John Cena comments on WWE heel run: “From a business side, we didn’t have a seat left” – POST Wrestling
Months removed from his retirement match, John Cena continues to be asked about his final year in the company and the polarizing heel turn that consumed most of his final run.
WrestleRant interviewed Cena and asked about the heel run, how it was perceived, and if he would have regretted not trying such a bold character shift at the tail end.
We did the best we could with the time we had, and as far as, like, did it work or not? Okay. There’s a lot of aspects to that. From a business side, we didn’t have a seat left, and people watched in numbers. So, I don’t know if it didn’t work from a business standpoint, but then, there’s the creative standpoint. Sometimes there are blockbuster movies that are poorly reviewed by critics. So, I understand where critically people are like, ‘Man, that’s just not what I wanted to see.’
Cena turned heel in March 2025 at the Elimination Chamber at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, attacking Cody Rhodes and aligning with The Rock to start the promotion for WrestleMania 41. The lack of presence by The Rock after the show in Toronto was one of many criticisms regarding the turn, along with Cena’s character attempting to “ruin wrestling”.
Intrinsically, I would have loved to have a chance to literally ruin wrestling, to wrestle so poorly that people just wanted to see me go and then see a hero thwart me. We didn’t have that kind of time, and that would not have been good for business. It would have made people stop coming to the shows, and that would have made the numbers go down.
If you’ve seen ‘Unreal’, like, stuff changes in WWE all the time. Well, a bunch of stuff changed for us. With high-level plans like that, you think you have eight chess pieces, and you find out you have one or two. You’ve got to make do with what you’ve got.
The turn ran its course by the summer, with Cena officially shifting back to the babyface role on the final episode of SmackDown before SummerSlam, ahead of his rematch with Cody Rhodes. The final months featured Cena wrestling against Logan Paul, Brock Lesnar, AJ Styles, Dominik Mysterio, and his retirement match with Gunther in December.
In reflecting, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m glad we got to do it because it helps me now when I speak to younger talent and say, ‘Yo, be bold. Take chances. Don’t worry about failing’.
Cena’s final match on December 13 at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Washington, D.C., at the Capital One Center sold 17,121 tickets and set WWE’s all-time arena gate record with $6,553,883, according to Pollstar.
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