John Cena Says He Accepts Heel Turn Was A Failure

In 2025 amidst his retirement tour, John Cena shocked the world by turning heel for the first time in over two decades. From there, Cena embarked on a heel run that was largely criticized by fans, with his character work and feuds falling short of expectations. Cena has now acknowledged the failure of his spell as a bad guy. 

Speaking on WrestleRant, Cena responded to a question asking if his heel worked or failed. 

“As far as ‘Did it work?’ There are a lot of aspects to that. From a business side, we didn’t have a seat left. People watched in numbers. I don’t know if it didn’t work from a business standpoint, but then there’s a creative standpoint. Sometimes, blockbuster movies are poorly reviewed by critics. I understand where, critically, people are like, ‘This isn’t what I wanted. Intrinsically, I would’ve loved to have a chance to literally ruin wrestling. To wrestle so poorly that people just wanted to see me go and wanted to see a hero thwart me. We didn’t have that kind of time, and that would not have been good for business. That would’ve made people stop coming to shows and the numbers go down… A lot of folks will say, ‘The heel turn failed.’ Okay, I accept that as a failure, but I swung boldly.”

Cena also reiterated the fact that the heel turn was not his idea, but rather Triple H’s. The 17-time world champion wrestled a whole bunch of both new and old rivals in his final year, though a match with one of his best, Edge, didn’t end up happening. Tony Khan revealed recently that if WWE had asked, then he would have been open to making something work. Cena also noted in recent weeks that the upcoming “John Cena Classic” was moving forwards.

H/T WrestlingNews.Co