John Cena Shoots on Heel Turn & Reveals Original Plan for Historic WWE Retirement Tour

With his last match about one week away, John Cena gave his unfiltered thoughts and feelings on his retirement tour this week, including his controversial heel turn.

Appearing on the Bill Simmons Podcast (h/t Fightful's Jeremy Lambert), Cena divulged that he had no regrets about his heel turn and subsequent villainous run earlier this year since he put everything he had into it:

"Not at all, Cena said. "What is perfect? Perfect is never achievable. That's a sucker's chase. When I look back on it, could I have given any more than I did? Not a bit. I over-prepared. ... The cool thing is, when the audience began to turn, we turned. They helped it out. That dynamic was a little bit ahead of schedule for Cody [Rhodes] and I, but it made for a great showing in the summer. 'Let's try John like this, I know we have limited time, but let's do something really big.' Okay, it didn't work, it doesn't mean I didn't give it my all."

At Elimination Chamber back in March, Cena shocked the wrestling world when he turned heel by attacking Rhodes at The Rock's behest. It marked the first time in more than 20 years that Cena became a heel.

While the storyline had massive potential, most fans seemed to agree that it didn't live up to all it could have been, perhaps because of The Rock's lack of involvement after the initial turn.

Instead, it was rapper Travis Scott who helped Cena beat Rhodes for his record-breaking 17th WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41, which clearly didn't sit well with the viewing audience.

Cena suggested that the heel run was primarily hamstrung by a lack of time since he and WWE attempted to pull something off in months that may have required multiple years to do properly.

"I think a lot of people were wondering, 'What would happen if John Cena turned heel,'" Cena said. "When I did, it left a taste in people's mouths that they didn't like it. They wanted other stuff. 'I wanted a music change, a uniform change, to act like this.' I got 11 months to do this. Thirty-six TV appearances. It takes five years to get a guy over, regardless. If you turn him, it's going to take a year or two on television for it to sink in, especially if you really want to get into it and be able to flip and get a performer to get a flip on the other side when it's time to turn again. I don't have the time to tell the right story. That's beside the point because I'm told, 'We're going with this story.' We sure are. I'm going to do the best I can."

While 2025 was always going to be Cena's final year as an active in-ring competitor, he told Simmons (h/t Lambert) that he initially wanted to work a legitimate, full-time schedule.

"The plan, originally, was to do a full year," Cena said. "This goes to show my ignorance of the business. I wanted to do 220 dates. Just take the year off from everything, hop on a bus, do a full WWE calendar, and totally say goodbye. Thank goodness the business isn't like that anymore. I'd be done. They only needed me for 36."

Cena did end up taking acting jobs during the year, and he explained that a full-time schedule would have been far too ambitious, as working 36 dates took a toll in its own right.

"'Hey man, 36 dates must have been easy this year.' I did too many jobs," Cena said. "I was in Budapest, flying to Indy, do Indy, fly back, land, go film. Doing that until post-WrestleMania. Back and forth to Morocco, Budapest, all these crazy places that weren't easy commutes. You think you can do it, 'I'll sleep on the plane.' You don't. It doesn't happen. Then, you get upside down and you're super fatigued. I threaded the needle just enough."

At Saturday Night's Main Event in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 13, Cena will wrestle the final match of his career, and he reiterated Friday that he will never wrestle again after that show:

Over the past few weeks, a tourney called the Last Time Is Now tournament has played out on Raw and SmackDown with Raw, SmackDown and NXT Superstars, as well as wrestlers from outside WWE vying for the right to face Cena in his last match.

Gunther and LA Knight have advanced to the finals, and they will duke it out Friday night on SmackDown to determine who takes on Cena on Dec. 13.

Cena's final year has been eventful to say the least, and while it wasn't always perfect or exactly what the fans wanted, they will have a chance to celebrate one of the all-time greats next weekend.