE.com
Cena understands why fans are so frosty towards his heel run post-turn, but he sees an upside to the experience. In typical, ‘Super Cena’ fashion, he reminded Rhodes that The Rock and Scott disappearing paved the way for him to have matches he might not have otherwise – he specifically pointed to bouts with Randy Orton, Logan Paul, CM Punk and AJ Styles here.
However, John certainly gets why so many people were unhappy with the way things panned out following his surprise alliance with Rock and rapper. In fact, he says he will always “admire” those folks for speaking their mind and being bummed out that WWE seemingly failed to trigger “any long-term booking” for the story.
There was no time to moan and grumble about what couldn’t happen: “So yes, the story that [might’ve been] had star power and gravity and who
knows what, but what we got…these are the pieces left”. Ploughing forwards and salvaging something was Cena’s goal, and he thinks they did it well enough.
John Cena retired following a submission loss to Gunther at last weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event special in Washington. He’s happy with the match, and believes it was a worthy end to his storied in-ring WWE career.
