25 Things You Didn't Know About John Cena
3. He Hated His Own Heel Run
John Cena would be the first to tell you that his heel run in 2025 was a complete and utter waste of everyone's time. It started hot. The entire wrestling community was shocked and stunned when Cena turned on Cody Rhodes at Elimination Chamber in early-March to seemingly side with The Rock and Travis Scott. Less so Scott, but nobody was dead set against some celebrity involvement at the time.
Then, things turned south. Rock vanished from screens, Cena barely mentioned him (neither did Cody), and the main meat of John's villainous streak seemed to be chastising the audience for once booing him and yelling: "CENA SUCKS". That was it, and what was he going to do - fight fans in matches? The whole ordeal came across as undercooked, and there was never any explanation for why he'd joined forces with the 'Final Boss'.
WWE realised that they were swimming upstream here and cut their losses. They turned Cena babyface again for the final stretch of his retirement tour, then had him say sorry to the same people he'd been calling out for months. It was messy, and even he knew that it was lame. During interviews, John relented that his heavily-publicised heel turn had bombed in the worst way.
There was nothing to it after the first shockwave hit. WWE penned a compelling first chapter, but then didn't know where to go from there. In short, the heel turn shouldn't have happened at all unless there was worthy follow up. Even Cena realises that in hindsight.
All that planning and careful consideration went into the turn, not what happened next. It showed.