John Cena’s heel promo from WWE RAW and why it wouldn’t have worked 10 years ago

On Monday night, we finally got John Cena’s first heel promo, and what a promo it was. He pretty much threw a pity party for 25 minutes and managed to turn everybody against him. But for some—especially AEW faithful—they will try to argue how this promo made no sense and how awful the whole thing truly was.

I’m writing this column to show how everything that was said in this promo made sense, but also why this same promo wouldn’t have worked 10 years ago when we were all clamoring for a Cena heel turn.

First, let’s look at Cena’s career. He started in 2002 as a generic, white-meat babyface with no character, trying to get over with his “ruthless aggression” attitude. Fans saw right through it and started to boo him, similar to what happened with The Rock when he began his career. So, he called an audible and tried something new with his white rapper gimmick, and slowly, the whole thing took off. Fans initially hated him, but by 2004, the gimmick was so over that they had no choice but to turn him face—and that marked the slow rise of the John Cena face character that he would play for the rest of his career until now.

During this time, he went from being the most over guy in the company to a polarizing character, mostly because the IWC was getting tired of his act and wanted him to turn heel. This lasted for 10 to 15 years, but he took it all in stride, continuing to be John Cena despite the jeers and jokes made about his character.

That’s what he was highlighting in his promo—the fact that he did everything for the fans and got nothing in return. All he wanted was to be himself, but fans didn’t let him because they were selfish.

The next part was even better, as he went after the few who were still supporting him. This made sense because the last thing you want as a heel is a group of fans actually cheering for you. That entire portion of the promo was done to ensure nobody would cheer him coming out of this, and it made sense because he truly believed what he was saying as a heel character.

This was Cena’s version of Hogan’s nWo promo, and that’s why this wouldn’t have worked 10 years ago when we were desperate to see him turn. Now, he has 25 years of frustration to feed off, and the whole retirement tour adds another layer he can use to justify turning on the fans.

I doubt this character will stick until the end of his retirement tour, but I could see it lasting at least until SummerSlam, when he passes the torch to Cody. Maybe he’ll have one farewell match at Survivor Series before walking into the sunset.

Anyway, this is an awesome ride we’re on right now with this new side of John Cena’s character, and it’s one of the most interesting things happening in WWE. While I understand that some might not like it and will probably write something in bad faith to prove how the whole thing made no sense or how awful it was, I just want to say that for most wrestling fans, we will enjoy the ride and see where this whole thing goes.