{"id":221913,"date":"2026-09-04T23:45:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T04:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=221913"},"modified":"2026-09-04T23:45:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T04:45:01","slug":"john-cena-says-we-did-the-best-we-could-in-regards-to-his-heel-turn-during-his-retirement-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/09\/04\/john-cena-says-we-did-the-best-we-could-in-regards-to-his-heel-turn-during-his-retirement-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cena says &#8220;we did the best we could&#8221; in regards to his heel turn during his retirement tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3268308237\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>John Cena believes WWE did the best they could with his heel turn during his retirement tour last year in response to being asked whether or not his career would have been incomplete without the heel turn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a great question,\u201d said Cena during an <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25496005-john-cena-his-heel-turn-wwe-retirement-gunther-and-what-he-doesnt-miss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview<\/a> with Bleacher Report. \u201cA hypothetical one, but I\u2019ll walk down a hypothetical lane. Let\u2019s say we never do it. I think that would give you as a writer, great canon for articles to write on, like, \u2018Man, what would it have been like?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But now we have what really happened. We got a heel version of me and we did the best we could with the time we had. And as far as, like, did it work or not? Okay, there\u2019s a lot of aspects to that from a business side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Raw: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/wwe-raw-post-show-8-31-keller-machado-talk-about-silliness-of-edgy-opening-live-segment-with-royce-keys-heyman-brilliance-more--74776980\">CLICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cwade keller\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WWE RAW POST-SHOW (8\/31): Keller &amp; Machado talk about silliness of &quot;edgy&quot; opening &quot;live&quot; segment with Royce Keys, Heyman brilliance, more\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=74776980&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Cena pointed out that his heel turn despite not being a critical success was a draw at live events. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a seat left,\u201d Cena said. \u201cAnd, you know, people watched in numbers. So, I don\u2019t know if it didn\u2019t work from a business standpoint. But then there\u2019s the creative standpoint. Sometimes blockbuster movies are poorly reviewed by critics. So, I understand where critically people are, like, \u2018Man, that\u2019s just not what I wanted to see.\u2019&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cena appeared to be visibly not enjoying to play the heel character on TV after turning last year, but he stuck with the character until turning face on the Smackdown before he defended the WWE Undisputed Championship at SummerSlam against Cody Rhodes.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wade Keller Post-show (8\/31) - WWE Raw w\/Keller &amp; Machado\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7RpROul4ZmA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2013668929\"><div id=\"pwtor-4139572539\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>John Cena believes WWE did the best they could with his heel turn during his retirement tour last year in response to being asked whether or not his career would have been incomplete without the <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/09\/04\/john-cena-says-we-did-the-best-we-could-in-regards-to-his-heel-turn-during-his-retirement-tour\/\" title=\"John Cena says &#8220;we did the best we could&#8221; in regards to his heel turn during his retirement tour\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":194145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2025\/03\/Screenshot-2025-03-07-at-11.23.14\u202fAM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221914,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221913\/revisions\/221914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}