During an interview with Chris Van Vliet, 16-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion John Cena revealed that there were some discussions for him to turn heel in 2012 to feud with The Rock for their WrestleMania 28 match.
Cena was already preparing for it, but the plan was dropped.
Here’s what the Ruthless Aggression Era Legend said:
“It was Cena – Rock 1. I got word that they were going to do it; I went out and recorded a new song; I went out and got all new gear. I wasn’t prepared for Ruthless Aggression. That was the last time I wasn’t prepared.
I mean, I heard rumblings of, we’re going to do it, and in 48 hours, I had a new track, a new studio mix theme song, and a final mix; I had seven new singlets, low-cut singlets with boxing-type robes; I already had the boots in storage, so I dusted them off. I was ready to go and already thinking about what I could do with the story.
Okay, what is a heel? A heel is not just new gear. The objectivity, or the message behind the singlet and the boxing robes and the boots is the exact opposite of what you saw with the street gear, the jeans shorts, the t-shirt, the ball cap, the sneakers.
Go the opposite route and now lean into the opposite of everything you stand for. So I would begin to not work as hard. I would show up less; I would be untrustworthy and unloyal; I would lack respect in what I did; I would give up a lot.
All those things you can take and make interesting stories and this is the stuff that’s running through my head, not what moves can I do. It’s like, how can I take the intellectual property that people are familiar with and twist it so it’s like, this guy’s f**king insane.
It’s everything I’ve come to love and now I genuinely hate it and being a real bad guy, and I think that was the conversation that was eventually had where it’s like, okay, it’s a bad idea.”
The Rock defeated John Cena in the main event of WrestleMania 28, which was billed as “Once In A Lifetime”.
Cena then defeated Rock to win the WWE Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 29, which was billed as “Greatness vs. Redemption”.
WATCH: Mandy Rose’s Revealing Photoshoot:
