John Cena’s character change was a complete disappointment

The Final Boss’ offer on Elimination Chamber was indeed a scam.

John Cena was known best inside the WWE ring as a superhero who never gives up no matter what, especially for children who tend to be viewers of professional wrestling. He continuously serves as a gateway for casual audience and the youth to get into professional wrestling as a fan even when he portrays as a bad guy or a heel. This year is considered as his final run in WWE before he completely retires from in-ring action in December, while treating the WWE audience an antagonistic side of John Cena.

As The Rock gave Cody a chance for a “huge change” in his career by “selling his soul”, Cody decided to reject the lucrative offer, but The Final Boss had a back-up plan by having ties with John Cena. Fresh from his hard-fought victory in an Elimination Chamber match against 5 other wrestlers, he made a shocking villainous turn by kicking Cody in the groin after a stare at The Rock. This officially challenged Cody Rhodes to defend his WWE Championship against a different and antagonistic John Cena.

All throughout Cena’s brief heel run, he constantly blames the WWE audience for not rooting for him for the past 20 years despite countless number of accomplishments, including his 16 world championship victories from various opponents. I first saw him as a traditional yet improved Vince McMahon type of heel where he constantly blames people, being a coward in accepting challenges for a match, having sloppy movements, and usually beats opponent with a weapon to win in a dirty manner. It was honestly bland because I can’t think of another way for him to gradually improve his heel character which time is also a major factor. If this heel Cena happened in 2012 right after he was beaten by The Rock, it’s a different approach where we witnessed a more aggressive character.

What I’m talking about for an “aggressive” John Cena is on how he excels in promo battles just like when he was playing as a good guy. I remembered when he roasted Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, Seth Rollins, and Austin Theory just to name a few. Perhaps, his heel character was just one-dimensional kid full of tantrums that is hungry for some validation from people. His promo creativity went downhill and somewhat controlled. If WWE Creative gave this heel turn a full blast, it should have focused on merely destroying his opponents like it is Ruthless Aggression era rather than merely putting the blame to people. It somewhat turned into reality but when it’s getting improved as time went by, it immediately stopped on an episode of SmackDown as he shot a babyfaced promo.

Although without a heel Cena in 2025, we never watched him fighting against a babyface Randy Orton and a babyface CM Punk. I just hoped that he also defended the WWE Championship against Rey Mysterio, just to close their brief chapter in 2011, where he never had a rematch with Cena for the same title more than a decade later. Fans also never witnessed a “pipebomb promo” version of Cena when he rivaled CM Punk prior to Night of Champions. Now that Cena and Rhodes went face-to-face for the WWE Championship rematch, it served as an official passing of the torch to pave way for the new generation of talent.

Fair enough, Cody Rhodes is currently the biggest babyface in WWE and the audience really liked him chasing the WWE Championship from his rival Roman Reigns in 2023 to early 2024. The WWE Creative Team does not want both Cena and Rhodes to clash as both top babyfaces since one of them might be booed out of the building that might cause out of control in succeeding months after the feud’s culmination. I believe they probably learned a lesson from the Cena-Rock feud in 2012.

People are expecting Cody Rhodes to fully turn heel in his current “American Nightmare” persona in WWE, however upon watching night 2 of SummerSlam as he reclaims the Undisputed WWE Championship from John Cena, seems like we’re not yet there because of a retiring John Cena and no one can fulfill his role as a hero, even Roman Reigns himself. This will force him, as a franchise player, to fill in the boots completely because he is the near perfect substitute for John Cena. With Roman Reigns as the top star, he is undeniably one of them but looking back at the way he was pushed so hard from 2014 to 2018, he’s not the right one to fill that gap.

John Cena’s heel persona ended abruptly on a random episode of SmackDown which I did not expect at all. It was underwhelming at it sounds, but I expect more of his heelish work with a direct or indirect involvement of The Rock making his offer like a scam with the help of Travis Scott. Regardless of the disappointment, his final SummerSlam match marks the last time that Cena ran to the ring holding the WWE title as it brought a mix of nostalgia and legacy on his WWE career, and it was also satisfying. I wish that I could enjoy it more while it lasted, but I personally could not watch his lackluster and cringe-worthy face turn.