John Cena is without a doubt one of the most successful wrestlers of all time, and Cena spent the majority of his career working as a face in WWE.
Cena’s face gimmick has often been criticized for getting stale, and over the years quite a few fans have called for a John Cena heel turn.
The heel turn never happened, and during a recent episode of his podcast Jim Ross noted that he never pitched the idea of a heel turn to John Cena.
“I never pitched it to him. No, because the data that we could obtain and utilize, simply put, the merchandise sales. Things of that nature that were always somewhat babyface oriented. Not as much today, but in that era, certainly it was. I didn’t see any reason to lessen the opportunity to keep selling merchandise.”
Ross was then asked if he thinks John Cena’s work with Make a Wish would have still been possible if Cena turned heel, and the Hall of Famer noted that he didn’t think it ever made organic sense for Cena to become a heel.
“it didn’t make sense to me. I think that everybody agreed with that and I’m sure John had some input on that as well. Making these wishes for these terminally ill children and making a wish is very important to John Cena. It’s not just a gimmick to get a nice photo op. It’s not that. He’s done hundreds and hundreds of these that never made air. He was never looking to make good publicity out of helping terminally ill children. It’s still important to him. So that’s a good reason. It’s the right reason. It has never made organic sense for John Cena to become a heel. Sorry, folks.”
Do you think WWE should have pulled the trigger on a John Cena heel turn when they had the chance? Sound off in the comments below.
H/T Fightful
