A John Cena heel turn is one of the greatest "What ifs" in WWE history.
In 2005, Cena began to emerge as the new top face of the company following his victory over JBL for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 21.
Cena would hold the status as the top face in WWE for the better part of the next decade. But to the chagrin of countless WWE fans, the 16-time World Champion never once made the transition to heel.
All of the other major babyfaces in the wrestling industry enjoyed at least one major heel run. This includes The Rock, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Sting and Daniel Bryan, among others.
WWE even turned Roman Reigns heel after pushing him as the top babyface for the majority of the previous five years.
But WWE never gave Cena the opportunity to work as a bad guy following his rise to main event status, and AEW play-by-play commentator Jim Ross continues to wonder why it never transpired.
On his Grilling JR podcast (h/t Marco Rovere of WrestlingInc.com), Ross expressed confusion over WWE's decision to never turn Cena into a heel.
"The thing that’s always been funny to me is that Cena never turned heel," Ross said. “There’s where my brain fart starts. Why didn’t we do that? Why was that not done? I’ve heard John didn’t want to be a heel, I don’t really believe that one. I just think that Vince (McMahon) felt like he was such a pristine baby face but if you listen to the audience, there was a long time there where he wasn’t a pristine baby face."
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Ross noted that Cena was starting to get booed aplenty, and that the fans were ready for a transition to heel. He brought up Reigns as an example, noting that the Universal Champion has "become a significant antihero."
It Will Probably Never Happen
Unfortunately, the chance to turn Cena heel has passed. The future Hall of Famer barely wrestles anymore, as he's occupied with a busy and highly successful movie career.
A Cena heel turn would have worked during his full-time run with the company, but it's hard to envision him becoming a bad guy on a part-time basis. Vince McMahon has never seemed keen on turning Cena heel. Add it all up, and it's safe to say that we'll never see Cena make the change.