Cena’s Turn More Andre Than Hulk?
By Scott Keith on 3 March 2025
Dear Scott,
Hi, hope things are going as well as possible for you as we approach springtime.
Not surprisingly, seeing lots of people compare the Cena turn this past weekend to the Hulk Hogan turn at Bash at the Beach 1996.
But isn't this angle more Andre's 1987 heel turn than Hogan's metamorphosis into Hollywood nearly a decade later?
-Like Andre's turn, this Cena turn is chiefly about Wrestlemania. Andre turned on February 7, 1987 with 50 days before Wrestlemania III; Cena turned on March 1, 2025, with 49 days before Wrestlemania XLI.
-The heel fresh off the turn is chasing the face champion and face of the company.
-In each case, there appears to be an evil Svengali: Bobby “The Brain” Heenan massaged Andre into his turn, and it seems like The Rock is playing the role of “The Brain” here.
-The central backstory of each turn is that the evil Svengali has a long-running feud with the babyface champ.
-Back in 1986/'87, Vince McMahon needed a marquee match that would pack the Silverdome (whatever the real attendance was), and his answer was The Giant turned bad vs. his superhero. Coming off of Wrestlemania XL, this year's Wrestlemania needed something that could at least stand alongside that. Turning the biggest, most consistent face of this century in WWE heel and pitting him against Cody Rhodes fits the bill.
-Andre felt disrespected and unacknowledged, and he had a point. Cena has been, as he stated at the Royal Rumble press conference, essentially the biggest enhancement talent in WWE for roughly a decade now. Until this past weekend it had felt like an eternity since he had won a match of any consequence whatsoever. Andre aligning with Heenan and Cena forming this Hollywood heels partnership with Rock both make sense in these regards.
-Ultimately, this is about making each face of the company–Hogan in '87, Cody today–even bigger than they were going into their adversary's heel turn.
-Obviously, Andre stayed heel for over three years, and WWF/E put together a strong angle pitting him against Hogan again leading to the Wrestlemania IV tournament, which segued straight into the sprawling Mega-Powers angle. I suspect Cena's staying heel for most of the year, and he may be further involved with Cody and Rock, etc., but in each case, as said at the top, the heart of the angle is all about pushes butts into that stadium in Las Vegas and making people watch the show that weekend in April in their living rooms.
I think people are understandably, but mistakenly, comparing the Cena turn with Hogan's 1996 turn, and consequently they are going to hold it to that standard. “Why didn't it start another industry-changing boom? Why didn't the storyline carry the company for 18-30 months?” When in fact the more comparable turn is Andre's, which today has become a bit underrated I suppose due to the passage of time.
Thank you for reading this, and certainly thank you if you post this as the starting point for a conversation.
Best possible regards,
Alexander Coleman (or Perfecto on the board)
Oh yeah, great callout. It’s definitely more Andre than Hulk. Hulk was a very unique and specific type of turn and this one was more of a universal story.