At Long Last, Cena Turns Heel

Well, folks. It happened. It actually happened.

We are all familiar with the question, "Where were you when...?" That always applies to the biggest of moments in society, no matter what the platform. Where were you when a man walked on the moon? Where were you when MLK made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech? Where were you when Hank Aaron hit #715? All sorts of big moments in society. The evening of March 1, 2025 in Canada's largest city ended with one of those moments.

The entire event was wild. Before the Women's Chamber Match started, Jade Cargill resurfaced for the first time since she was attacked, and very recently, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez were fingered as the attackers, though they denied it. Jade's return saw her kinda look at Liv, but beat down Naomi, and that led to the obvious belief that Naomi was the attacker. Bianca Belair won the Chamber Match and will challenge for the Women's World Championship at WrestleMania, but still, there are still questions. Did Naomi act alone, or was Bianca involved somehow? I hope Bianca acted on her own and Naomi was attacked just because, because Bianca is in desperate need of a heel turn, and I don't want Naomi to turn because she sucks at being a heel.

We saw "Tiffy and Trishy Time" win, because of course they did, and Kevin Owens violently defeated Sami Zayn, but ended up face to face with Randy Orton afterwards. But let's get to the subject at hand, shall we? The Men's Chamber match: Logan Paul, Drew McIntyre, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Damien Priest, and John Cena, all vying to main event WrestleMania. The winner knows who he's facing. Royal Rumble winner Jey Uso will challenge Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship, so the winner of this bout would face Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship. As for the eliminations, McIntyre was the first one out, eliminated by Priest, who ended up ousted by Paul after McIntyre's interference. Thankfully, Punk got Paul the hell out of there.

It was down to Cena, Punk, and Rollins, and we saw a great moment where Punk and Cena hugged before going at it. Rollins tossed Cena to the plexiglas, but Cena still made it up to help Punk get Rollins out. It was down to Cena and Punk, because of course it should be, and after Rollins delivered a stomp to Punk, Cena capitalized and placed Punk in the STF, and that was all, folks. Cena's going to WrestleMania one more time, and he'll have a one-on-one shot at #17.

Cody Rhodes comes out, and Cena says it's the two of them at WrestleMania. Then The Rock comes out... with Travis Scott (why he's there, I'll never know). Remember: Rock told Cody that he wants Cody to be his champion. The exact words, "I want your soul." Yeah, that's not Faustian at all. Anyway, Rock's looking for an answer. Cody's answer: "Go fuck yourself!" Uncensored! Cena's cheering his ass off, and challenger and champion hug.

Yeah, about that hug:

From the moment Rock appeared, I was nervous as hell. Cody says no, like I knew he would. Then Cena hugs Cody. Look at that look on Cena's face. That's why I was nervous. Because I saw this coming. Not a mile away, but I read theories about this, and I went, "OMG it's going to happen." And with one swift kick between Cody's uprights, there it was. It happened, folks. John Cena sold out. John Cena turned heel. I've said a lot of impossible statements in sports before. "The Boston Red Sox win the World Series." "The Chicago Cubs win the World Series." "The NFL's in LA." I never thought I would say, in this WWE climate, "John Cena turned heel." And you know what's the only downside about this? Toronto saw a Cena heel turn before they saw another Stanley Cup. Though the optimist in me has to say that one is coming to Toronto.

October 16, 2003. That's the last time Cena was heel. Think about how long ago that was. About 21 and a half years ago! On that same day, the current manager of the New York Yankees hit a walk-off homer that got us to the World Series! In WWE at that time, Bill Goldberg and Brock Lesnar were the world champions, Evolution was running wild, and Eric Bischoff and Stephanie McMahon were the two GMs. In sports, the New Jersey Devils were the defending Stanley Cup Champions, Tom Brady was a feel good story, and not even Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin (the latter closing in on the NHL goals record) were in the NHL yet. That's how long ago it was. Also, one of my favorite sitcoms, Two and a Half Men? It had just premiered.

It was a brutal and epic beat down delivered by Cena, and all I could do was mark out and cheese out. Mind you, I was on of the select few who was against turning Cena heel back when fans wanted it over a decade ago, because I thought it would have been unfair of them to do it then. Though, I was curious how that would go. But we have it now. John Cena, the man who makes Dudley Do-Right look like the Devil himself, is the ultimate bad guy now. A theory I have is that Cena turned down turning heel so many times because he wanted to make sure that if that day came and he ever turned, it would be memorable, it would be diabolical, and it would be absolutely brutal. Boy, did Cena deliver!

Like I need another reason to look forward to April 19 and 20! The NBA Playoffs start that weekend. The Stanley Cup Playoffs start that weekend. And that weekend is also when WrestleMania 41 takes place. It's not just WrestleMania 41--it's WrestleMania 41 with a villainous John Cena. I'm anxious to see his first promo. I'm anxious to see his new look. I'm anxious to hear any and all changes to his theme; he's had "The Time is Now" for 20 years! I just hope we see him on Monday! Oh man, this will be a wild seven weeks!