Jim Cornette rejected the idea that the reaction to John Cena tapping out in his retirement match was the kind of heat WWE should be celebrating, arguing on his podcast that the response was not effective heel heat but genuine disappointment directed at the booking itself.
As Cornette explained, the crowd reaction in the final moments didn’t resemble the type of anger that drives fans to want revenge or a rematch. Instead, he described it as confusion and deflation from people who felt let down after paying to see Cena’s farewell. “It was not good heat,” Cornette said. He pushed back on claims that Gunther generated old-school hostility, adding, “That was crowd deflated heat at the end.”
Cornette emphasized that fans weren’t reacting emotionally in the way WWE likely intended. “It wasn’t like a ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I’ve seen this awesome thing.’ They were befuddled. They were sad. They were bummed.” In his view, the audience wasn’t angry at a heel they wanted to see punished later – they were unhappy with the experience they had just been given.
He also took issue with the claim that footage of fans yelling at Gunther outside the arena proved the finish worked. Cornette dismissed that idea, saying, “People were saying, ‘Oh, Gunther had a lot of heat in this match.’ No.” He argued that a few fans shouting insults did not compare to real, sustained heel heat, explaining that it lacked the scale and intensity associated with classic wrestling heels. “That’s good for today, but that’s not what old-fashioned heat looked like.”
According to Cornette, the most telling reaction came after the match, when the frustration turned toward WWE leadership rather than the performers. He pointed out that the crowd repeatedly booed Triple H during the post-match proceedings. “They’re booing the promoters specifically because of what they just got,” Cornette said, stressing that this kind of reaction reflects dissatisfaction with creative decisions rather than engagement with the storyline.
Cornette further noted that fans chanting phrases like “We want Vince” weren’t expressing genuine support for Vince McMahon, but instead lashing out at the current direction. “The ‘we want Vince’ sentiment is we want anybody but you,” he said.
He also criticized the structure of the match’s closing minutes, arguing that the extended sleeper-hold sequence drained the arena of energy rather than building drama: “The last five minutes of the match was this sleeper trying to get out, getting back in, getting out.”
The crowd wanted to celebrate Cena, not sit through a slow, demoralizing ending. “They wanted clearly a John Cena celebration,” he said, pointing out that the emotional release only came later, when Cena took his final bow and left his gear in the ring. That moment, Cornette argued, succeeded in spite of the finish, not because of it.
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