[The Pastor]

As much I would love to see Cena turn heel, I agree full heartedly with the following:

For years now the WWE Universe has been begging for a John Cena heel turn, and yes, I was one of those fans until I watched Monday Night Raw.

Watching Raw the night after Mania and hearing Cena talk, there is one thing to walk away knowing—John Cena's heel turn will not work!!!

The crowd went nuts that night when Cena said, "everyone thinks this is the night I will finally turn on the WWE Universe," but yet again it wasn't. But when he said it was going to be, the place went crazy.

People want John Cena to turn heel so badly that when he finally does...people are going to cheer for him! Cena will one day go back to clowning on people with raps and rhymes and making people laugh and cheer for what he says. He will have that swagger that people hated, and he will be a lot more badass as the Doctor of Thuganomics.

There lies the problem: That is the character that everyone grew to love! Nobody will boo him if he turns heel, and it will put his character in limbo.




With that being said, I do think John Cena needs to grow his (you know what) back and be an aggressive angry man. He is too friendly and not angry enough to be a professional wrestler. I mean he beats guys up for a living, he should show some attitude. We saw glimpses of that with The Rock and people approved.

But a lot of people want him to turn on the crowd and become that bad guy. That won't work. The second he gets mean and does something bad, people will lose their minds and cheer for him so loudly, that he won't be booed.

Nobody is booing the Face John Cena, we are just booing the Good Guy John Cena. Having him be a heel will ruin his run, and it won't work in the long run either. He can be the face of the company as long as he brings back that "swag" that made him so popular in the first place. Lose the goofy colors, the dumb smile, and quit talking to the camera when you come out for your entrance.

Wear the throwback jerseys and the chain, rap, and just show an aggressive side.

You don't have to be a heel to be bad, and hopefully the WWE has figured this out

 

[Killmonger]

Don't worry. He's NEVER turning heel. Ever. Period.

 

[StayFresh]

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[Jupiter Jack Daniels]

I think a Cena heel turn will work, as it can provide a main event heel to get guys like Punk and Sheamus over as main eventers.

The only problem I see is like you mentioned, a edgier, heel Cena will likely be cheered, making it pointless to turn him heel and likely cause Vince to immediately turn him face again. Doesn't matter if his character sucks right now or not, when Vince has a vision of how something should go and it doesn't go his way, he'll pull the plug.

So, if/when Cena turns heel, I doubt he'll make it a year before Vince turns him face again, which means similar to Austin's heel turn, it would be a bust.

 

[The Pastor]

Yes, ultimately it comes down to what is going to line Vince's pockets more. Cena is going to draw as a face. Both from his fanbase: women and children and for those of us who will pay to go boo him. He is also going to sale merchandise as a face. As much as I would love to see a face Punk vs. heel Cena main event WM30 in a year and a half from now...from a business standpoint, I know there would not be much advantage for WWE to turn him heel.

 

[StayFresh]

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[The Pastor]

That's why NWO is some of the best selling merchandise of all time and it's for a heel stable? Who says heels can't sell merch? Look at Daniel Bryans "YES!" shirt as well.

Those shirts were/are sold in MALE ADULT sizes. That's the difference.

 

[StayFresh]

.

 

[Ziggler Mark]

And so what if he is cheered? A heel being cheered is never a bad thing.

then he's a fucking FACE.

The paradox of John Cena is this:

John Cena is currently a face. A lot of 18-35 year old men are tired of him so they boo him because they want him to change. The < 15-year-old kids and women cheer him because he does very face things on a weekly basis. But we see that the longer he goes without a turn, the more boos he is met with. So what is WWE to do to fix this? Can they make him a heel because everyone wants him to be a heel? The problem with that is that if they turn him heel, the 18-35 year old men who are booing him will now cheer him. If his cheers outweigh his boos, he's essentially a face.

Turning John Cena is going to require an act of absolute betrayal of ALL the fans involved. To be completely fair? That cant happen in the current environment. It just wont.


Edit: The only thing that would work is if he turned on a truly over face, like Punk. It would have to be something along the lines of Punk being beaten and battered after a match by the guy he just beat. Cena runs out, clears the ring out in what looks like an attempt to save Punk. Then he helps Punk to his feet, offers a handshake, Punk takes it and Cena pulls him into an AA. Cena could then go on to the next event and explain himself that he's tired that Punk has been made the face of the company only because he begged the loudest, or some shit like that.

The above scenario is the only possible way it could work. I'm not saying he has to turn on Punk, just on some incredibly over face.

 

[Marv95]

And adult males still make up the majority of the demographic.

http://corporate.wwe.com/company/overview.jsp

Got any more bullshit excuses to throw at me?

Not only that but PLENTY of kids were rocking the nWo shirts back then, both Wolfpac and Hollywood.

As far as him being cheered, it's not a guarantee. He's not a respected icon like Undertaker, Austin, Angle, Rock or HHH who were all cheered as heels yet could put on great wrestling matches. People are going to hate him regardless. It just depends on his turn. I do know that a thug/Hollywood heel Cena would help the WWE's bottom line both short and long term.

 

[StayFresh]

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[rbhayek]

He could beat up JR, that always works.

 

[Ziggler Mark]

Except cheering a heel doesn't make them a face. This is an outdated notion that needs to die out. A heel is someone who portrays a villainous character, crowd reaction has nothing to do with it. The NWO often got cheered and they would even suck up to the crowd to get cheers as well.

Its a paradox. Yes, I agree you dont always need to cheer faces, and boo heels. But the WWE generally feels that if youre being cheered, youre a face. Trust me, if the cheers for D-Bry get louder and continue to do so, they have no choice but to turn him face. You can take that to the bank. Unless Cena does something utterly despicable, he wont ever turn heel. Sorry, this isnt the same thing as the nWo.

 

[StayFresh]

.

 

[Ziggler Mark]

It's not. I'm not disagreeing with you. And Daniel Bryan should turn face once they establish a few more heels and if he can keep his momentum. And I don't really care what the WWE thinks, why would I care about their view of wrestling when they don't care about the view of anyone elses? What kind of company actually makes their OWN fans question their morals when they boo someone they don't like?

:bosh what? The WWE basically dictates who is face or heel. Are you saying that because we boo Cena, he's a heel right now? I honestly think your defense here is to confuse the people arguing against your point enough to where they just go all "WTF?" and bow out...

 

[KO Bossy]

As much I would love to see Cena turn heel, I agree full heartedly with the following:

For years now the WWE Universe has been begging for a John Cena heel turn, and yes, I was one of those fans until I watched Monday Night Raw.

Watching Raw the night after Mania and hearing Cena talk, there is one thing to walk away knowing—John Cena's heel turn will not work!!!

The crowd went nuts that night when Cena said, "everyone thinks this is the night I will finally turn on the WWE Universe," but yet again it wasn't. But when he said it was going to be, the place went crazy.

People want John Cena to turn heel so badly that when he finally does...people are going to cheer for him! Cena will one day go back to clowning on people with raps and rhymes and making people laugh and cheer for what he says. He will have that swagger that people hated, and he will be a lot more badass as the Doctor of Thuganomics.

There lies the problem: That is the character that everyone grew to love! Nobody will boo him if he turns heel, and it will put his character in limbo.




With that being said, I do think John Cena needs to grow his (you know what) back and be an aggressive angry man. He is too friendly and not angry enough to be a professional wrestler. I mean he beats guys up for a living, he should show some attitude. We saw glimpses of that with The Rock and people approved.

But a lot of people want him to turn on the crowd and become that bad guy. That won't work. The second he gets mean and does something bad, people will lose their minds and cheer for him so loudly, that he won't be booed.

Nobody is booing the Face John Cena, we are just booing the Good Guy John Cena. Having him be a heel will ruin his run, and it won't work in the long run either. He can be the face of the company as long as he brings back that "swag" that made him so popular in the first place. Lose the goofy colors, the dumb smile, and quit talking to the camera when you come out for your entrance.

Wear the throwback jerseys and the chain, rap, and just show an aggressive side.

You don't have to be a heel to be bad, and hopefully the WWE has figured this out

Uh I think you're mistaken. See, Cena didn't have attitude in the WM28 build up with Rock. He was exactly the same as he is now, except it was even more glaring. This can be easily seen when, while Rock is threatening to rip Cena's throat out, Cena has this jackass grin on his face like he just farted. The fact that he no sold Rock and yet gave us pretty much the same shit we've been getting for years really didn't help the feud, but hindered it.

The other problem is that the chain, rap and aggressive side that John Cena had was formed when he WAS originally a heel. Look back at interviews and promos in 2005-its literally the same shit we see today. Bad comedy and attempts at humor.

A John Cena heel turn would actually work out quite well. It would inject some life into one of the most stale fucking characters on the roster, for one. Also, Cena is kind of at that lull point in his career like Hogan was in 1996. The cheers are dying down, the boos are increasing. He's already been at the Superman "I can't be defeated" point for years, as Hogan was as well, and people are tired of it. That heel turn SAVED Hogan's career. Nobody expected Hulkamania to become a villain. Guess what, no one would expect Cena to either. The only, ONLY reason Cena is being kept a face is because he sells lots of merchandise. In today's stale, shitty, lifeless, contrived people power era, the Fed is floundering. They can't count on the big ratings every week, or to sell out every arena, or to even get some decent fucking buys for PPVs (WM aside) because the writing and booking is so damn atrocious. Thus, instead of being in a position to roll the dice and try something new, they're going to stick with Cena the cash cow in his exact same role because they rely a lot on the revenue he generates from merchandise sales. Unfortunately, its a poor idea-"things aren't going well? Let's just keep doing exactly what we're doing and hope it works out." Uh yeah, common sense would dictate that if things are fucking bad, you'd try something different. Not WWE. Anyway, THAT is why Cena has remained a face. Its not that they're afraid people won't accept him, they readily boo him now. Its because they're clinging onto his money making abilities. I mean for God's sake, the Fed hasn't exactly been shy lately of pretty much telling us who we should cheer for (Sheamus anyone?). And besides, if Cena did suffer a loss in the female and child demographic, they could easily make it up and more in the male 18-35 who would be actually interested in him again.

 

[YimYac]

And so what if he is cheered? A heel being cheered is never a bad thing. The fact that Vince and the rest of those idiots in management think that it is are SEVERELY out of touch.

The point of the heel is to get booed so the Face can get sympathy and thus be cheered.

A heel getting cheered means he has failed at his job

 

[theborklaser]

i don't think cena will turn heel

 

[StayFresh]

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[Evolution]

Cena has been getting decent pops recently and it's clear that he just happens to piss off one of the most vocal demographics of the WWE product. They are split into two audiences these days. One group is the product of the attitude era and the other is the current generation of younger kids who they are trying to cultivate into fans for the coming years.

Cena will turn heel eventually, but until they actually repair what's wrong with the rest of the company first they won't have a leg to stand on if he turns now. They need him in his current position because he carries the company. Punk may think he does with the WWE title but we all know that the real "man" of the WWE is Cena. That's how it is and that's how it will remain until he has an equal or better yet EQUALS (either as a heel or a face).

The problem with the WWE is they lack the depth in their roster to roll the dice. The amount of time they spend recapping things Cena has done in the last 6 months every Raw is taking away mic time from the midcarders and the other upper-carders (wait, they don't HAVE any upper card guys that's right) that need that time to develop a connection with the fans because let's face it there are about two wrestlers in the company that can have the crowd in the palm of their hand during a match and one of them is resigned to permanent tag-team duties.

Right now everything about Raw and the WWE is centered around John Cena. The commentators talk about him all Raw, they recap him constantly, video packages, he closes every show AND PPV and he is just becoming just a nuisance. I'm beginning to think nobody will ever become equal to John.