PARKS’S TAKE: Now that John Cena is officially a babyface who is getting cheered, why is he embracing heel tendencies from earlier in the year?

John Cena is a babyface. That much is clear.

What’s less clear is why he is still including heel tendencies from his first run as a bad guy in more than a decade into his current act.

As a heel, Cena bullied ring announcers into giving him an over-the-top introduction. He publicly chastised them when those intros were not up to snuff. Now, the same ring announcers give him similar introductions, only they do it with smiles on their faces. Shouldn’t a babyface like Cena demand no special treatment? Isn’t that what a good leader would do?

Then there’s the issue with the phrase he’s been using lately, calling himself “the last real champion.” It might be excusable if the main champions on both brands were heels, but one of those champion isn’t just a babyface, but the biggest full-time babyface on the roster in Cody Rhodes.

On Raw, Cena explained that the phrase meant that he wants to leave the place better than when he arrived, and that he doesn’t take his ball and go home. It would be easy to see how those could be addressed to his upcoming PLE opponent, Brock Lesnar. It also doesn’t take much in the way of mental gymnastics to think they could also fit as subtle shots at Cody Rhodes (perhaps referencing his time in AEW).

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There’s always been a part of Cena as a babyface that’s been self-aggrandizing. It’s easy to say these examples simply fall in line with how he has acted historically in this role.

Being called “the last real champion” wouldn’t be so bad if others were doing it; but when you’re calling yourself that, it’s a bit like throwing out your shoulder patting yourself on the back.

None of this is to say it makes Cena less of a babyface or that he shouldn’t be cheered because of this. Certainly though, Cena, as the biggest star in WWE in the past two decades, does seem like he should be above acting in what comes across as such an insecure way.

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