WWE Unreal Review – “Episode 4: Heel Turn”

It’s time to catch up on those last two episodes of WWE Unreal. If you’d like to read the reviews of the other episodes, click here.

We start with a look at The Rock as The Final Boss. Dwayne Johnson himself shows up to say the Final Boss is the greatest heel in the history of wrestling and that there’s nothing the Final Boss can’t do or say. Nick Khan, WWE President looks back at growing up with Dwayne. He says the WWE Universe had a big demand to see Rock again. Tony was concerned with how to overdeliver in Toronto for Elimination Chamber.

WWE Headquarters, Writers Room. Triple H, WWE Chief Content Officer tells the crew that Rock will appear to ask Cody to come to Elimination Chamber. This flashes us to pre-Chamber and Rock asking Cody to be his champion. “My brother, I want your soul.” Nick says it left fans wanting a little more and they didn’t know what they were getting at the Chamber.

July 6, 2024. John Cena announces his retirement from WWE. HHH says that Cena is at a place where he is transitioning out of the business but is coming back for about a year’s worth of limited dates. Cena wants to leave the business better than he found it and get out with his health. CM Punk, WWE Superstar says Cena has earned the right to go out as he wants. Cena is asked if he would ever show a darker side at a press conference, and he says he doesn’t think so because it goes against everything he values.

We watch clips of heels being heels like Ted DiBiase. Michael Joseph Seitz, aka Michael Hayes walks us through his past as a heel. Some people aren’t good heels because they need approval, he says he never needed it. “I made a lot of money looking up at the lights.” Austin Watson, WWE Superstar talks us through his journey from The Batman to Awesome Austin Creed to Xavier Woods. He explains a heel turn as we look at the New Day story. “We have arenas of thousands of people saying that we suck? It’s… wild.” Hayes says the key was for the audience to not see it coming.

HHH tells us the internet makes it hard to keep things a secret. Bruce Prichard questions how you feature Cena for his last year, and marquee matches is the easy answer. Brian Gewertz, SVR Creative for The Rock is called into duty as Rock is called back. He and Rock decided to pitch something, the idea of Cody being Rock’s champion, turning it down, and the Final Boss making a title match that resulted in Kevin Owens leaving with the title.

Triple H asks who said “it” first and he doesn’t know. Bruce guides us through the “challenge of an idea.” We walk through what happened, with the alternate idea of Cody accepting and dropping Rock. It’s suggested that they turn Cena. HHH notes there are five people to talk to with a move this big: Rock, Rhodes, Cena, Khan and Travis Scott. I always call Travis with my big ideas too. HHH calls Rock and Rock thinks it is genius. HHH calls Travis Scott, who agrees to do it. We never really explain why Travis needs to be a part of it. Next call is Cody, who thinks it is cool, and then John tells HHH that if this is what he believes in, he’s in.

Elimination Chamber, Toronto. Cody never believed Rock would be intertwined with his career. He thinks it is fun that the WWE Universe is so confused right now with the story. Cena gears up backstage and jokes about his kneepads, which are from his OVW days.

CM Punk tells us the Chamber match is probably the stupidest match they do here because you can’t plan for it. “Whoever designed this really doesn’t like human beings.” Triple H tells the talent in the match that there is going to be aftermath but doesn’t tell them what. Hayes tells us that 9/10 people that are usually in the know are not in the know for this one. Rock and Triple H talk about it and plan out some of it, including Rock doing his weird throat cut motion. ‘

The Chamber match happens, and we run through that for a bit, which I’m not going to recap because you’ve seen it or have recaps available here for it. Cena wins. HHH tells us that the production truck didn’t know what was going to happen. Marty Miller, Director describes his job. Paul told him to follow along and everything will line up.

Cena and Cody shake hands, Mr. Fein comes out followed by Rock. HHH tells them to not clip Cody saying “fuck.” He tells them stay on a wide shot for what happens but won’t tell them what it is. “Hey Rock, go fuck yourself.” Triple H calls the camera cuts through John’s expression changing, Rock’s throat slash and the kick that started the turn. Triple H tells the crew that Rock is going to beat the hell out of Cody and to keep the camera on Cody. Haye says that if this happening got out, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Cody, Rock and Triple H hug backstage. They talk over how amazing the crowd reaction was as we watch influencer reactions. Cena says he has never not been surprised by the audience. Travis and Cody FaceTime and Travis tells Cody he’s addicted to it now. Sure. Cena appreciates the question about the hell turn, but he doesn’t like to spoil things in the realm of what they do. “Many other performers talk about the dopamine rush of when your music hits, the noise. I much more prefer the surprise.”

Next time on Unreal, it’s the final episode of this season! This one was kind of “meh” for me just because we’ve talked this topic to death already. It was a solid watch, but I think I’ve hit my quota of Dwayne Johnson and Travis Scott discourse for three years.