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We’ve seen some crazy heel turns over the years in professional wrestling.
During Saturday night’s Elimination Chamber PLE in Toronto, John Cena made his mark in a way that will profoundly be etched into the history of the business.
Cena was fresh off winning the Elimination Chamber match — ultimately choking CM Punk out. This victory ensured that Cena would compete versus Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania for the WWE Undisputed Championship.
In the last segment of the show, Rhodes faced off with The Rock. The newly dubbed ‘Final Boss’ was waiting for Rhodes’ answer as to whether he would ‘sell his soul’ to The Rock in exchange for benefitting from everything the veteran wrestler-turned-actor would have to offer. Cena happened to be in the ring as Rhodes turned down The Rock’s offer with unheard of profanity (dropping an actual f-bomb).
A very animated Cena was in the background hanging on every word Rhodes unleashed. He was clapping, smiling, and genuinely seemed to be supportive of Rhodes. Being arguably the biggest baby face in the history of the company it only made sense Cena would align with the current top dog baby face in Rhodes…or so we thought.
Cena went in to hug Rhodes. Rhodes back was to The Rock — and Cena was directly facing The Rock. As the camera panned to Cena’s face, the initial smile quickly turned into a scowl. The Rock then takes two fingers, glides them across his neck as to imitate a slitting of the throat, and opened his hand as if he were letting go of something.
As Rhodes steps back, Cena kicks him between the legs dirtily with a low blow. The entire crowd was in utter shock — as were millions of people watching around the world. Cena sold his soul to The Rock, and in the process completed one of the most unexpected heel turns in the history of professional wrestling.
From there, Cena beat Rhodes to a pulp — bloodying him with head shots courtesy of a Rolex watch and the title belt. He then ripped Rhodes’ shirt off exposing his back and proceeded to choke him with his tie. The Rock joined in on the fun — whipping Rhodes multiple times with the personalized belt we had seen earlier in the week. In classic Final Boss fashion, The Rock then wiped some of Rhodes’ blood off on the belt for good measure before exiting the ring.
No one saw Cena turning heel for the first in his career in what he’s billed as his final season. We do know he will fight for the Championship versus Rhodes in Las Vegas next month. With The Rock ominously using three fingers and now two fingers for cryptic messages, over the last couple of months is there a third person to join the Rock-Cena stable? Could it perhaps be Roman Reigns — the man who often holds up one finger to signify being The Original Tribal Chief?
There are a multitude of questions being asked in the wake of this development, and the hope is we get some answers on tonight’s episode of RAW.
