Backstage Details On John Cena’s Heel Turn, Plans Going Into WrestleMania

John Cena turned heel at WWE Elimination Chamber on Saturday and a new report has some details on WWE’s efforts to keep the turn secret. As reported, Cena turned heel by attacking Cody Rhodes in the final segment of the PPV after Rhodes turned down The Rock’s offer. Fightful Select reports that the company took some significant efforts to protect the turn from being spoiled, including listing the Rhodes/Rock segment as third internally when putting it at the end of the show wasn’t a last minute change.

The moment was described as coming as “a shock” to many within the company and that the poster that released on Friday promoting Rock, Cena and Travis Scott was “100% intentional foreshadowing.” Scott was planned to be part of the angle from that point and WWE had planned for Scott to appear at the show for over a month, though it’s not clear if he was planned for the angle for that long. Ed Koskey and Brian Parise were listed internally as the writers for the segment, with no producer listed.

The report goes on to note that Cena and Rhodes have known that the plan was for them to compete at WrestleMania. There has been no word of plans for Rock to wrestle at the PPV and people the site spoke to believe he will be at WrestleMania, but that is not confirmed and there’s no word on what he might do on the show. It has long been reported that WWE creative were told to plan as if Rock wouldn’t be competing at the PPV.

There’s no word on how long the angle has been planned at this point and most of Rock’s creative has been on a need to know basis. Cena is not currently advertised for the next two episodes of Raw and Rock said he is flying to Africa as of last night.

Finally, the report says that per sources, the plan was never to have Drew McIntyre win the match despite a report that said otherwise.