John Cena reveals when Triple H told him his heel turn was ‘not working’ during WWE retirement tour

JOHN CENA has finally explained what happened with his heel turn during his retirement tour of WWE. The 49-year-old, who continues to forge his career in Hollywood, shocked the world by becoming a bad guy for the first time in 23 years at the Elimination Chamber in 2025. The moment that shocked everyone in WWE – John Cena turns heel But they never followed up on the aligment with The Rock While it may never be fully explained why he aligned with The Rock and he was not seen again during his retirement year, Cena has spoken about what he was trying to do with the character. And why eventually Triple H had to tell him to stop. Sign up for the Sport newsletter Thank you! Speaking on the Netflix series WWE Unreal, Cena said: “You can ask me about any moment on the tour and I can guarantee I can give you a ‘why’ for every single one. “We’re doing this monumental switch. At the Chamber, you’re going to be a villain and align with Travis Scott and The Rock because of this story with Cody. “‘Ok, that works. Let’s go!'” One of Cena’s hallmarks of this time was trying to “ruin wrestling“, though precious few fans really understood what that meant. Cena said: “I have to formulate a why. Why after 23 years am I doing this? “Well, it could be I’m the last of the old guard and I don’t like the new guard. What does that mean, to ruin wrestling? That means to take the fun away from the fans. Most read in Sport John Cena with Triple H the night he retired Credit: Getty Cena ended his WWE run as a good guy, just like the fans wanted him to Credit: Getty “That means to win the WWE championship, with methodical, catastrophically boring work. To make people be like ‘f*** this guy!’ “People were like ‘that’s it? What a s***** main event.’ Yup – that’s what I was going for! Watch the next one.” Triple H reveals in the writers’ room that Cena had an idea for a count-out finish in one of his world title defences. WWE almost never does that on pay-per-view as fans have paid to see an outcome one way or another, it’s almost like an unwritten rule. But it shows where Cena’s head was at with the character. Cena added: “Then it was explained to me that was too boring. Like, that was too bad. I think people are going to stop coming! “The perspective was ‘hey, this isn’t heat on you, this is heat on the company.” Cena reverted back to a good guy just in time for his SummerSlam match with Rhodes where he would drop the title, but fans would welcome him back with open arms. Almost a year ago, WWE got Cena’s character back on track at SummerSlam Credit: Getty Once he had turned into a good guy again, Cena passed the torch to Cody Rhodes Credit: Getty It was just before that event Triple H decided to do a 180. Triple H, who is head of creative in WWE, said: “To some degree, John’s instincts were spot on. John earned the spot to be like ‘well, let’s take a shot at it.’ “But there was a certain point in time where I was like ‘this ain’t working!’ You still got to deliver for these people. Hopefully you’ll do it in a manner which they don’t like that, but you’ve got to give them your greatness still.” Cena embraced the challenge of being a bad guy, but ultimately, the way it was done may have made it impossible to do. Cena added: “It was a great part of the tour because I got to swim in uncomfortable waters.” Cena and Triple H have a candid moment in the gorilla position before SummerSlam where Cena acknowledges that Triple H was right to change the direction. Cena explained: “Cody at SummerSlam was supposed to be him beating virtue into me – but the fans beat him to it! ‘We want John back’ – no problem. “That’s all of us working together. Hunter telling me I was swinging too big. Me trying to put myself in a situation mentally of thinking why am I making these decisions and being coachable enough to pivot. And the audience is the show.” Watch WWE Unreal Season 3 on Netflix NOW Comment now