John Cena’s heel flip on the Elimination Chamber was one in every of WWE’s most surprising moments. By Cena’s admission, the run that adopted fell far in need of expectations.
The inventive path behind Cena’s heel run, and his farewell tour extra broadly, has been criticized as rushed and disjointed. Cena, 48, deserted his heel character, the first time he performed a villain in 22 years, in a shedding effort to Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam. He reverted to the colourful, kid-friendly hero {that a} era grew up with.
The record-setting 17-time world champion admitted this week that his heel run missed the mark and shouldered full duty for its failure.
“I simply know I failed,” Cena stated throughout a fan Q&A at Fan Expo Chicago. “Ain’t nothing mistaken with that. You’ll be able to be taught from failure, proper? I went on the market and bombed. Shit occurs, guys.”
A significant gripe with Cena’s heel flip was The Rock’s involvement. At Elimination Chamber, Cena sided with The Rock, brutally attacking Cody Rhodes in a section revolving round The Rock’s unsuccessful coercion of Rhodes. But The Rock by no means appeared once more, not even to assist Cena beat Rhodes at WrestleMania 41.
“Hindsight is a waste of time,” Cena stated.
Cena did not wish to dissect what went mistaken along with his heel flip. He stated there’d be time to revisit it after his retirement. For now, Cena needs to deal with his remaining farewell tour dates, which embody a conflict with AJ Types at Crown Jewel this weekend, and his retirement match at Saturday Night time’s Essential Occasion on Dec. 13.
“We acquired 11 dates left. I believe I am going to be capable to discuss all this bupkus in January after the entire thing is over,” Cena stated. “However we have taken the viewers on a hell of a experience this 12 months. We nonetheless acquired a methods left to go, so I am enthusiastic about that.”