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Could John Cena have been one of the all time great heels?

3K views 36 replies 33 participants last post by  LeaderOfM.D.R.S. 
#1 ·
I have always thought that while WWE have made a lot of financial gain from keeping Cena face, they have perhaps missed out on some creative and storyline gain by not giving John Cena a heel run.
For me Cena could have been one of the all time great heels. There is just something REALLY unlikeable about him. He projects this really condescending, patronising and smug demeanour as a face, so I'm thinking imagine that as a heel with all those negative traits turned up to 11.
I've always thought that WWE should do a heel in the Floyd Mayweather mould, a real arrogant, egomaniacal prick who flaunts his status, wealth and superiority and more often than not wins. And I think Cena could have nailed that role down to a T.
He could be cutting promos from his swimming pool in his mansion with Nikki Bella on his arm, a butler waiting on him and running down the latest challenger, be it Bryan, Ambrose, Ziggler or whoever and lambasting them for being not on his level and also ripping into the hardcore internet fans who make heroes out of these "small time nobodies".
Cena could be the personification of the WWE's arrogance and thought process that they are the be all and end all and these wrestlers who have build up experience and have worked there way up through the indies are just nothing and there time working there way up is irrelevant and doesn't exist in the eyes of the WWE.
His ring entrance could be an event, he could be flanked by security and a large entourage like Boxers are and his pre match promos for PPV's could be treated like press conferences as well. They could just have made him a really billy big time prick that people would pay money to see get knocked off his perch and humbled. Kind of like a modern day Ric Flair.
I know it'll never happen, but hey I can dream can't I :)
 
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#32 ·
I think it would have been a huge mistake to turn him both profit wise and creatively. Keep in mind WWE had been ruled by a heel from 2002-2005 and when Batista finally dethroned HHH it's like WWE finally turned the corner on the future.

Even though Cena himself may not have been likeable he did feud well with young and upcoming heels like Edge and to a lesser extent Orton and then a few years later him and Punk also had a great feud. Now he's at the point where they've milked everything they could out of him and he just has to lay low so they can eventually set the scene for his heel turn but if WWE turned him 06-07 they'd pretty much have to rely on Batista carrying the company and I think fans would turn on him too.
 
#36 ·
Yeah but that's not giving much credit to how he could have played heel, not to mention having HHH/Steph/Vince whoever there to further push the fact that he's heel.

We've seen everyone from Brock, to Henry, to Ryback, get thunderous face pops for clowning Cena. The fans love it. So just imagine that happening from a heel perspective, with him being a Corporate heel.

Perfect time to turn him would have been vs. Punk. It would have changed the entire LANDSCAPE of WWE. And right now, that's exactly what they need. They need a 100% fresh start.
 
#26 ·
This. He's somewhat of a very complex heel at this point. A guy that even though a lot of people are sick of him, don't want to see him (pun intended), and boo him loudly, still comes out everyday smiling and claiming he's going to be there and be the himself everyone is tired of having to put up with sounds like something a heel would do. But yeah, I don't know.

Now if we're talking about a 100% heel standpoint, I think yes, he could. This might be a controversial thing to say, but I think Cena turning heel would be bigger than Hogan's turn at this point. Either because it's been rumored and teased to happen for years now, or because almost nobody believes it's going to happen now.
 
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#18 ·
John Cena IS one of the best heels of all time.

Kayfabe wise and booking side he isn't but no one draws more heat and genuine dislike than that guy.
That is true....
 
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#19 ·
I think he can be a great cocky heel if wwe does turn him.
 
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#20 ·
Have you seen one night stand against RVD, he had all the characteristics of an awesome Heel. He could pull of a hogan, especially on a really over Internet face (Ziggler,Bryan)
 
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#30 ·
Check on the internet before a big PPV fight where Cena is not guaranteed to win 100%. It seems the majority want his ass kicked.

It really is simple, Cena has evolved past the traditional Face/Heel. To your results matter, winner loving, looks orientated fan (usually kids and women) Cena is a top face, a God of wrestling. This is the fan the wwe caters for because they are more likely to get money out of these fans. So kayfabe, yes Cena is a face. He is the top face, for example, an attack on Cena here is a heel turn.

For everyone else, Cena is the top heel in the company. An attack on Cena is a face turn. Usually these fans will co-operate with WWE about who is face or heel but when it comes to Cena, Cena is heel and the opponent is face. These people just desperately want to see Cena ripped limb from limb. They can't stand it when he speaks, smiles or breathes. The guy generates heat just for being alive. Seth Rollins goes to sleep and dreams about this kind of heat.

This is why Cena is the WWE's go to guy as the top attraction and why they won't change him. As he is, he gets a reaction, he gets interest. He will take the money from screaming women and children, he'll generate an atmosphere from haters. People will buy PPVs in hope of seeing Cena destroyed. Its why Lesnar is still a relevant player in the WWE. Its why they're cooking up Reigns, Cena 2.0.
 
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#3 ·
I think it's something they could have tried, especially around the 2011/2012 period when Punk was hot.
I've never bought that turning Cena heel would be the death of the WWE financially as I feel they have had plenty other (and better) options but they just have ignored them.
 
#13 ·
You're 100% right. The WWE turning Cena heel would have a negligible financial impact (if any at all.) Similarly, having him at the top of the card or as champion is actually BAD for business.

There's no financial logic at all to the WWE keeping him champion, a face, and at the top of the card. They only do it because he's their guy, and they will do anything to try and make it seem like he's a historically special, talented professional wrestler above Austin, Hogan, and The Rock (even though it's patently false and no one believes it after 10 years and counting.)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissm...-wwe-champion-whats-really-best-for-business/

Even funnier fact from that article: putting the belt on Orton tends to lead to more revenue. Too bad he never got the Cena rocket push w/strong booking.

Randy "Revenue" Orton. :rko2
 
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#6 ·
There is a good possibility that he could have been a big heel, but at the same time, who would have carried the company as well as he did. Nobody connected to the WWE Universe as well as John Cena did and I think he is better off as the heroic face that will do what's right no matter what.
 
#12 ·
It's hard to buy him as a heel now because it's been 10 years of same old shit. It's like if a character on a tv show was being portrayed as a moral, upright, preachy person then suddenly kills someone. It wouldn't sense and is bad writing. John Cena doesn't possess the anti-hero qualities of The Rock, Stone Cold, Ambrose, and Reigns. He is not badass or edgy. He's vanilla and goofy. Not heel material.
 
#14 ·
^^Orton was pushed longer and harder than Cena ever was, who are you kidding? The only difference is when they made it to the top, Cena had staying power while Orton just remained the same bland performer he always was, so they used him as Top Guy B.

They absolutely could have turned him heel during the Punk feud, and it would have made all the sense in the world to do it. Cena/HHH both turning heel to form a new Corporation would have created so many excellent opportunities at the top of the card for people challenging the evil Corporate WWE. Instead...Cena/HHH and the WWE itself, all played face against Punk and made him out to be a "whiner".
 
#15 ·
^^Orton was pushed longer and harder than Cena ever was, who are you kidding? The only difference is when they made it to the top, Cena had staying power while Orton just remained the same bland performer he always was, so they used him as Top Guy B.

They absolutely could have turned him heel during the Punk feud, and it would have made all the sense in the world to do it. Cena/HHH both turning heel to form a new Corporation would have created so many excellent opportunities at the top of the card for people challenging the evil Corporate WWE. Instead...Cena/HHH and the WWE itself, all played face against Punk and made him out to be a "whiner".
There's a difference between getting accolades and being booked strongly. Cena got both; Reigns is currently getting strong booking without accolades. Guys like Orton, Sheamus, and Del Rio got accolades without strong booking. This isn't really debatable.

And it's absolutely lol-worthy to call Orton bland and not call Cena bland. Orton has had several character and persona changes over the last decade, and was the most entertaining part of WWE television right before he left. Cena hasn't changed his character at all or been interesting in the slightest since 2003 even though they've essentially buried the entire product to get him over, whereas Orton has been used as a glorified enhancement talent for much of his career. It's hard to get or stay over when you get that kind of schizophrenic booking; Cena can't even get more than split reactions despite a sustained decade-long Goldberg-like push.

As for Orton, in the last year alone he put over more guys cleanly than Cena has in his whole career as a top guy. Orton with the RKO Vines a few months ago had more of a mainstream breakthrough than Cena has ever had in his life. Imagine if he actually got Cena strength booking...or you can just try and pretend Orton regularly crushes the momentum of young talent and gets booked to make a mockery of guys like Brock Lesnar. If it had been Orton booked to embarrass Brock at NOC or beat him in his first match back in the WWE, you might have an argument that Orton has been pushed as strong as Cena, but instead...Orton took clean losses to Reigns and Rollins this year, while Cena...went on to bury the crap out of Rollins. Orton has been booked much more weakly than Cena throughout his career and it's not debatable. If you want to claim that's because Orton has been a longtime heel, he was still booked much more weakly than top heels of the past such as Triple H, Heel Austin, Corporate Rock, etc.

You can't say Orton has "failed" to get as over as Cena because that comes with the assumptions that Orton has been booked as strongly (which isn't true in itself) and that Cena has been a "successful" top guy when 1) half the audience hates him and he gets mixed reactions, 2) he hasn't ever been the most over face on the roster at any point in the last 10 years, and 3) his run as a top guy has coincided with steadily tanking business for the WWE. If you gave Curtis Axel (let alone someone like Edge, Christian, Angle, Orton, Punk, or Bryan) a kid-pandering character and similar strength booking for a solid decade, they'd at least match Cena's financial performance (if not blow it out of the water) and likely be more unanimously over with the audience to boot.

Agree on the Punk stuff, but you're out of your mind if you think Orton has been pushed as hard as Cena.
 
#16 ·
Nope... he's just too cheesy to be a believable heel.
 
#21 ·
He already is to me every time he smiles like a prick when a wrestler cuts a serious promo and when he makes lame jokes and the other wrestler is never allowed to make a comeback or when he no sells his opponents even his match with lesnar at extreme rules that ruin the whole year for me in wwe.

It feels like his showing me the middle finger every time he overcome the odds talking about charity please like me promo his so phony how about a heel turn? :cena5

His a heel nothing he says or do will make me like him he can fuck off.
 
#22 ·
He's never really been given a chance to pull it off. I mean I think he was heel for a little bit in 03ish, but he got popular and went face soon after.

There is still time for the heel turn and I think he could pull it off. We'll just have to wait and see.
 
#24 ·
he could be and it would be gigantic it would devistate children/woman it would be historic and he can talk on the mic he knows what gets on peoples nerves

and that is why people are so irritated and passionate about it because we know what he can do in that position - he'd be a dominate heel destroying everyones heros so beating him would be thta much more meaningful.
 
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