Why WWE Refused To Turn John Cena Heel 

Simple; *It was for the kids.*

Turning Cena heel would give the older fans what they want but it would also shatter the hopes of millions of kids who are suffering from cancer. They look up to him as an inspiration with his never give up slogan, no wonder he's the celebrity with the most number of wishes from the Make A Wish. So turning him heel just wouldn't make sense anymore

People were just sick of Super Cena. Everybody loved him before he became Superman and everyone continued to love him once he gave up the Superman gimmick and became Savage Cena

I grew up with Cena since 2008, but I was a CM Punk fan and usually stayed on the “Cena Sucks” side, it wasn’t until I met John Cena through a Make A Wish, and I realized I’m not seein Cena every week anymore and he left to Hollywood, I miss John Cena kinda glad looking back that he didn’t turn heel

Cena refused to turn heel because of Make A Foundation. He was set a record of granting over 600 wishes. And most of his merchandise was popular amongst the younger demographic of 8 - 10 year old. Wrestling sense wise he would've been a great heel but he didn't want to jeopardize his image. And there were not credible threat to WWE during Cena's run.

Everything makes a great argument for turning Cena heel. However, the Make A Wish proves to be the best factor of why he couldn’t be a heel. Mostly because Make A Wish goes far beyond the realm of wrestling

For me,John Cena never turn heels more than fifteen years is different archive than any superstars or legends.For that never turn heels is make Cena the most longest face of WWE.And for me,it feel like a Batman who try to protect his code to not kill people and make sure Joker voice doesn't effect him.And Cena did it until now.

The older fans hated it but John Cena was the hero for millions of children and young teens throughout the decade. They maybe shouldn’t have booked him so strongly all the time, but I don’t think he should’ve turned heel. It would’ve been great as a moment and an awesome story, but damn near every WWE fan started as a kid. And Cena was the reason you turned on the TV, he taught you to hustle be loyal to have respect and most of all to never give up-that was essential for an entire generation.

John cena said was going to to turn heel in 2012 but they made him stayed face

I believe sometimes you just need to teach folks that beyond storytelling if you’re a good person you’re a good person. I feel like John Cena is one of those guys that turning him he doesn’t do anything for him or really the audience. When you hear a Cena pop in the 2020s, you don’t really want to boo him because you know that there isn’t much left of him in ring. I rather have the last days of Cena be a face that comes in and makes me smile. not saying that him being a heel could be bad, but I’d rather choose to cheer John after all the years of booing him.

It nearly happened back in 2012 but a toy company told sob stories to prevent Cena's heel turn!

Now we have Cody Rhodes who I don't forsee WWE turning heel ever

After watching "The Peacemaker" , I though he’ll be a great heel!! ..

Personally I'm glad he didn't turn heel I was growing up at my lowest and seeing someone preach never give up and come out of difficult circumstances made me carry out my life with thst mindset day by day, I hated life but when I turned on raw and watched Cena I always had hope, adhering to fans who hate anything on any given day doesn't really benefit a company where the guy is touching millions of lives and giving kids their last wish just because people can't stand that there generally exists the example of being a goody two shoes

Honestly, as bad as Super Cena was, him not turning heel has truly immortalised his character. No matter how good of an idea it seemed, he never turned on his principles, he’s shares such a unique relationship with the crowd. Remaining a face truly solidified his character, an unbending will, he’ll forever represent the good, he’s the standard bearer, a role model, an inspiration. He’s an example of a hero who never turned no matter how enticing it seemed, kids can forever look at John Cena as their hero. Sucks we didn’t get the heel turn, but Cena remaining face has, with time, created a mythical hero of the modern age.

John Cena Could Turn Heel Now Since Sports Entertainment is Slowly Going Away

I’m afraid wwe will do the same with my guy Cody … they will keep him face .. I desperately want an heel Cody again

It was Vince McMahon's fault. Too stubborn

How bout a lil heel turn😂

At least they did seem to an extent aware heel cena may have had interesting potential with the Heel hints during his Bray Wyatt (may he rip) matches, culminating into the controversially interesting firefly funhouse match

Idk, I was a Hogan fan in the 80s, a Stone Cold fan in the 90s, a Rock fan in the 00s, and a Cena fan in the 10s. It was great being a Dad a cheering Cena on with my wife and kids. Never understood the hate.

Vince was stupid and didn't learn with Hogan when his hulkamania character was fadeing out Hogan brought up him turning heel and Vince turned it down not believeing it would work. Hogan told Vince he was a heel when Vince SR was in charge...........but Vince still said No...... so Hogan left turned Heel in WCW formed the NWO and gave WWE nightmares for 83 weeks..🤣🤣🤣🤣 bottom line the heel turn worked even better then hogan's first time as a heel early in his career in the late 1970's with Freddie Blassie as his manager............Vince should have turned Cena heel but he didn't.

Would this have been bigger then hulk hogans heel turn in WCW??? That would have been crazy

Always saw him as a double edge sword of being a baby face and an anti hero. Cena was always very clever with his rudeness and disguised it with heavy amounts of reverse psychology.💯👊🏼

his docter of thunganamics would have been a great heel

I remember hearing Bruce Prichard said on his Something to Wrestle With podcast that Cena almost turned heel in 2006 during his TLC match with Edge at Unforgiven 2006. The original plan was for him to lose and go to SmackDown as a heel. He would have gotten into a match with Batista at the time. 2 years before they eventually crossed paths. Unfortunately, Vince McMahon changed his mind(as usual), and that was why Cena looked dejected at the end of the match. The heel turn in 2011 sounds like it could have been a Prototype gimmick from his OVW days. Imagine his new catchphrase "FEAR MY NAME" getting over with fans. We could have gotten a revolution era during the 2010s. But like always, plans change pal. Smh

Around 2002-2003, I was around 12-13, I discovered John Cena as a Heel more than 20 years ago. Even though Cena was a Baby Face, I always saw him as an excellent Heel. :) I was a kid, but yeah younger kids looked up to him

Man I can't even imagine cena as a bad guy , when I used to watch the guy was like a superhero....the ultimate hero guy ...whatever you throw at him ... Hustle loyalty respect. And since most of the week audience is young kids and teenagers , they really to it ...they connected to cena in a diff way and I don't think that a bad cena would have been a major hit as compared to the real cena

I hope cena turns into a soldier type of persona again

I'll tell you a bigger miss Cena Vs Punk feud it could've been the next big feud in WWE

Not too late to have a heel turn, though. He is already in the Hollywood, appearing in non-PG characters. With Cena saying he will come back, maybe this is the best time to do the villain Cena.

It was MOSTLY about his in-ring ability ... nobody wanted to see a guy get beat for 10mins and pop up do two moves and win

Since the Cena era is over, I wouldn't mind him returning for a long run (many years) but as a heel to face the new top babyfaces. He would be the older heel similar to Hogan's turn later in his career in WCW.

WWE legit miss the opportunity and i would've let it happen if I was CEO.

Their best chance was after his loss to the rock at mania 28, they should have definitely turned him heel, i think to this day that they really missed the ball at that time of turning him to heel.

I wish it would of happened, even if he was only heel for 6 months to a year and then they changed him back. Would of loved to see it

Not a big fan of him in WWE, but I really enjoy a lot of his movies, especially Blockers!

I think that because Cena himself doing too much stuff good stuff outside WWE like his commitment with Make a wish foundation . Most superstar like Jericho could be flexible in doing character switch cause he is not known about how much of a 'saint' he is . Undertaker despite never heard any ill will from him , he keep certain amount of distance from fan to stay in character . Cena is overdoing thing which hinder his gimmick progress .

The thing was kids brought their parents too in the show. Kids loved him like crazy and if you get the kids interested you automatically get the parents money.

The same reason you don’t turn Luke Skywalker into A depressed loser.

He became the heel anyways on ECW One Night Stand 2005

The rock and stone cold fans were adults which is fine for WWE to make them bad guys or not. John Cena also started as bad guy rapper to avoid getting fired but he changed his style after what happened to Chris Bennoite. They have to show the world that WWE is not a bad entertainment so they have to change a good guy as a face of WWE.

"John Cena, while you lay there hopefully as uncomfortable as you possibly can be, I want you to listen to me.... There's one thing you're better at than I am, and that's kissing Vince McMahon's ass. You're as good at kissing Vince's ass as Hulk Hogan was." -CM Punk

It would have made no sense at all to turn him heel cuz then he would become one of those chicken shit always cheating to win, meanwhile he never had to cheat to win and had already beat everyone already with no help but now all of a sudden he had an attitude change and can't beat anyone anymore cleanly... Yea, NO 😂😂

He could / would have, but has already said he’d have to be 100% committed, which would mean ending the make-a-wish deal and other commitments

No we as fans definitely question and have questioned cenas in ring ability same as roman 5 moves and facial expressions isn't what it takes to be entertaining it was lack of perfection that drove us mad because we didn't want the product to be as watered down as him

Im the biggest example of a kid who idolised cena and would buy his merch, I had 3 different cena t-shirts from 3 different years

i stop watching wwe a long time ago, but didn't they made just that with batista? Batista used to be a good guy, that is how i remember him, but now a friend of mine showed videos of him having beef with triple h again but this time batista was the bad guy, and my friend said that they tried to make him bad but it did not worked that well.

He was supercena for kids and grown up kids who grew big watching john cena so turning cena heel maybe would’ve been a good idea for business but not for the fans

Yes we have seen that movie. The character was called Rey. Thanks to you I just realized why I hated him so much. He is a Marty Stu

They can still do it for one story line and make him Cody's worst nightmare

Bret Hart was the face of the company during the mid 90s and then came Austin.

Hulk hogan, Shawn Michaels / DX, Triple H, then John Cena

I would like the no joke kind of anti hero heel cena to comeback fir that number 17 title. All serious business this time, no pushing over the newbies

They could have pulled a heel turn for him if he had more villain or antihero roles in movies

It’s not too late, he can in his last run

if cena ever turn heel who will be the one the biggest baby face instead of cena especially wwe is pg

with the huge talent he showed in hollywood roles, imagine what he could do with a more entertaining gimmick!

He'll do it on a return to put someone over. Although, looking at what he did to Theory, putting people over isnt his forte.

its nothing but merchandise and how much money wwe would loose!! n they keep telling us wwe is about story telling and character's

Definitely the kids that always wanna buy the merch. That’ll be a big loss to profits but not turning Cena heel is definitely a big loss to fans of the OG thuganomics gimmick

John Cena as a rapping heel was the best version of John Cena.

Because he never turned heel and was a babyface in each and every feud or match even if the other guy was more of a fan favorite even though i know it's not Cena's fault he didn't turn all of his contemporaries whether its Randy Orton,CM Punk,Edge,Triple H, Daniel Bryan,Christian,The Shield Reigns,Rollins,Ambrose,were all more watchable when I watched in the past cause watching Cena matches feuds, especially segments was just as worse if not than watching paint dry due to him being Babyface no matter he faced,He feuded with Triple H ,Edge,Orton and Jericho too many times for the dynamic to always be the same

I always thought he was Captain America of WWE😅

Why jeopardize a top merch seller and the number 1 guy in make a wish? There was no big miss here.

His Dr. of Thuganomics character is actually a heel in disguise.

Why does everyone forget that Cena was a heel when he started his Dr of Thugonomics persona??? The only problem was everyone loved the heel Cena and ended up turning face...

Them: It was for the kids! Attitude Era Fans: I dont give a shit about your kids!

Hopefully they correct it with Cody this time around

Cena was the Superman of the WWE. The perennial boy scout. It's not that Cena wasn't capable of playing heel but that it wouldn't have worked for his goody two shoes boy scout character.

Cena was always a heel to adults at a meta level. The fact that they didn’t make merch around that is the real question.

You have also guy like austin ,rock or Undertaker who were heel but still loved ,i think they call that tweener or something in wrestling. Attitude era kids were more adults than kid nowdays But yeah cena being hell would have been problematic based on his gimmick for all the children and the make a wish fondation.

I feel like John pass that fr he don’t have to go heel if he did anytime around before 2016 it would’ve been nice be now I feel like it on the so much of a legend and what it stand for is really to his heart

The kids who grew up watching SuperCena just finished watching Cena's to be sucessor Roman Reign's legendary Heel run

It was a good thing John cena never turned heel though and now Cody Rhodes is doing the same thing now

hogan run for 2 decades as the quintessential good guy “say your prayers, eat your vitamins” his financial advisor was ADAMANT about not agreeing with wcw turning hogan heel and he could have easily stay face and continue collecting paycheck from dates and merch. but they did it. or to be more precise hogan (remember creative control in his contract) decided to risk his merch empire his name and image for the potential of possibly the biggest heel turn in history. they turn a stale icon that was still a huge draw and merch mover and injected new life into him making him again the king of wrestling world with hollywood hogan and the nwo heel cena could potentially be a new hollywood hogan i certanly would have been interested into the storyline damn they made nwo cena into a videogame that was interesting it would have been awasome to se a new version of the nwo with cena on top

John Cena is cosmic being ☄️

John Cena is the definition of hero in wwe not not a regular superstar!!!

He was too over like hogan but back then it worked for hogan... cena goin heel wouldnt have suited him in the long run.

It’s a double edge sword, keep him face, and people boo him, turn him heel and he starts a scorched earth campaign against all the companies faces, WWE know their product, he’s the best on the mic, nobody would stand a chance if he was a heel

He would have absolutely killed that character

I still believe this can still happen before he retires.

Cena's last Run should be a heel like hulk hogan. they should not miss this chance.

Cena will Make a Great Rival , if he returns with a New Caracter like Mcfoley /Mankind

Let the adults boo him. He's a hero to the kids and has granted more wishes to sick children than anyone else. Far more important than pleasing the older demographic.

Just think he has turned heal on his last run in the wwe in a non pg era.He will bury everyone in mic😂

2 main reasons - make a wish foundation - merchandise sales

Thug life was the most heel Cena could be.

Only Hogan, rock, stonecold, and cena! Brock, hitman, goldberg left the chat.

He turned heel in Bumblebee movie🤣

Let's be fair here. He got booed most for being Stale and for taking catchphrases form other big stars before him and slightly changed them. Ex: Just Bring it! - You want some come get some

Believe it or not I've never booed Cena. He wasn't my favorite but I liked him enough not to boo him, no matter how much everyone booed him. Same with Roman btw

It was for Make A Wish, and you can’t even really be mad at that

They literally made Cena a deal, he can have 100% creative control over his character as long as he doesn’t turn heel

They able to save Roman reigns by turning him heel but they didn't save John cena.

Wwe is doing it for the kids, a lot of kids look up to cena and made him their inspiration.

Rey mysterio sin cara and kalisto never turned heel aswell

I dont think Heel wouldve made sense. To me, its just older fans wanna be all cynical and see just another wrestler go the bad guy route instead of doing something different and actually NOT doing that shit only to mysteriously switch to nice guy. Cena is best when he just acts his real self. No, that doesnt mean the PG was his real self. Him talking hot shit and being stylish with it, the smooth criminal of WWE but with heart is John Cena. PRIME example of Cena is his feud with JBL and Edge. He down for the people but he will put you down with words and moves without the cartoonish nice nice bs. THAT is John Cena. His feud with Rock? Where there was no clear good guy or bad guy. Just two high profile wrestlers being passionate in their own ways and talking shit the best way they know how WHILE keeping the crowd encouraged and engaged. Heel cena wouldve been too easy and in my opinion, boring. No different from super cena.

It’d be interesting to see John Cena as a Heel but, the reason he didn’t turn heel in 2012 was for his connection to kids and I understand that.

Vince fears the truth. He also feared the truth about Cena lol