WWE Survivor Series 2011: How John Cena Might Just Turn Heel on The Rock

The Rock and John Cena are two of the most polarizing superstars in WWE history, and at Survivor Series, they’ll join forces in a move that brings arguably the biggest stars of two different eras together for the first time.

Cena has undoubtedly become the face of professional wrestling today, and The Rock is probably the second most well known wrestler ever, behind only Hulk Hogan.

The difference between the two is that the fans’ thoughts on The Rock are usually the same—most wrestling fans love him—but for every Cena fan, there’s a Cena hater.

Those who hate Cena do so for a boatload of reasons. From his “Five Moves of Doom” to his jorts to his “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect” catchphrase. But the No. 1 reason why Cena is so loathed, mostly among older fans, is that he’s been the same, over-the-top, corny character for the last five years or so.

His promos are always the same, he magically turns into “Super Cena” during his matches and he’s consistently involved in the World title picture.

So, how do you change Cena? How do you prevent him from becoming even staler than he already is?

By turning him heel—that’s how.

While a Cena heel turn has been a hot topic of debate for a while, especially over the last couple of years, talk about it actually happening has heated up now more than ever.

Some say it will never happen. Some say it will. Some it has to.

I agree with those last two groups.

Truth is, there will never be a better time for Cena to turn to the dark side. The WWE currently has three huge stars—Randy Orton, CM Punk and Triple H—and maybe four if you count Sheamus, working as baby faces along with Cena.

Thus, the argument that “No one can replace Cena as the top baby face” is null and void. After all, Punk has already replaced him as the top merchandise seller in the company, proving that there are non-Cena faces who the fans will support and cheer for.

You also have to consider who Cena is feuding with: The Rock. Yes, The Rock, who is one of the most beloved wrestlers of all time and one of the few stars who can rival Cena’s popularity.

Wrestling fans love The Rock. (Almost) Always have. Always will.

As big of a baby face as Cena is, The Rock will be the one who gets the bigger pop from the Madison Square Garden crowd at Survivor Series. The People’s Champ will get showered with cheers, but The Champ will get drowned in boos.

And if WWE officials are smart, they’ll use that to finally pull the trigger on a much needed Cena heel turn.

There are any number of ways the WWE could go about doing this. Cena could nail The Rock with an Attitude Adjustment and cause his team to lose, he could distract the referee on purpose so that The Miz and R-Truth beat the crap out of The Rock, etc.

But here’s how I would do it.

Cena starts the match before eventually tagging in The Rock, The Rock gains control early on, but The Miz uses some sort of cheap tactic to get the upper hand and starts a baby face beatdown on The Rock.

The crowd goes nuts as The Rock attempts to tag in Cena, and at first, Cena seems willing and ready to tag in and start his comeback. But when The Rock is finally able to make it to Cena, The Champ drops down from the apron, laughs at The Rock and walks up the ramp and out of the arena.

The crowd goes bonkers, cursing at Cena and booing him, and when the action picks back up in the ring, The Miz and R-Truth hit their double finisher on The Rock to get the victory.

The Miz and R-Truth begin celebrating, but then they decide they’re not done with The Rock. They start beating the holy hell out of him when Cena comes running back into the ring.

The crowd cheers big time for Cena as they think he’s about to help The Rock, but he stops, looks around, smiles and then joins in the attack on The Rock. Miz and Truth look confused, but they continue to lay into The Rock as well.

Cena grabs a steel chair, pummels The Rock for a few minutes and puts him in the STF. But no, that’s not enough. He then grabs The Rock, brings him to the outside of the ring and sends him crashing through the announcer's table with a huge AA.

As the pay-per-view goes off the air, Cena—with an evil look on his face—raises his hand in celebration as The Miz and Truth look shocked and the crowd brings on the boo birds.

Just like that, Cena has gone from the most popular superstar in the wrestling business to its most hated.

His heel turn would rival Hogan joining Scott Hall and Kevin Nash at Bash at the Beach in 1996, and it would be one of those rare moments that sent shockwaves through the entire industry.

For the first time since he became a huge star, Cena would be a heel, and the man we love to hate for being such a good guy would finally be hated for being a bad one.