Will John Cena turn Heel???

[Guest Ciaran The King]

This is possibly the most asked question over the last decade, and time after time the idea that John Cena may go from being the most pushed face of all time to bad guy heel has been squashed………until now!!!

 

Over the course of his 12 years in the company John Cena and WWE have had to accept that some of the ‘WWE UNIVERSE’ doesn’t really like him that much. Whenever WWE do admit on TV that the crowd are rallying against him they put a spin on it…such as in 2006 when he met Triple H at Wrestlemania and they coined it as ‘new school v old school’ which clearly wasn’t the case, the fans that night didn’t want John Cena as WWE champion and WWE knew it. Since 2005 the crowd reaction to Cena has gotten progressively worse with each passing year, during that time he has feuded with heels such as Kurt Angle, Umaga, Edge, Batista, Shawn Michaels, CM Punk and Super Heels such as Triple H and Randy Orton. In each of those feuds Cena was booed, I think they only exception being against Edge in autumn 2006.

 

Over the course of John Cena’s tenure there has been countless discussions on why Cena should turn heel or why he should stay face, the majority I believe would like to see Cena turn face not because they dislike him but because sometimes a change is needed. Wrestling legends such Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Stone Cold, and The Rock have all known and some point during their career that a change was needed. Not only did the talent know this but so did their respected promoters and they did what was best for business.

 

At the end of the WWE title match at the Royal Rumble fans and critics knew where John Cena and Bray Wyatt would end up come April 2014, sure the Wyatt’s earned the respect from fans during their NXT run but I don’t think WWE expected the Wyatt clan to become liked and respected by the masses. Bray earned plaudits for his performance and victory against Daniel Bryan at the Royal Rumble and at Elimination Chamber the Wyatt’s earned more plaudits and respect for their performance and possibly match of the year against the Shield. Since then Rowan, Harper and Wyatt have gained momentum with each passing week; the fans sing along, clap and join in with them during matches and promos.

 

By wrestling law the Wyatt’s are heels, who according to history should be booed. But in WWE in 2014 this is not the case. Times are changing in WWE and the fans want it more than ever, with the rise of young, new talent taking centre stage the landscape is changing and unfortunately everyone has to change with it and that’s where I think John Cena will get left behind. Now more than ever the time for Cena to turn is here, his promos have become more heelish of late with such words as “to make you gotta go through me” and other similar comments. The vote on Raw last week to have John face the 3 members of the Wyatt family only cemented the statement of what the fans want.

 

John Cena is the face of the WWE and that won’t change for a while yet, he’s the company man who does more than anyone else and sets standards for other to follow, he is a good guy. However John Cena the character has become stagnant and predictable, John needs a fresher outlook, a tweak here and there. John Cena may be the measuring stick in WWE….but for how much longer?

[Omega 354]

No, you dip stick.

[dsrchris 190]

lolno.

 

But to expand on my answer...

 

If anything, Cena needs to stay face exactly because the crowd hate him. He needs to show that he won't be swayed from his own morals, regardless of how much the fickle wrestling fans may want him to. It was kinda the whole point of the match between Bray and Cena at Mania. Now they just need to compound that.

 

Look at last Monday when Cena got voted to face all 3 members of the Wyatts. Sure he was annoyed at the fans, but he turned the other cheek because he's John Cena and that's what he does. He rises above. Every time. He's not gonna go back on years of being the good guy just because even more of the crowd have turned on him.

 

Turning him heel now would just be...odd, for want of a better term. Instead, what they should do is realise that the massive following guys like The Shield and The Wyatts are developing for themselves is basically telling WWE that we're done with the old black & white, good guy vs. bad guy mentality. The crowd is crying out for an anti-hero, not a hero-hero. Just luckily last time we had Austin to fill that role.

 

The only way he would work as a heel would be if he wasn't really a heel at all, but found himself morally outraged by the way the fans have took Bray into their hearts, and starts to see the fans who boo him and side with Wyatt as the "bad guys".

 

I don't even know why we're talking about this again. John Cena is gonna keep making wishes, popping kids, selling t-shirts and expounding the virtues of Hustle, Loyalty & Respect, and it's not gonna change any time soon.

[Guest Will O the Wisp]

The basic flaw I see with this argument every time it come up is that the person equates "Cena needs a change." with "Cena needs to turn."

 

Cena's character has changed very little over his face tenure. Sometimes we get goofy Cena, sometimes we get serious Cena, and we always get SuperCena. That is why I think he needs to mix it up a bit.

 

However, that does not mean that he has to turn heel. There are plenty of other ways to tweak a character, but for whatever reason the powers that be seem to have decided any significant change is bad in Cena's case. I personally think he could be changed enough to garner the respect of the fans again while staying face and reaping all of the benefits that go with it. (Make a Wish, Merch Sales, etc.)

 

Surely the WWE realize this, but prefer him exactly where/how he is. Until something changes their mind, we get what we got.

[dsrchris 190]

The dude empties parents pockets in unequalled measures. I'm saying this as a guy who has witnessed first hand the sheer amount of kids who attend wrestling shows kitted out from head to toe in Cena gear. There is no way WWE are gonna be prepared to risk that just to shut up the adults and snarky internet fans.

[Guest John Hancock]

He's Superman. Every the other members of the Justice League think he's a dweeb, and occasionally Batman smacks him around and everyone cheers. As long as the WWE write in how unpopular he is, it works. Cena's working perfectly in the whole Wyatt thing because Wyatt's right, everyone wants him to turn heel, so it's the battle of what people want him to be against what he knows he should be. It's a pretty classic story, and I think it's working pretty well (although they f*cked act two or three, depending on where it goes, of that stock storyline up at WrestleMania, cheap podcast plug). The problems come up when they book him as Captain Wrestling and pretend everyone isn't shitting all over him. It's just one of those things, like with all of wrestling, where you just have to actually think about the angle for more than 10 minutes, which WWE, admittedly, hate doing, but it's rewarding when they do it.

 

Cena wearing black cargo shorts and doing eye rakes isn't going to solve the problem that he's a very, very cheesy promo, and he looks really weird, physically, and that the modern older wrestling audience is very nerdy, very alternative, very subversive, and kinda punk in it's sensibilities in a way it never used to be, because, just by the nature of wrestling shrinking in the mainstream, it's a very hardcore fan base now, and that audience is never going to accept someone as outdated and out of touch as John Cena. But that's fine, kid's like him, especially if they're dying. Mainstream American media likes him. The steroid smuggling industry likes him.

 

Everyone can't be CM Punk, everyone can't be for us, so I have no problem with it at all if they let Cena be his cringe-incuding, awkward, useless self, as long as they don't pretend we don't hate it, and they go with the crowd, not against it.

[Omega 354]

The other way to look at it would be is Cena is already a heel. He doesn't have to be a traditional heel in the same way Austin wasn't a traditional babyface. If he generates heat and it isn't go away heat (which it isn't, we're all still watching!) then whatever you want to ascribe to him as an alignment is fine.

 

As john says he shifts merch better than anyone so whatever he is isn't going anywhere. Annoyingly his promos are actually spot on, love him or hate him he's out there for the fans. I'm sure people get as much of a kick singing Cena Sucks to his music as the people cheering and buying his sweatbands. As long as wwe do as they are now and give him a few months off the title now and again so they can at least try building other people up it's fine.

[Guest Jaiye]

I don't think Cena will ever turn heel. It would never be believable in my opinion. Cena has been the good guy for quite some time and I could honestly never buy him turning completely against the fans. I can see him being disappointed in the fans, like he was this past Monday night on Raw, but totally against them? Not so much. The disappointed Cena is honestly quite fun to see. I think that the fans who love to boo him will get a kick out of causing that disappointment and seeing how he reacts to it.

 

I'm also interested in seeing how this Cena/Wyatt feud plays out. I think that Bray Wyatt could be Cena's Mick Foley. Just like how matches with Foley allowed many superstars to show a different, more aggressive, and sometimes more ruthless side of themselves, Bray Wyatt could do the same thing with John Cena. It obviously would not be to the same extent because of things being more pg, but they can definitely do something along those lines. That's all fans really want to see I think. They just want Cena to do something different, to act like a real person who grows and evolves.

[DC 536]

Over the course of his 12 years in the company John Cena and WWE have had to accept that some of the ‘WWE UNIVERSE’ doesn’t really like him that much. Whenever WWE do admit on TV that the crowd are rallying against him they put a spin on it…such as in 2006 when he met Triple H at Wrestlemania and they coined it as ‘new school v old school’ which clearly wasn’t the case, the fans that night didn’t want John Cena as WWE champion and WWE knew it. Since 2005 the crowd reaction to Cena has gotten progressively worse with each passing year.

To comment on just this point of the original post, I'd recommend watching Cena's surprising return at Royal Rumble 2008 and seeing how not one person booed his appearance.

 

I'm sure a lot of people do genuinely dislike Cena and others want him to turn heel just so he does something different, but I'd wager that a lot of the people who chant "CENA SUCKS" and are the "BOO" to the "YAY" are doing it to play a role and take part rather than show a genuine hatred for the man.

[Guest Will O the Wisp]

I'm sure a lot of people do genuinely dislike Cena and others want him to turn heel just so he does something different, but I'd wager that a lot of the people who chant "CENA SUCKS" and are the "BOO" to the "YAY" are doing it to play a role and take part rather than show a genuine hatred for the man.

 

Just to reinforce this point, if there is a shot of the crowd during the "Let's go Cena./Cena sucks." chants, it is pretty common to find someone chanting both parts.

[Guest HH-Evolution]

It's the common crowd issue as of late - chants meaning less because EVERYONE is doing it, not just those in favour of that chant.

 

As for the question - to quote Bender:

Ahaahahaa....Oh, you were serious? Let me laugh harder! AHAHAHAHAHAAAH!

[dsrchris 190]

I've gotta say, I'm more than a little disappointed that the post-WrestleMania Raw thing of singing "John Cena sucks!" in time to his music has died out.

 

That was actually one of my favourites. I hate the whole "Let's Go Cena/Cena Sucks" thing.

[Guest John Hancock]

The stupid thing with the duel chant is you're acknowledging that half the crowd disagree with you. It would be like leaving gaps in a football chant for the away fans to reply in.

 

This will never happen, because wrestling fans are fat and dumb (being fat has nothing to do with this by the way), but they should do the "Cena sucks" chant in 50/50 split shifts, so it just goes "Cena sucks" "Cena sucks" "Cena sucks" "Cena sucks", but with different voices every other beat. It would be like when football crowds sing things to the tune of When Then Saints Go Marching In, and they give themselves parts so it sounds like "Oh when the saints (oh when the saints), go marching in (go marching in)", and there would just be no gap for children or women, but the rhythm would be there to suggest they should at least try, so they'd try and join in, but they'd just be drowned out by loud manly voices and react by crying and menstruating, and we'd all mock them.

[dsrchris 190]

That's why I like the "John Cena Sucks" along to his theme music. It just leaves no room for the kids and ladies to respond.

[Guest TobyTincher]

John Cena

 

John Cena will not turn heel!

[Omega 354]

Thanks for clearly up that in the last 8 months nothing has changed...

[Guest Jayfunk]

Should he? Yes, ASAP. Will he? No, it's wwe writers after all. Edited February 14, 2015 by dsrchris

[Guest TobyTincher]

Are you challenging me because that was clearly sarcasm?

[Guest Jables]

Hogan was just shy of his 43rd birthday when he turned. So, don't be surprised when you see Scott Hall's son and Colin Cassady walking through the crowd at the 2020 Royal Rumble.

[Omega 354]

Are you challenging me because that was clearly sarcasm?

 

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