Bad Cena Redux

By Scott Keith on 25 February 2025

Greetings,

Okay Scott, you took my previous 'Cena heel turn?' question for an easy dunk. Now I am seeking your honest-to-goodness opinion.

On Raw, the soundbites from Cena's post-RR presser:

“I am announcing tonight that I will compete in the Elimination Chamber. [no mention of screwing over SD wrestlers by requiring 3-way qualifiers rather than 1-on-1s as Raw had]

“What is best for business is that I main event WrestleMania. And what is best for business is, for the first time, I confidently say that I will win my 17th championship.”

“I have built my existence here off of hard work, loyalty to this company, and respect for all of its branches.” [WTF]

“I will win 17 not for me, but to shake the hand of the person who eventually wins 18.”

I cherry-picked lines, sure, but we gotta concede that type of talk is very un-Cena, and that WWE is amplifying this bizarre Cena corporate-speak. It seems fairly clear this run is not/will not be the Make-A-Wish Cena.

What do you and the BoD actually think will wind up happening with Cena's character through WM and the rest of the year? My early guess is not a full evil turn, but at minimum a more cocky, corporate-oriented, selfish Cena who nearly goes fully bad over the year before rediscovering his true kid-friendly face identity. If at any point we see black jorts I will be proven right.

Thanks for humouring me.

Here’s the thing, they resisting turning him for so long because they didn’t want to hurt the revenue streams, but all guardrails are off now so that’s not a factor. And maybe Cena would relish the chance to play evil for a while. And yeah, i think bad Cena screwing over Cody with help of Mr. McRock and building to a rematch could be the path.