Fixing John Cena's Botched Run as WWE's Heel Champion

While it should’ve never gotten to this point, here we are—WWE needs to fix John Cena’s heel character in a hurry. 

This has been apparent since Cena’s title win over Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania, which received lukewarm reviews at best. The situation only became more dire at Backlash as he retained his title over Randy Orton. 

While live crowds are eating up Cena’s farewell tour, as expected, there’s a pervasive thought that keeps swimming closer to the surface of the general pro wrestling fanbase: 

Maybe Vince McMahon didn’t turn Cena heel all those years ago for a reason. 

There’s a bit of exaggeration in there, but it’s a tough feeling to shake. Cena feels like an actor trying to play a bad guy, not the genuine thing. Compare this character to say, Orton’s past heel iterations, Roman Reigns’ Tribal Chief persona or even toe-steping gray area bloodfeuds like the recent one between CM Punk and Drew McIntyre—it’s a no contest. 

The top priority for fixing the botched run is simple enough: Cut out the nonsense. We can finger-point all day at The Rock’s latest apparent self-serving derailment of WrestleMania and still say that Travis Scott was absolutely not the answer as the guy interfering in a ‘Mania main event to help Cena. If not Rock, that could’ve been 100 different pro wrestlers. 

And, while we all love him to death, R-Truth being the one to interfere in the possible last-ever match between Cena and Orton and swing the result is just ridiculous. 

There’s a history there, but R-Truth getting put through the table during the post-Backlash presser was all his involvement should’ve been: 

Now, there’s internet speculation that WWE might go the tag-team route over the summer by actually having Cena team up with Scott. 

Talk about a desperate, Vince-era throwback, scratching and clawing at anything that will make a few headlines and loop in just a few more non-wrestling fans to the programming. 

That’s a no-go. If there’s one thing that hasn’t been bad about Cena’s farewell tour so far, it’s the list of opponents. We can tick off dream match after dream match as he heads for retirement, starting with Rhodes and Orton and going to names like Punk and so many others. 

But adding a Scott tag team match or something similar to the farewell tour—even if it’s on a throwaway episode of Raw or SmackDown—would waste one of the very last times fans get to see Cena in a ring…ever. 

This is about Scott, but also not about Scott. Cena debuted more than 20 years ago. He’s got a long, far-reaching history with so many names and even interesting stories to tell with the likes of Dominik Mysterio, for obvious reasons, and to name just a single idea. Wasting these precious remaining moments on silly pop-culture nonsense feels artificial and really leans back into the carny nature of the entire business. 

For those conspiracy theorists who think these interferences and fluky finishes are partially because Cena can’t just go that well in the ring anymore…you might be right. But again, the above applies—plenty of actual pro wrestlers who could use the rub and have a story or character reason for getting involved with Cena should be the priority. 

Some fans will undoubtedly say this is all just Cena making good on his promise to ruin pro wrestling or whatever, too. But that’s, as the kids say, cope. Those who have been around long enough understand full and well that this is just plain old WWE grasping at bigger audiences by any means necessary.

Cena, at least, has the chops and GOAT-level sense for the business to alter his character and promo delivery. The you people promos that draw cheap heat are silly and he has to know it. Fighting dirty to win because, deep down he knows he’s lost a step and is lashing out over it, is a really compelling character. But it needs to show up in the presentation and heel promos that worked from around the time he debuted in the early 2000s aren’t the answer. 

Again, we’ve seen better heelish promos from Cena years ago when he was a part-timer who would come in and essentially fourth-wall break while destroying names like Austin Theory on the mic. Right now, he’s a little too mustache-twirling-bad-guy heel to work. 

The good news? There’s time to course correct. Cena has put an end date on his career, sure (though it would be pretty heel to not honor it and keep going, right? Right?). But the dream list of opponents will keep rolling, better characterization can happen in a single promo and better Superstar usage around him that makes sense is easy—all WWE has to do is look at the wishes of fans online if it needs help with ideas. 

It’s going to be a real shame if we look back in hindsight on Cena’s goodbye and see a goofy heel turn that just didn’t work after a decade-plus of anticipation. If we see a guy who truly lost a step in modern times and flopped while trying to give fans what they want for so long. 

The fixes are right there, though. If Cena can tweak the promos and character just slightly while WWE resists the urge to do the most mind-numbing promotional stuff possible in favor of wrestler involvement that makes sense, the rest of Cena’s goodbye could dramatically overshadow the rocky WrestleMania-Backlash stretch. 

And in a pro wrestling landscape where fans are more tuned in to the process than ever, we can all silently agree to shrug off the last two missteps if Cena and WWE can listen to the feedback and apply it the rest of the way.