WWE legend and 16-time World Champion John Cena is recognized as one of the greatest in the wrestling industry, but unlike the other greats in the wrestling business, Cena never had a character change of turning into a heel from a babyface, though he was really close in doing so when he lost a one-on-one match to WWE legend The Rock at WrestleMania 28.
Former WWE writer Matt McCarthy appeared on the We Watch Wrestling Podcast, where he talked about the storyline plans of how they were gonna go about turning Cena heel.
Matt McCarthy said:
“Vince kept trying to figure out how do we do like a Bret Hart thing? Where he’s a heel in some places, but he’s a babyface in the rest of the places.” “Cena was like, ‘If I’m going heel, I want to go full heel.’”
Matt McCarthy then talked about the plans so close to becoming a reality that a gear was even made.
Matt McCarthy said:
“It did get close enough to the point where, and I’m sure he still has this gear, like Cena had gear made for the heel turn, you know? No longer the jorts.” “I don’t know what the gear was, but he had specific gear made ready and waiting and then obviously we know it never happened, and there was a point in the discussions where it was like, ‘Well, the people who are gonna cheer him are going to continue to cheer him, and the people who are gonna boo him, are just gonna keep booing him.’ So the thinking was, that’s the most heelish thing he can do is to stay that white meat, smiling, pure babyface.”
Matt McCarthy then talked about how great Cena was in cutting promos and getting into the skin of the fans who didn't like him.
Matt McCarthy said:
“And he was so great at cutting promos and just like sticking it to the people who couldn’t stand him. He was incredible at it.”
