On his Kliq This podcast, 2-time WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash gave his thoughts on John Cena’s heel turn:
“He showed up to the Elimination Chamber, he didn’t have a tan again and he had on my next door neighbor’s tennis shoes that he cuts his grass with. I mean so that sent some signals. So I didn’t think he would go over and then when he went over I’m like they’re not going to have a f**king babyface f**king main event.
The turn itself I thought was… I mean I like that. That’s why I watch. I watch so even if I didn’t see it coming but even if I had seen it coming and they did it well. I’m good with it. He’s starting to look a little like JBL.
That’s the connection to when I always talk about the the Attitude Era and the times when I thought wrestling was exciting again and because they were trying to shake me up just the furtherance of this same angle again in like that’s why The Bloodline thing after some time was… I was like okay I think that this would be really monumental if we didn’t know that Cena was leaving in 8 months.
But you see for me that’s what concealed the opportunity for a turn because I thought it would be that they had to do the babyface tour to get people to come out and do the farewell I didn’t think that they would tarnish it with a heel turn so it kind of kept it under wraps a little bit for me but you got the opposite.
I mean John’s great but John’s too precise on what he does. When he showed up with the no tan I was just like okay… not just a no tan but like powder Sheamus no tan. Yeah like to the point of it just was… it was a giveaway to me that something was up.”
Nash also questioned the necessity of Cena’s heel turn, especially if Cena plans to retire as a heel in 2025, suggesting it might require a convoluted return to a babyface role.
Kevin pondered whether Cena, a successful actor, might have desired a change from his longstanding babyface persona. He highlighted Cena’s comedic abilities and the honesty of comedy as a metric for performance.
Ultimately, Nash concluded that he’s intrigued by the situation, despite his focus on more pressing real-world issues, and will observe how the storyline unfolds before offering a final judgment.
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