In a recent interview with The Daily Mail, Triple H revealed John Cena’s reaction to him being pitched his now infamous heel turn, which happened at Elimination Chamber 2025.
Here’s what The Game said:
“It was a conversation — without getting into the details — it was a conversation that when it was brought up, everybody… I think in John’s mind he was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t think you were going to say that. I love it.’
It’s a challenge to him. John’s not a complacent person, right? I think he would have done it and he would have done it happily and he would have done it for fans, but I think there would have been a piece of him that would have been like, ‘Alright, I’m just going to go through my day here.’
This now, I guess it’s no different than if a Hollywood role for any actor where they say, ‘We’d like you to play the character you’ve played in 20 other movies pretty much and just do the same thing.’ It’s like, ‘OK.’ At a certain point in time they come and they give you something way off something you’ve never done and you’re like, ‘Wow, alright, that’s a challenge I’ve never done before.’
That energises you and gets your creatives juices going and excites you, it lights you up as a performer. This is going to be special because John is lit up about it. We’re lit up about it. It’s going to be incredible.”
The heel turn of John Cena is an event that wrestling fans had been debating for decades, with many believing it simply would never happen. Vince McMahon had reportedly toyed with the idea of turning Cena heel, but had never moved ahead with the idea likely due to merch sales and the ill received heel turn of Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania 17.
Triple H also spoke about the size of the opportunity to turn Cena heel, understanding how much shock and intrigue it would bring to WrestleMania 41. Here’s what HHH told The Daily Mail:
“That opportunity (to turn Cena heel) is the biggest thing we can do. Would have been very easy — and I’m sure John, at some point, will talk about this — would have been very easy for him to come in here and say, have us roll through all these dates, I’ll do my greatest hits — everyone is going to love it.
‘I’m going to wave at the fans, kiss babies, sign autographs. Do the same stuff I’ve been doing for 20-plus years and everybody is going to love it, it’s going to be great.’
Or… we can blow people’s minds and go in a different direction and make the whole world go, ‘Wait, what just happened?’”
