John Cena Reflects On His Heel Turn, Confirms It Was Not Part Of Original Pitch

John Cena’s heel turn in early to mid-2025 was polarizing to fans to say the least, and he reflected on how it played out in a new interview. Cena turned heel on Cody Rhodes at Elimination Chamber, a turn that lasted until just before SummerSlam.

Cena is now heading toward his final match against Gunther at Saturday Night’s Main Event this weekend. He appeared on Insight With Chris Van Vliet for a new interview, in which he touched on the heel turn. Cena confirmed that how the turn was documented on WWE Unreal was factual. You can see highlights sent along by the show below:

On If The Heel Turn Was Planned From The Start:

“No, that stuff you see on Unreal is real. ‘We need to make Chamber big, so let’s do something that’ll shock everybody.’ ‘Hey, man, we got this idea.’ No problem, I’ll do the best I can.”

On If He Was Excited About It:

“I’m excited about everything. I like the riddle. You see my stuff. I’m not exactly the most gifted athletic performer. I give you all I got.”

On How He Felt About the Heel Run:

“This is just my perspective. What I like is people are talking about it. And the cool thing is, people who are critical of it, apparently had some idea in their head about what they wanted, which is great, because that means you’re attached, that means you care. I enjoy that, and I hear that criticism. When we did it, we did it as a big moment, but with a purpose. Hey, this is going to ignite something with you and Cody. It’s going to start in February and end in August, because you only have 36 broadcasts and Intuit and Rumble are gone. So now we’re down to 34. Then we need some on the back end, with you actually being a good guy. So let’s take it down to 24. We kind of have to tell a story that should be two years long, 52 weeks a year, plus 14 to 18 PLES. We got to do it in like 20 episodes of television. Okay, so it took my focus on Cody, on the championship and on frustrations that I’ve had, it all comes from a genuine place, things I could say. I’m so happy to say that I wouldn’t retread the course, because I gave everything I had my poor wife. I’d wake up in the middle of the night writing promo lines and thinking about spots and stuff. The opponents I had were great, but I remember everyone talking in February and be like, this is how things change. Yes, this is a good plan. Okay, guys, if I’m gonna ruin this thing, like I’m gonna I’m gonna wrestle methodically, I have an idea of what ruining wrestling is.”