WWE Rumors on Cody Rhodes Heel Turn, The Rock, Stone Cold and John Cena's Retirement

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

The Rock Reportedly Wanted Cody Rhodes Heel Turn

Even though there have been some teases of late that Cody Rhodes might be turning to the dark side, WWE still isn't planning to make the American Nightmare a heel.

Per Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Steve Carrier of Ringside News), there are currently no plans to turn Rhodes despite some internal talk, particularly from The Rock, about possibly having him go in that direction.

Meltzer cited WWE's internal data, including Rhodes' popularity by merchandise sales, live event attendance and fan engagement, as still being very strong and reasons not to turn him.

This comes two months after The Rock confirmed on The Pat McAfee Show that he did make a pitch to have Rhodes turn heel as part of his feud with John Cena leading up to WrestleMania.

Meltzer and Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select both reported that Rhodes turned down the idea of going heel, which is what prompted Cena to turn for the first time since 2003.

The WrestleMania match between Rhodes and Cena saw a portion of the crowd turn against Rhodes, but he has otherwise been cheered ever since.

One big problem with turning your top babyface heel is you need to have someone else who is just as strong step into that role. Cena could turn now because of how over Rhodes has been.

This was the issue WWE ran into way back in 2001 when Steve Austin aligned himself with Vince McMahon. The Rock was still on the roster, but his movie career was starting to take off at that time.

There are certainly strong babyfaces on the current roster, most notably CM Punk, but WWE clearly feels that Rhodes is still too valuable in that role to tempt fate by turning him.

Stone Cold Reportedly Open to One More Match

Despite previously saying he was done wrestling, Austin is at least keeping the door open to stepping in the ring one more time.

Per Fightful Select (h/t Carrier), multiple people who interacted with Stone Cold over WrestleMania weekend said he was teasing the possibility of another match.

One person told Fightful Select that Austin specifically said he "might have one more in him." It was pointed out that the Rattlesnake noted any scenario in which he wrestles would only happen "under the right circumstances."

This is very different than what Austin was saying publicly during WrestleMania weekend. The WWE Hall of Famer said on the April 18 episode of The Pat McAfee Show (h/t Neal Flanagan of Post Wrestling) he "kind of moved on down the road" when asked about wrestling another match.

Austin had close to a perfect farewell at WrestleMania 38 when he defeated Kevin Owens in a no holds barred match in the main event of night one. It's even more remarkable that match worked out as well as it did based on Owens' recollection of how chaotic things were leading up to that night.

In wrestling, though, you can never say never to anything. If the right opponent comes along who can help get Austin, who is now 60 years old, through a good match, he could have one more moment in the spotlight.

John Cena's Final Dates Reportedly Yet to be Finalized

After John Cena's appearance on Friday's episode of SmackDown, the undisputed WWE champion is believed to have around 17 dates remaining on his retirement tour.

Per Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), WWE has not yet worked out the exact dates for Cena's final appearances:

"He’s got like, 17 dates left or something? He doesn’t have many dates left. The astonishing thing was, I was told that WWE had not worked out his exact schedule of dates leading to the end. I figured that when he announced, ‘Hey, you know I’m done,’ and they publicly said 36 dates or whatever the announcement was in 2025, I figured they just worked backwards and figured out 25 dates and had it all done at the beginning of the year. But I was told that is not the case. They are still figuring out what his last dates will be."

There are eight confirmed upcoming appearances for Cena through October 11. His current schedule doesn't include any dates in July, which could make the build to SummerSlam on Aug. 2-3 tricky if that holds.

Cena was recently announced as appearing on the Aug. 1 episode of SmackDown that will serve as the go-home show for SummerSlam.

WWE hasn't officially announced the date for Cena's final appearance before his retirement, but it's believed the TD Garden in his hometown of Boston will host a premium live event on Dec. 27.

The next date on Cena's retirement tour is June 27 when he will defend the undisputed WWE title against CM Punk. It's the first singles match between the two legends since February 2013 when Cena defeated Punk for the right to challenge The Rock at WrestleMania 29.

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