The Rock Praises John Cena as the ‘GOAT,’ Explains How Cena Crafted His Heel Turn

– During an appearance The Pat McAfee Show, The Final Boss Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson discussed John Cena turning heel earlier this year, leading into Cena defeating Cody Rhodes for his record-breaking 17th WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

The Rock on John Cena being the GOAT: “John becoming the 17-time heavyweight champion and legitimizing himself as being, without question, the GOAT. Period. He’s on Mount Rushmore now. Gotta kick a guy off to put him on. Dusty goes to the back, he was always on my Mount Rushmore. He goes on the back there with me. At the end of the night, John raising that title, that was the bottom line and north star. I loved it and loved that moment. I think he’s going to go on to have this insane run as a heel.”

On Cena’s heel turn: “What I love about John, I love that the fans are so engaged and so connected to John’s heel run. I see a few fans saying, ‘I really don’t believe he’s a bad guy. He’s playing a bad guy.’ Here is the thing, you don’t have to believe he’s a bad guy. You know why? He’s not a bad guy, he’s a good guy. I’ve known the guy for 20 years, we’ve gone up and down, to hell and back. We talk and text all the time. He’s not a bad guy. He’s telling the truth now. You can feel that in his delivery. He’s telling the truth.”

On how Cena dealing with boos for over 20 years being part of his heel turn: “Imagine going out every single night for 25 years and know you’re going to get cheered and booed. In some places, it’s even harder, you’re going to get booed out of the building. That’s a hard psychological place to be at. I give John so much credit. When we did the heel turn, I said, ‘Brother, I give you so much credit and I hope you are exhilarated right now because what you are attempting to do takes guts and you are putting it all on the line.’ There is no blueprint for a heel John Cena. He was creating it as he went along and I thought he was brilliant. I can’t wait to see it go on for the rest of the year. I love there is a specific amount of dates we have John for and I love his connection to the audience. He’s not a bad guy, he’s not trying to play bad, he’s just talking the truth. He said, ‘Hey, I’m fed up with this shit’ in terms of this messed up relationship we have.”