Why, John, Why? Cena Delivers Blistering Raw Promo Following Heel Turn
After over 21 years of “Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect”, John Cena finally turned heel on the WWE Universe at Elimination Chamber, siding with The Final Boss, The Rock (and weirdly, Travis Scott). Fans were eager to hear an explanation from the man who was the franchise player, the face of WWE for so many years. On this week’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, from Brussels, Belgium, we finally got some words from the 16 time world champion.
Cena would kick off the episode, with the lively Belgium crowd erupting in boos and chants of “John Cena sucks” to his music, which was unchanged, as was his attire. Once in the ring, a stoic Cena received more boos and some dueling chants of “Let’s Go Cena/Cena Sucks”. Cena dropped the mic and teased leaving, just as he did at the Elimination Chamber post-show press conference, but ultimately picked it back up and addressed the crowd.
Cena started by labelling himself as a victim. “For 25 years, I’ve been the victim of an abusive relationship”. The relationship in question was with the fans themselves. Cena gave a succinct recap of his career, talking about how he was initially rejected (as the “Ruthless Aggression” kid), so changed himself to be liked (Dr of Thuganomics), which worked for a while, but as his career progressed and he “won, and won, and won, and won” (a nod to the Super Cena criticisms), it was never good enough for the fans.
He attacked both sides of the fandom- the “Cena Sucks” crowd clearly didn’t appreciate him, but he labelled the “Let’s Go Cena” side as just as bad. They wore the t-shirts emblazoned with “Never Give Up”, but they bought the phrase, while he lived the lifestyle. He called everyone who wore his merch “toxic”, including- hilariously- a kid in the front row.
According to Cena, those fans see him as an object. “I’m not a babyface, I’m not a heel, I’m a human being”. He believes they were more concerned with what they were going to get following Elimination Chamber- new music, new attire? “Not one of you sons of bitches asked me how I was feeling”. A hurt and angry looking Cena declared, “You get nothing!”
The crowd started to chant “We want Cody”, and shortly after, the WWE Champion made his entrance to a thunderous ovation. Cody Rhodes expressed disappointment at this version of Cena, saying he was looking forward to fighting “the guy on the shirt” at WrestleMania. Cody implored John to find that John Cena, not “this whiny bitch”.
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Thoughts:
Really good work by Cena in my opinion. I particularly liked the part about not giving the fans things like new entrance music and new ring attire- those are potentially cool things that fans may cheer, and Cena is denying them the satisfaction. However, there’s certainly enough change in Cena’s demeanor to make it abundantly clear that this is a new version of John Cena. The stoicism, the anger in his voice when he did start to speak, the stony facial expressions… it’s a fresh outlook without trying to be a “cool heel”.
Cena’s justification was interesting. It’s quite a simple one, yet fairly believable- it likely did hurt Cena genuinely that he gave so much as WWE’s top good guy, only to be rejected for so many years. He always said that “any reaction is a good reaction”, but it seemed to be quite real hurt coming through at points in the promo, which made it more compelling. The only question left is why now, when fans had wholeheartedly embraced him in this return- Cena tried to say that it wasn’t good enough for the fans this time, but that particular bit didn’t ring true.
Also interesting was the omission of The Rock. Despite aligning with the Final Boss at Elimination Chamber, I don’t think Cena mentioned Rock once. The whole promo was focused on himself and his relationship with the fans.
Finally, Cody Rhodes didn’t say a whole lot, but his presence at the end of the segment did add a little fuel to the fire for their WrestleMania match. This was more about Cena and his motivations, and hopefully the tension and story ramps up between Cena and Rhodes over these coming weeks before Mania in Vegas.
A man who loves his wrestling, MMA, and has been known to dabble in karaoke. Previously wrote for Snap Mayors Media and ran The Arena Media for several years. As many wrestling fans do, I often envisioned myself becoming a pro wrestling superstar, but having Cerebral Palsy makes that dream a tough one to attain. Did do a brief referee spot for Rock N Roll Wrestling and I’d love to do more non-wrestler roles if laying the Smackdown is out of my reach, but until then, I’ll be hitting you with some refreshing writing like an F5!
