John Cena addresses the negative fan feedback to his 2025 heel run in WWE

While speaking to The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, John Cena addressed the negative fan feedback to his 2025 heel run in WWE…

“I think a lot of people were wondering what would happen if John Cena turned heel. If I turned heel and then, when I did, it left a taste in people’s mouths that they didn’t like. They wanted other stuff. ‘I want a music change. I want a uniform change. I want him to act like this.’

I’ve got 11 months to do this. 36 TV appearances. It takes five years to get a guy over, regardless. If you turn them, it’s going to take a year or two on television for it to really sink in — especially if you really want to get into it, and then be able to flip and get a performer a nice turn on the other side when it’s time to switch again. I don’t have the time to tell the right story. But that’s beside the point, because I was told, ‘We’re going with this story.’ We sure are. I’m going to do the best I can. To hear the audience be surprised and then kind of go, ‘Huh… this is not what I wanted,’ it’s not that they may or may not have wanted me to turn bad — it’s that a lot of people started to realize: when I came out into a dome and said ’36 dates, that’s it,’ it’s hard to conceptualize. The first time I put a counter up after Vegas and it went down to 24, it was like, whoa. And then the sites started to pick up — 15 left, 12 left, 10 left.”

Cena also stated that he has no regrets on the heel turn…

“What is perfect? Here’s what I do know: perfect is never achievable. I think that’s a sucker’s chase. When I look back on it, could I have given any more than I did? Not a bit. I overprepared. I tried to go to every corner of my emotional well-being. And the cool thing is, when the audience began to turn, we turned. So they helped it out, and that dynamic was a little ahead of schedule for, let’s say, Cody and me — but it made for a great showing for the summer.”