John Cena Reportedly Made Call on Timing of Heel Turn Ahead of WWE WrestleMania 41

The decision for John Cena's heel turn to occur at Elimination Chamber rather than WrestleMania 41 was reportedly made by Cena himself.

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t WrestlePurists), Cena made the call "within the last couple of days" before Elimination Chamber, which forced WWE to reshuffle the show.

The segment involving Cody Rhodes giving The Rock an answer regarding selling his soul was reportedly supposed to occur early in the show, but it ended up being the main event instead since it correlated with Cena's heel turn.

After Cena won the men's Elimination Chamber match to earn the right to face Rhodes for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41, Cody made his way to the ring, as did The Rock with rapper Travis Scott.

When Rhodes emphatically turned down The Rock's offer, Cena shockingly turned heel by attacking The American Nightmare at The Final Boss' behest.

Despite The Rock being a big part of the heel turn, he was not involved with the build toward WrestleMania, nor did he show up at WrestleMania itself.

Instead, Scott interfered and helped Cena beat Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 41, making Cena a record-breaking, 17-time world champion.

During an appearance Tuesday on the Pat McAfee Show, The Rock explained that after he showed up at Elimination Chamber as a favor to TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, he made the call to remove himself from the storyline and put the focus entirely on Cena and Rhodes:

Operating in that manner put WWE in a difficult spot because fans were still expecting The Rock to show up at WrestleMania even though he wasn't part of the build and was hardly mentioned in the weeks leading up to it.

Instead of The Rock making his presence felt at WrestleMania, WWE presented a far less satisfying ending, which caused the show to go off the air on a sour note.

Had WWE waited until WrestleMania to do Cena's heel turn, the narrative surrounding the show likely would have been far more positive.

At the same time, Cena vs. Rhodes would have been a babyface vs. babyface feud leading up to WrestleMania, which typically isn't as compelling as babyface vs. heel.

It is difficult to say for sure whether Cena made the right call, but he can render all of that moot by knocking it out of the park with the remainder of his heel run during his final year as a pro wrestler.

It likely starts next month at Backlash where all signs point toward him defending the WWE title against Randy Orton in Orton's hometown of St. Louis.

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