John Cena: Time to Turn Heel?

Yes, you read that right. I think it may be time for John Cena to turn heel.

I know what you must be thinking "But Chuck, are you insane?! Why would WWE turn their biggest cash cow heel?! What about all the children who look up to him and respect him?! What about the women who adore him?! WWE's trying to reach out to women, you know!"

Duly noted. And I'll get to those concerns in due time, my friends.

But first, let me start out by saying that turning John Cena heel would create the most interesting, intriguing development the professional wrestling world has seen in years.

Cena's superpush has become, in most eyes, a permanent fixture in the WWE landscape, something that won't be touched or tampered with. Shattering that assumption (and doing it without it leaking to the internet before hand) would create ENORMOUS buzz amongst lapsed and casual fans.

And that is something that WWE sorely needs. Armageddon was the least-watched pay-per-view since December 1996's In Your House; ratings have been slowly dropping, revenue is down, and currently only two or three storylines have been capable of creating any sort of buzz/interest...and even those have been, in some cases, improperly executed (see: Jericho vs. the Legends).

In other words: WWE is stale. And I think that's partly (though certainly not entirely) due to the staleness of Cena himself, who has been the company's top guy since at least 2006. He's had a sizable minority of fans booing him ever since his push to the top, and while currently he's not encountering as large a backlash as he did in 2006, he's still noticably struggling.

And you know what this backlash also does?

It provides the fertile grounds to turn him heel.

Unquestionably, this is something that will be tough to do. His current character combines the charisma of the Rock, the hero-to-children status of Bret Hart, and the invincibility of Hulk Hogan.

But wasn't Bret Hart a hero to children when he began to get booed in early '97? WWE still turned him heel, recognizing the momentum of the fans.

When Rock's self-confident charisma began looking like arrogance in light of his Hollywood sojourns, WWE listened to the booing fans and turned him heel (despite Rock being a cash cow at the time himself). It also bears mentioning that WWE turned "Rocky Maivia" heel when his smiley, "aw-shucks-I'm-just-so-happy-to-be-here" persona began drawing jeers from the crowd in 1997.

When Hulk Hogan's immortality began eliciting boos in 1995 and 96, WCW turned him heel. And when Hogan-as-a-heel wasn't working in WWE in 2002, they turned him face.

In all instances, WWE listened to the fans. And in all instances, the result was successful. And really, that's what's lacking here: WWE isn't listening to their fans, as they did so well in the past. That's why Austin and Rock became so popular; they noted the shifting times (Austin to babyface, Rocky to heel) and capitalized.

But they're intent on pushing Cena as a babyface—whether we like it or not. Why? Most likely for the reasons stated at the beginning of the column.

So, to quote Sam Jackson from Pulp Fiction, "Well then allow me to retort!"

Argument One: "Why would WWE turn their biggest cash cow heel?!"
Well, first, let's point out that Cena's movies have underperformed. The Marine was a disappointment, and 12 Rounds was a straight bomb. He can't be making WWE too much money in the film department.

Secondly, Cena may move a lot of merchandise, but if his heel character takes off--and with his charisma (and the crowd already jeering him), I can't see why not--then he'll likely still sell a sizable amount anyway (much like The Rock and eventually HHH did).

It may be a bit of a gamble to take, with revenue down. But if revenue's down, it's down for a reason; the current product ain't flyin'. And it's hard not to place at least SOME blame on Cena's character, since he's consistently been THE guy (along with Triple H) since 2006.

It also means that WWE can move new faces into the top babyface role (CM Punk, etc) who certainly have their own marketability (and give the heel Cena new guys to work with, thereby making Cena more interesting while elevating them in the process).

And it'd breathe new life into already-done Cena feuds (HBK, HHH, etc), as his role will now be entirely switched

Argument Two: "What about all the children who look up to him and respect him?!"
You know what? They're kids. They're gonna keep watching anyway, and if need be, they'll find a new favorite whose merchandise they will also buy.

Now, I realize that—much like Hart—Cena prides himself on being a hero and a role model, and it means a lot to him. How to account for this?

Simple! Have him talk about how he stood for "hustle, loyalty and respect" but that the fans weren't buying it, the fans didn't care, the fans didn't appreciate his moral values.

Have him contend that he'll continue to stand for those things, for his "true fans," but that he's not "playing around anymore." As a result, he can cut ruthless, venomous (and hilarious) promos against his rivals, but still technically be advocating the values he stands for.

This also breathes new life into his ample promo-cutting ability; being a heel gives him a lot more latitude, certainly more than his current Marine gimmick affords him.

And by being funny, cutting and heel-cool charismatic, he'll get a lot of teen guys who dig him, setting him for a turn back to babyface in a couple years, a run that will no doubt be more effective, more successful, and more interesting than his current run now.

Argument Three: "What about the women who adore him?! WWE's trying to reach out to women, you know!"

The answer to this one is easy: the females will continue to like him, probably for the same reasons they do now (he's friggin' hot).

The guys still cheered for Trish Stratus, Torrie Wilson, Stacy Keibler, etc when they were heels...why? They're friggin' hot.

And HBK always ellicited a loud girly scream when he came out as a heel in 1997-98, despite being up against popular stars like The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Why? Well, he's just a Sexy Boy!

So WWE won't lose female viewers or female merchandising dollars.

All in all, it comes down to this question: will WWE actually take this risk? In all honesty, probably not. The prospect of Cena's heel turn further hurting them is probably too scary.

Which is something I don't understand; things are already down (and as I said, at least partial blame has to be assigned to Cena). What do they have to lose?

Besides, if it doesn't work, they can turn him back, so long as they don't draw it out the way they did with Austin's disastrous heel turn in 2001.

You see, that's what you do when make a mistake, or you make a change that turns out to be ineffective. You change it back. You fix the mistake. You take what's not working and you make it work again.

And all I know is that, right now, at this very moment, John Cena isn't working as well as he could or should.