John Cena Addresses Criticisms of His Heel Turn, Why He Leaned Into Abusive Relationship Angle With the Fans

During What Do You Wanna Talk About?, John Cena spoke to Cody Rhodes at length regarding the criticisms of his recent heel turn and run as WWE Champion earlier this year. His heel turn received major criticism for not following up on The Rock’s involvement with the turn at WWE Elimination Chamber 2025.

Also, Cena didn’t really change his character at all, instead blaming the fans for being abusive. Cena spoke to Rhodes about why they had limited time and resources and why he and WWE opted to lean into the angle of Cena feeling abused by fans and calling it a toxic relationship. Some highlights are below:

John Cena on the Audience Expectations for His Heel Turn

“Afterwards and the audience’s expectations were, I want a new personality, I want a new gear, I want a new theme song. I want all this. Great idea. Those are all great ideas. You know, it takes two years at least to get a guy over. So if I’m gonna do that and we gotta we gotta call it quits in December, I don’t know if that’s enough time for a turnaround. So now the tools I have to work with are like, play within confines. Develop your why. Okay, I’m in an abusive relationship, and all right, that makes sense. I can lean into the polarization of the audience and say all those things I didn’t wanna say.”

On If The Rock and Travis Scott Were Involved Throughout His Heel Turn

“Again, I rarely walk down hypotheticals. Let’s walk down hypothetical street for a second. Walk it down. Let’s say everyone that showed up at the chamber is active until August. That robs us of John Cena/Randy Orton. That robs us of John Cena/CM Punk, John Cena/Ron Cena, John Cena/AJ Styles, John Cena/Logan Paul. Me and you for the last one. Mano a mano. So yes, the story that might’ve been might’ve had star power and gravity and who knows what, but what we got by just being like, these are the pieces left. What can we build? What we got from me personally was beautiful. Was beautiful. And I’m not trying to change anybody’s mind again. I’ve released art into the world, and they can think how they want about it. I’m just also saying that like, is it a wise investment in time? And what I’ve learned about like credible wrestling critiques, it’s of course it’s, ’cause you want chatter and you want clickbait, but not like, let’s analyze what happened.”

On How They Still Did Okay Despite Certain Hypotheticals Not Panning Out

“And I was in the ring with you. I was in the ring with Randy, and Punk, and Ron Cena, and Logan Paul and AJ Styles. Man, it was really loud. So, judging by the wise man, Shawn Michaels, does that mean we did okay? I don’t know. I don’t know. But I, man, sometimes like, what’s the next thing you’re gonna do? What’s all these hypothetical things? Let’s just figure out what it is. Figure out why we’re doing it and just climb that hill in front of you, man. You know, because it’s gonna change. They’re gonna have a plan for you, and it’s gonna change. Yeah. And here’s the thing. The WWE audience or the people who critique our work, they’re so forgiving and understanding when the reason is injury. Someone gets injured, they can’t compete. Okay, we gotta give that up. Totally blows the story. Creative, injury. I get it. What if it’s an emotional injury? What if we deem things aren’t working out? What if somebody says, I just can’t make it. Sure. Like, it just doesn’t work sometimes. And instead of *****ing about what we could have had the imaginary thing, look at what we got, dog. And when I, again, when I reflect on Saturday, I went peacefully. I close this chapter peacefully and man, fun, fun stuff.”

Cena’s heel turn abruptly ended on the WWE SmackDown right before his rematch with Cody Rhodes at WWE SummerSlam 2025. He remained a babyface for the remainder of his farewell tour, wrestling his fina match against Gunther at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event last weekend.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit What Do You Wanna Talk About? with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.