WWE keeps calling John Cena the great of all time, and while that can be argued, there is no denying the fact that wrestling fans now adore the man they once loved to boo. Cena was the face of WWE for a decade as a babyface who never changed. That frustrating character choice led to so many fans turning on him, so when Cena finally turned heel on Cody Rhodes at Elimination Chamber, it was an unforgettable moment. But then came the follow-up, which was severely lacking, and had no involvement whatsoever from The Rock. After months of disappointing storylines, Cena turned babyface again out of nowhere during a SmackDown promo. Some wondered if it was all a ruse, but at SummerSlam, neither he nor Cody turned on each other. Instead, Rhodes got his title back, and then came the shocking and controversial return of Brock Lesnar. So did Cena turn good again just to face the Beast Incarnate? If so, what was the whole point of his entire heel run?

John Cena Finally Turned Heel At Elimination Chamber

He Joined The Rock To Destroy Cody Rhodes

• Fans wanted Cena to give up his boring babyface gimmick and turn heel for years.
• Vince McMahon didn’t want to turn John Cena into a bad guy.
• It looked like John Cena joined The Rock due to his desperation to be WWE Champion again.

For two decades, fans have been begging for John Cena to turn heel. We’d seen how good he was at it early in his WWE career, and with how dull his good guy gimmick became, what if Cena turned bad like Hulk Hogan and went scorched Earth over the whole company? Alas, Vince McMahon was against the idea, so it never happened, but then came John Cena’s retirement tour under a new regime.

At Elimination Chamber, John Cena turned heel out of nowhere and it worked perfectly. The crowd lost their minds as Cena not only turned bad, but he absolutely destroyed Cody Rhodes and aligned himself with The Rock. And it all made sense too. An aging John Cena wanted to be the WWE Champion one more time, and he became so desperate for that win that he enlisted the help of the Final Boss to make it happen. At least that’s what we thought. Sadly, that’s not what we got.

Cena’s Heel Turn Was Lackluster And Not Well Received

Fans Wanted To Cheer Cena Even Though He Blamed Them For His Heel Turn

• Cena’s only explanation for turning heel was that he hated fans for using him.
• The Rock never appeared on WWE TV or even at WrestleMania 41.
• It was hard for fans to boo Cena when he’s in his last months as a wrestler.

It felt like WWE turned John Cena heel simply to do it without there being a plan, because Cena’s entire excuse for turning bad was the old trope of hating the fans. That’s it? Cena was barely around most weeks, Cody Rhodes looked dumb for not beating Cena up the moment he saw him, and The Rock disappeared. At WrestleMania, we not only got a bad match, but a horrible finish, with Rhodes again made to look stupid, and no involvement at all from The Rock. Travis Scott was there, but wrestling fans have repeatedly shown that they don’t care about him. The main event for the biggest show of the year was a highly underwhelming mess.

The Rock has never shown up once since Elimination Chamber, but with how great of an actor John Cena is, he could still sell his heel role by himself. He did the best he could, but with his motivation being so weak, there just wasn’t much to chew on. On top of that, wrestling fans increasingly refused to play along and cheered John Cena no matter what he did. We know he’s retiring, and we want to show our respect for him, not boo him in his final months. If WWE couldn’t give us a good reason to hate the character, we weren’t going to.

John Cena Turned Babyface Out Of Nowhere On SmackDown

He Turned Good Again So He Could Face Brock Lesnar

• Fans wondered if R-Truth or a title loss would bring back John Cena back from the darkness.
• Cena turned babyface in a promo after talking about having to be a heel all alone.
• Was there ever a long-term storyline plan in place to turn Cena good again?

Ever since John Cena turned heel, fans have been trying to predict how he would turn good again, because there was no way he was going to retire as a bad guy. Would R-Truth’s words bring him back? Would losing his title to someone like Cody Rhodes help him see the light? Nope. Instead, just like John Cena turned heel out of nowhere, he turned babyface out of nowhere too. On the SmackDown before SummerSlam, the “real” John Cena returned, speaking about how he turned bad, only for the people who were by his side to disappear, leaving him to be this horrible person he didn’t truly want to be on his own. That’s been happening for months, so why would he realize this now when nothing new had occurred? Still, fans quickly cheered him, but was it all a setup to lure Cody in and make him look dumb again?

At SummerSlam, Rhodes beat Cena clean and there was no twist. In fact, Cody and John hugged with no one even getting kicked in the crotch! Then, for the first time in two years, Brock Lesnar made his return! No matter your opinion on such a controversial move, it quickly became apparent why John Cena had so suddenly become a babyface again. Brock Lesnar was coming back to face him, and Cena couldn’t be a heel for that, so they needed to turn him good again immediately. The best they could come up with was to have him realize the error of his ways out of the blue. Does this mean WWE had no set plan in place on how to turn Cena into a babyface again? Was there never a designed long-term storyline? Instead, John Cena is a babyface again just like that, and WWE will want us to forget that his bad heel run ever existed. Honestly, that’s probably for the best, because the last six months were a mess for someone who deserved so much better.