John Cena has achieved what was as soon as unthinkable.
The 16-time world champion and longtime WWE baby-face, who’s on his year-long retirement tour, has lastly turned heel by aligning with The Rock and rapper Travis Scott to doublecross Cody Rhodes in entrance of a shocked crowd at Rogers Centre to finish the Elimination Chamber PLE on Saturday.
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It’s uncharted territory for Cena and WWE. Think about that nobody has granted extra “Make-A-Want” needs than Cena.
“The factor I’m excited for is watching John carry out this,” The Rock mentioned within the post-show press convention.
“As a result of if you concentrate on it, John has been our Babe Ruth, our Superman. He’s the man you by no means, ever, ever, thought would flip on this approach and he did. And it’s an enormous danger and it’s ballsy to do one thing like that and it’s gutsy and he put quite a lot of thought into it.”
The trio was loudly booed and Cena was showered in chants of “You bought out!”
The Peacemaker star shall be a real heel for the primary time in his 23-year profession in WWE after a second that shall be in comparison with Hulk Hogan’s heel flip to hitch the nWo at WCW’s Bash on the Seashore in 1996.
Cena, 47, received the Chamber match by making CM Punk go out on the STF to punch his ticket to WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas on April 19-20 for a match with Rhodes, the Undisputed WWE champion.
“Whenever you get to a spot in your profession the place you understand you undoubtedly have months left in your profession and your dream and the factor that launched you to the remainder of world, to film stardom, to the whole lot else he has as in his life, it places you in a distinct perspective and it places you in a spot the place it’s now or by no means and you may experience that out and you may relaxation on the issues that you’ve got achieved and also you couldn’t actually blame John for doing that (if he did),” Triple H mentioned. …
“Or somebody like him can double down and say, ‘screw it I wish to be challenged proper to the final second. I wish to exit on my protect. I wish to give the whole lot I’ve. I wish to problem myself. I wish to do one thing completely different. I wish to be terrified of it. I wish to go on the market and do all of it.’ And that’s the great thing about John Cena.”
Cena remained within the ring after profitable the Chamber match as Rhodes got here out to present Rock his reply as to if he could be the one promoting his soul to “The Remaining Boss” and be given limitless riches and fame.
Rhodes, WWE’s prime babyface, instructed The Rock to “go f**ok himself” as a result of his soul belongs to the ring and the followers.
Cena, who has been a real-life mentor to Rhodes, then shook Rhodes’ hand and hugged him in what gave the impression to be a celebration of his rejection of The Rock.
As an alternative, the digital camera confirmed Cena’s face flip stern and bitter whereas he checked out Rock.
The Remaining Boss then made the slit-his-throat movement and Cena then kicked Rhodes low.
“I felt like tonight stood by all of that, the enduring angles,” Rock mentioned.
A vicious beat down ensued, and Cena punched Rhodes with the gold Rolex Rhodes was gifted by WWE’ Chief Content material Officer Triple H and WWE CEO Nick Khan after his championship match in opposition to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 final yr.
The Rock ultimately whipped Rhodes with a customized weight belt that had the date of his father Dusty Rhodes’ dying on it and rubbed the champ’s blood on it.
Rock acknowledged throughout the post-show press convention that Scott’s presence will possible result in the rapper getting right into a WWE ring for a match in some unspecified time in the future. Scott, whose presence felt Dennis Rodman-like, even slapped Rhodes at one level.
The whole angle tied in Rock’s Unhealthy Blood look, his graciousness to Rhodes at Uncooked’s Netflix premiere and the character shift in Cena after his Royal Rumble loss.
“The one factor I liked about tonight is that it was nowhere, as a result of no one knew,” Triple H mentioned. “Once I say no one knew, no one. Proper earlier than the end of the Chamber, I mentioned to the truck ‘everyone lay out, I’ve all visitors on what’s subsequent’. It was a really tight circle of individuals.”
WWE might want to give a plausible purpose for Cena turning heel as a result of he’s almost as well-known in Hollywood as The Rock. A silent Cena merely dropped the mic on the post-show press convention.
It could possibly be the truth that Cena hasn’t received a singles match since April 2018 and is operating out of time to win world title No. 17.
Both approach, WWE has utterly flipped the dynamic and added some spice to Cena and Rhodes’ match at WrestleMania.
This story first appeared within the New York Put up and was republished with permission.