WWE TLC 2011: John Cena's Absence at PPV Will Lead to Epic Heel Turn

John Cena is the face of the WWE. He is the Hulk Hogan or the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin of the PG Era, but despite having no discernible injury or issue of any kind, he was left off of the card at Sunday's Tables, Ladders and Chairs event. This is a tell-tale sign that a heel turn is likely in the very near future.

For the first time since he was sidelined by a pectoral injury in 2007, Cena didn't wrestle or even make an appearance at a WWE pay-per-view. It looked as if an impromptu match might occur between he and Kane after Kane attacked him upon his return on RAW, but that never came to fruition.

Failing that, most wrestling fans probably figured he would celebrate with Zack Ryder after he won the United States Championship or cut a promo or something, but there was no sign of Cena. I my mind, this was simply the WWE testing the waters for a heel turn.

It isn't too often that Cena isn't engaged in a program of some sort, so TLC was the perfect event to sit him out and see what happens. We won't know for sure what type of effect Cena's absence had until the pay-per-view buy rates come out, but in terms of the quality of the show, there was certainly no drop-off.

The interesting thing about Cena's absence was that not only didn't he appear, but he wasn't even mentioned to my recollection. On any episode of RAW, Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler can't go five seconds without saying Cena's name, so I have to believe they were told to make a concerted effort to avoid mentioning him.

To fill the void for Cena should he turn heel at some point, the WWE has clearly been molding WWE Champion CM Punk into the next face of the company. Not only does he currently get a much more positive reaction than Cena, but he is generally viewed as cooler and edgier, making him appeal to a wider audience.

Even so, Punk did some Cena-esque things on Sunday, most notably breaking free of handcuffs on two occasions. The main complaint with Cena over the years has been his ability to overcome insurmountable odds time and time again, and Punk did the same at TLC.

While I don't want to see Punk become a carbon copy of Cena, I do think there is some merit in pushing Punk to the moon as the new top face. This, in turn, will make Cena jealous and lead him to turn on the fans and adopt a heel persona.

Many have been talking about turning Cena for quite some time, but in the grand scheme of things it never made sense, until now. I think TLC proved that Punk can carry the load as RAW's top face while Randy Orton and Sheamus handle things on the SmackDown side. With all bases covered, now is the time to do the unthinkable with Cena and turn him heel.

Not only would it mean a seismic shift in the company's balance of power, but it could mean a move from the PG Era back to an edgier style of wrestling. I enjoyed the Attitude Era, but I'm not one of those people who thinks everything that happened in that era was great and everything that happens now is terrible. Even so, a bit more edge wouldn't hurt the product in the least.

Right now Cena is stale and that's all there is to it. It eventually happens with pretty much everybody, including Hulk Hogan. Near the end of his WWE run and early in his WCW run, Hogan was starting to get boos despite the fact that he was the ultimate face, much like Cena.

He made the difficult decision to turn heel and become a founding member of the nWo. It was a risk, but the move made Hogan cool again and essentially rejuvenated his career. The same can be said for Cena, and I think his absence from TLC was a preliminary step in finally making a heel turn reality.