MR. TITO: In the Aftermath of John Cena’s Heel Run… Did It Truly Help WWE or John Cena’s Legacy?
With John Cena losing his WWE Title against Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam 2025 and then peacefully honoring Cody for defeating him, it’s safe to say that the John Cena heel turn is over. Then, of course, he was attacked after saluting the fans by Brock Lesnar to likely launch John Cena as an underdog trying to overcome one of his biggest foes and threats during his retirement tour.
The question is this… Was this heel turn successful or not? From Elimination Chamber 2025 through SummerSlam 2025, John Cena played a heel character for the first time since 2003 and did so by selling out to the Rock when Cody Rhodes refused. If you’ll recall that famous ending at Elimination Chamber, Cody told the Rock to “go F himself” at his offer only to see Cena turning on him after they hugged. As described by the Netflix show Unreal, it appears that Cena and the Rock were in cahoots the entire time. Then, Travis Scott, a close friend of the Rock’s, helped John Cena win the WWE Title at Wrestlemania 41.
Let’s look at the numbers since Cena turned heel…
– Wrestlemania 41’s attendance increased… They were around 47,000 before the heel turn, ended up getting to 60,000 after the heel turn. Cena vs. Cody owns part of that, provided that they headlined Night #2.
– Viewership is undetermined. USA Network on Fridays isn’t a good mix for WWE (neither was FOX on Fridays), but it has remained above 1.5 million mostly. They are doing close to RAW’s numbers on USA Network and that’s despite fewer households watching on Fridays versus Mondays. YouTube clips do pop for John Cena’s main event level clips.
– Attendance for events remains strong. RAW and Smackdown are consistently pulling in 10,000, while Premium Live Events are selling strong despite absurd prices. International tour did exceptionally well.
– WWE merchandise is selling incredibly well during 2025. Granted, Fanatics has been a massive merchandise shot in the arm for them, but the stuff is highly overpriced and WWE fans are buying.
I’ll also add that The Rock has never appeared since Elimination Chamber 2025, while Roman Reigns took his usual extensive 2+ month vacation following Wrestlemania. Cody Rhodes took some time off this year, too.
So yeah, I can at least say that John Cena’s heel turn didn’t hurt business at all and numbers remained strong.
But was it the heel turn or was it just that John Cena was FINALLY wrestling close to a full-time schedule again and thrust back in the spotlight?
Honestly, we haven’t seen John Cena pushed this strongly since 2014, which of course came crashing down at SummerSlam 2014 when Brock Lesnar humiliated him. Following that, his 2015 United States “open challenge” run was fun while I really liked his main event work with AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley now in AEW) during 2016-2017. Following 2017, Cena truly became a part-timer again as Hollywood opportunities began to ramp up.
Thus, I’m arguing that maybe the heel turn just got the ball rolling that WWE was pushing John Cena seriously as a main eventer again. And then, as a heel, that gave John Cena the excuse to wrestle different babyfaces as opponents such as Randy Orton, CM Punk, R-Truth, and Cody Rhodes. Mission accomplished on Cena having great matches with those guys, and now he can perform as a babyface to wrestle the likes of Brock Lesnar, Drew McIntyre, and maybe Gunther (if he’s healthy)?
So while the Elimination Chamber 2025 heel turn was shocking, what came afterward wasn’t exactly compelling heel storyline stuff. It was just John Cena talking negatively to fans and that schtick wore thin pretty quickly. He tried hard to be a heel, but fans were just happy to see John Cena pushed seriously as a top main eventer again. Hence why it’s so difficult to turn a veteran heel this late in their career UNLESS their act was completely tired, which Hogan’s red & yellow stuff was during early 1996. John Cena was always beloved and remained the #1 seller of merchandise through 2018 despite him becoming a part-timer. WWE reduced their houseshow schedule because he was no longer featured there.
I just don’t think his heel turn was as effective as him being a pushed main eventer again. Simple as that.
Cena turned heel, and aside from Travis Scott helping him at Wrestlemania 41, he had ZERO ties to the Rock. John Cena also didn’t form a heel stable of flunkies to prop him up and protect him as champion. That’s what most heel champions do.
The Elimination Chamber 2025 heel turn was just to tweak the character a tad and get more attention on the fact that John Cena is getting pushed seriously again.
And it worked… WWE’s numbers are very strong and the John Cena brand grew further as well.
And now Cena will easily become the top babyface, once again.
I’ve said it before, but he’s an exceptional talent. From a WWE impact standpoint, he’s right there behind Hogan and Austin and very close in ranking with the Rock. After those 4 guys, who are on WWE’s “Mount Rushmore” with zero debate, it’s a major dropoff to get to the next tier with Andre and Undertaker.
While Cena’s run as a heel shouldn’t go down as an all-time heel, his heel turn made a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT to the wrestling world that John Cena was getting pushed seriously again. I don’t think doing a bland babyface vs. babyface Cena vs. Cody match would have accomplished that. To conclude, the heel turn helped John Cena’s retirement tour get way more attention than it could have without it.
2025 will be a strong addition to John Cena’s resume. Great character stuff on his end while having incredible matches with literally anybody he worked with. Plus, he’s doing that at the tender age of 48 while also juggling a Hollywood schedule. That’s impressive… And 2025 is not over yet. Trust me, he’s going to give everything he has against Brock Lesnar and then round out his retirement year putting over other talent, I would imagine. If Cena was willing to do it, make his final match putting over someone like Gunther or Bron Breakker to help build up those younger stars and give them a marquee win. Or maybe The Rock vanquishes Cena and that sets up Roman Reigns vs. the Rock when the Rock takes things too far against Cena?
We’re still writing this 2025 page in John Cena’s legacy and things have been exciting since the Elimination Chamber 2025 heel turn. Whether he was a great heel or not, what matters is that a motivated John Cena has been pushed strongly as a main eventer again and he’s still performing great. Business has been strong with Spring/Summer with Cena as the champion again.
Thank you, John.
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