For years, WWE fans wanted to see John Cena turn heel. It never happened and likely never will, especially now he makes only sporadic appearances for the company. Those in attendance for RAW and SmackDown are so happy to see the Leader of the Cenation that even those who once chanted "Cena Sucks!" cheer him now, but a heel turn did very nearly happen back in 2012.
During a recent interview on The Pac McAfee Show (via WrestlingInc.com), Cena confirmed that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon considered pulling the trigger on a bad guy Cena prior to WrestleMania.
"I’m playing a character that, you know, like I said, is a character of virtue, a character that started as a generic wrestler, and then morphed into this hip-hop persona, then morphed into this character of virtue," the Peacemaker star explained. "To play the same character for a long time, that’s a challenge. I remember Vince toying with the idea of possibly turning me heel for The Rock, The Rock I in Miami, and I told him, like, ‘Hey, no problem, 100% I’ll do it, but just remember that this is so...we’re so deep in at this point, we can’t do it and then jump back because we’ll be sunk at both ends, so if we do it, I have to be the opposite of virtue, I have to be pure evil and we have to go all in.'"
"And he [Vince] decided against it," Cena added. "It’s at that point, he was like, ‘Listen, I don’t think we’re ever gonna do it.'"
A heel turn could have worked, but like Cena says, WWE would have needed to fully commit to it. Given the charitable work he does outside the ring and his many media appearances for WWE prior to becoming a Hollywood star, chances are this just wouldn't have worked in the long run.
A heel Cena is likely to forever be one of those "What If...?" scenarios in WWE, and we know he'd have done a great job with that based on his earlier runs in the company as a bad guy.
Check out the full interview below: