You’re damn right I said that. It. Will. Flop. From the IWC (internet wrestling community) to the regular fans, pratically everyone is begging for a John Cena heel turn. I’d for one would love to see John Cena finally become a heel but, there are major hurdles in the way that may just be to high to jump over.
Since we’re talking about heel turns, we may as well go back in time.
Whoops, wrong year. (Dammit Doc does any of your crap work?!)
Okay. Finally the right time. Anyway, WCW was doing fairly okay. WWF not so much. But WCW needed that one thing to put them over the edge. Hulk Hogan getting his behind kicked and then magically beating his opponents every damn week wasn’t gonna cut it anymore. Of course, the heat was nowhere near on levels that John Cena gets today, but there were some boos here and there. Most importantly, Hulkamania had died. People weren’t really as excited as they were back when Hogan body slammed Andre The Giant, or when he beat the Iron Sheik for his first title at Madison Square Garden. He was a shell of his former self and needed a change of character.
That sounds exactly like John Cena right? Exactly. John Cena does need a reboot. He sure as hell has gotten stale, and even a bit boring. But a heel turn is not the answer. As we all know, Hulk Hogan went on to becoming the leader of the New World Order and taking over WCW. WCW nearly put the then World Wrestling Federation out of business by 1997. But the same group that built the company killed it. The NWO by 2000 was filled with jobbers, they always were in garbage feuds and were most importantly boring. WCW’s problem was they only had a one trick pony and didn’t put over enough people in their heyday. That is the exact problem WWE has today.
Reason 1: Dropped Storylines
Take the Nexus for example. Awesome group of young, rebellious, and defiant wrestlers who would stop at nothing at taking over the WWE. By January, they were a young, rebellious, and defiant group of jobbers who were each punted into oblivion by Randy Orton.
Not satisfied? How about the Anonymous Raw GM? After General Manager of Raw Bret Hart got the snot beat out of him by the Jobbers, erm…. Nexus, he was forced to resign. For over a year, we were subjected to the torment of a laptop making decisions for a multi billion dollar corporation. Many speculate as to whether it could be The Rock, Mick Foley, or even Stone Cold Steve Austin! But it was all wishful thinking as the angle was scrapped and never mentioned again.The WWE has a frightening history of dropping highly important storylines and it may never end.
Reason 2: Nothing will change
Let me ask you a question. If John Cena were to turn heel, shouldn’t he be top heel? If you answered yes, here’s what will happen.
Extreme Rules 2012:
JR: BA GAWD KING, JOHN CENA’s WON THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP! HE SCREWED CM PUNK! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! THAT SON OF A BIT@# SCREWED PUNK!!!!!!
Wrestlemania 29:
JR: FINALLY JOHN MORRISON HAS OVERCOME ALL ODDS AND ENDED JOHN CENA’s YEAR LONG REIGN! THE WWE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!!
Okay maybe it won’t happen exactly like that, but you get the point. Look at all of the top heels in company history. They’ve all had exceptionally long reigns. Isn’t that exactly what people don’t want? But you can’t have John Cena feud with jobbers. It would be a waste! I mean, look at poor Sheamus!
John Cena would have to have a lengthy title reign. That’s just how heels work. Couple that with the fact that even if he loses the belt, he’ll still be main eventing.
Reason 3: He’ll still get mixed reactions
It happens all of the time. Someone turns heel, and everyone rides his bandwagon and claims he’s the most talented wrestler on the roster. Granted, some wrestlers were legitimately awful before their heel turn (R-Truth, I’m looking at you). But John Cena was never a bad wrestler. He’s proven this on numerous occasions like Money In The Bank 2011, the Raw match in 2007 vs Shawn Michaels, and versus Edge in a ladder match. He will probably end up impressing the marks and they’ll end up cheering him. Then we’ll be stuck at square one with the mixed reactions. Instead of kids and women cheering for Cena and Men booing him, we’ll have men cheering him, and woman and kids booing him. What’s the purpose?
Reason 4: Lack Of Depth on the roster
How many feuds could John Cena go through as a heel? The first one that comes to mind is obviously CM Punk. After that, perhaps Rey Mysterio, and….. Exactly. You also have to take into account injuries. Professional Wrestling isn’t soft people. Superstars are on the road away from families for over 300 days a year. If you’re a main event talent, you will surely participate in a dark match that sends crowds happy after Raw and Smackdown shows. You’re looking at nearly 353 matches a year! It’s nearly physically impossible to not get hurt. We’ve seen top guys like John Cena get hurt (2007), Triple H (2007), Rey Mysterio (2008), Austin (1999, 2002). It can happen. God forbid the same happens to CM Punk, the WWE would be screwed. And please don’t say Zack Ryder could be the second top face, Vince McMahon would shoot himself before it gets that far.
In conclusion, I think turning John Cena heel at such a crucial point in time for the WWE could be detrimental to it’s growth. We have many talented wrestlers such as Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler, and Wade Barrett climbing the ranks, but on the babyface side of things we are very thin. If there was ever a time to turn John Cena heel, it should have happened in 2008. Batista and Edge holding down the fort wouldn’t have been so bad. But it’s too little, too late. John Cena cannot, and more than likely will not turn heel until certain conditions are met. It’s not likely the WWE would go out of business, as there are plenty of heels in history that have sold merchandise. The problem is they still sell merchandise and are living on their retirement home in Bermuda collecting paychecks. Without a deep roster, a heel turn is unlikely.
