John Cena will always be regarded as one of the greatest WWE superstars of all time. The Cenation Leader carried the company on his back for nearly 15 years, reigning as the golden goose of Vince McMahon’s global juggernaut. There was no expectation of this young lad from West New Bury, Massachusetts to define an era of WWE and become every child’s role model with his Super Cena good-guy image. The Face that Runs the Place’s initial beginnings saw him being an arrogant rapper who would throw down insults at his foes and the WWE Universe. Cena was the ultimate heel, laying his ‘Basic Thuganomics’ during the peak of the Ruthless Aggression and that led to the rise of perhaps the biggest star of that generation.
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10 Times WWE Could’ve Turned John Cena Heel In The Past
Over the years, WWE has had several opportunities to turn John Cena heel, but the trigger was never pulled.
However, ever since John Cena became the larger-than-life babyface character, the WWE Universe craved to see him unleash his dark side, and embrace the hate he was getting with the loud chants of negativity every week. WWE had the perfect opportunity to turn Super Cena into a massive heel in 2012. So let’s explore that timeline in detail that could have shown a completely different side of John Cena during his high-profile dream feud with The Rock.
UPDATE: 2025/03/10 17:00 EST BY ISHAAN SHARMA
John Cena has finally turned heel again. If someone had said this a few years back, no one would have believed it. And for a good reason: Cena worked as a babyface for over 20 years. He was the biggest name in WWE for over a decade, and everyone—especially the kids—loved him. While 2025 has already brought out a shocking change in his character, this wasn’t the first time Cena had thought about turning heel. If it weren’t for Vince McMahon, fans would have seen a different side of Cena a decade ago.
The Rock Returned To WWE In 2011 To Set Up A Match Against John Cena
The Rock And John Cena Headlined WrestleMania 28
- The Rock left WWE in 2004 to focus on his acting career.
- In 2011, John Cena challenged The Rock to a match at WrestleMania 28.
- The Rock won their first match.
WWE witnessed the return of The Rock in 2011. The Most Electrifying Superstar in All Entertainment came back home after being away for nearly seven years. Right after thanking the fans for the warm welcome, The Rock immediately targeted John Cena for some remarks he made about The Great One a few years before. The weeks of heated exchange led to The Rock costing John Cena his main event championship match at WrestleMania 27 against The Miz.
On the night after WrestleMania, the fans witnessed Cena and The Rock agree to a mega showdown at next year’s Show of Shows, WrestleMania 28, set to take place in The Rock’s hometown of Miami, Florida.
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John Cena Almost Turned Heel In 2012 During His Feud With The Rock
John Cena Had Only One Condition For A Heel Turn
- John Cena first came up to the main roster as a heel.
- Until the 2025 Elimination Chamber, Cena last worked as a heel in 2003.
- Fans had gotten bored of seeing Cena as a babyface and wanted him to turn heel.
John Cena found himself embroiled in a feud with Kane, a few months before his epic encounter was about to unfold with The Rock in 2012. The Big Red Monster was hell-bent on making Cena embrace the hate he was getting from fans each week. That included assaulting Cena’s onscreen best friend Zack Ryder on numerous occasions, creating friction between them, and provoking John to become more ruthless with his opponents inside the squared circle.
Around the same time, WWE management began pitching for John Cena to turn heel to position him as the bad guy for his weeks of the feud with The Rock, who was the babyface going into their WrestleMania match. Former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz revealed Cena had only one condition for turning heel, during his appearance on the Cheap Heat podcast:
“All right, listen, you want to turn me heel? If that’s what Vince [McMahon] says you guys want me to do, I’ll do it. But just so you know, I will go full-bore heel. There won’t be none of that like, Oh, he’s a fun heel, he’s a cool heel, he’s winking at the audience heel.”
Vince McMahon Ultimately Decided John Cena Wouldn’t Turn Into A Heel
Vince McMahon Didn’t Want To Risk Losing Business
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- Vince McMahon believed John Cena was too popular to turn heel.
- Cena continued working as a babyface and eventually became a part-timer in 2018.
- In 2024, Cena announced that he would be retiring from wrestling in a year.
John Cena realized that it would be better for him to turn heel as both he and The Rock were going into their dream match as the good guys. After dispatching off the threat posed by Kane and his attempts for Cena to embrace the heat from the crowd, John still found himself in various situations of going rogue. This included dissing The Rock on a highly personal note numerous times, the crowd’s loud chanting against Cena, and even reverting to his Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick for one night.
In an interview with Pat McAfee in January 2022, Cena revealed that he even pitched the idea for that direction to Vince McMahon and how exactly he had envisioned his heel persona in the modern era.
“I remember Vince toyed with the idea of possibly turning me heel for (the first WrestleMania match with The Rock) in Miami. And I told him, ‘No problem, I understand, I’ll do it. Just remember that we are so deep in at this point that we can’t do it and then jump back because we’ll be sunk at both ends.’ So if we do it, I have to be the opposite of virtue, I have to be pure evil and we go all in.”
Despite every golden opportunity that presented itself, Vince McMahon ultimately decided not to pull the trigger on turning his poster boy into a despised heel character. This was mainly due to John Cena being the top merchandise seller and other things he did, such as special meet and greets and his association with the Make-A-Wish foundation. In the same interview with Brian Gewirtz, he revealed that McMahon was tempted by the idea of Cena’s heel turn, but refused to go in that direction considering many business reasons.
“For sure. There was a time we all did … We did push plenty of times for John to turn heel, and there was a lot of reasoning going into it.” He noted that then-WWE CEO Vince McMahon was “tempted … but ultimately, there was like the merch [sales] and everything John does.”
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John Cena Was Going To Completely Change His On-Screen Persona As A Heel
Some Of These Things Might Still Happen With A Heel John Cena
- While John Cena didn’t turn heel in 2012, he did some preparation for it.
- Cena finally turned heel in 2025 at the Elimination Chamber.
- Fans are really excited to see Cena as a bad guy again.
It’s 2025 – Cena’s final year in wrestling – and he finally decided to give fans what they’ve always wanted: a heel turn. While it didn’t happen against The Rock – quite the opposite actually, since he’s now joined forces with him instead – Cena did give fans some insight into how his heel turn would’ve looked in 2012.
On Chris Van Vliet’s Insight podcast in March 2024, Cena talked about his canceled heel turn. He created a new theme song called “Fear My Name.” The basic idea was to do a complete 180 on his character: wear a boxing robe and singlet instead of a t-shirt and shorts, wear boots instead of sneakers, not release any new merchandise or contribute to Make-A-Wish, and turn his back on the “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect” tagline, doing the opposite by not working hard, becoming untrustworthy, and disrespecting the business.