After Raw Last Night, I Started Thinking....

[theblasterkid]

The reason why most voted for the handicap match is because most people wanted to see him get his ass kicked. It also further backs what Bray cut in his promo earlier that night. What I find intriguing about Bray is that everything he says is the truth. Anyway, he'll elevate Bray alright, then drop him with an AA for the 1-2-3 (lol). All three members and this Super Cena s*** stills continues. But hey, a heel turn should happen because his character is stale. Also, did you see his facial expression when he found out it would be a handicap match? Lol, I thought it was hilarious!

 

[Richard Blonoff]

You know there is this part of me that wants to believe it will happen. With the rise of Bryan, WWE finally has someone I think they tried to turn Punk into, a legit top face to replace Cena. Bryan doesn't have the traditional look of a top guy, but he seems much more willing to play ball as far as media appearances and the like and he has the added exposure of Total Divas.

That said, I don't see it happening for two reasons.

1) They have teased Cena cracking so many times in the past that it just doesn't have an effect anymore. I've lost track of how many times over the last few years that they took Cena to the edge of the heel turn, only for him to hustle, loyalty, and respect his way back to the light side of the force. They had the opportunity with Kane, they had it with Lesnar, they had it with Rocky in Miami. If they didn't turn him heel for Rock, arguably one of the top three guys in WWE history, they aren't going to do it for Bray Wyatt, a guy with less than a year on the main roster.

2) I don't think it will have the desired effect. A lot of fans are so sick of the Cena act, that they boo him despite his face status. If you turn him heel, I have a feeling it will lead people to cheer him just for changing up his character.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I don't see Cena turning heel in the near future. But I have wondered why it hasn't happened yet. I can understand why they'd want him to remain a face, but I could possibly be the only person alive who actually has faith in Cena's ability to draw as a heel.

 

[Con T.]

The dude still makes five times the merch sales of the number two guy, apparently.

Let me make sure everyone understands that it is five times the merch sales.

It's the reason Hogan waited so long to turn heel, and it is why Cena may take longer. This the moment of doubt in the storyline, where Cena doubts himself. Come next week, Cena will have his moment of clarity, and all will be right in the world.

 

[jeffrey9800]

The dude still makes five times the merch sales of the number two guy, apparently.

Let me make sure everyone understands that it is five times the merch sales.

It's the reason Hogan waited so long to turn heel, and it is why Cena may take longer. This the moment of doubt in the storyline, where Cena doubts himself. Come next week, Cena will have his moment of clarity, and all will be right in the world.

Makes you wonder how much Merch he would sell as a heel, ie : NWO shirts, ... would it be that bad? I don't think so, he might be a bigger draw as a heel!

 

[Blade]

I'm not entirely sure. Being the person who turns John Cena to the dark side is like being the guy who beats the streak. That'll be something that shows WWE is putting all their faith in Bray Wyatt, since Cena will likely become part of the Wyatt family if he does turn heel, so Wyatt would be speaking for Cena. Wyatt would be Cena's leader. If they try to turn Cena heel by having him join the Wyatts, and it doesn't work, then that's going to be hard for Bray to recover from. But that's just the way I see it.

Usually, when WWE hints at a Cena heel turn, it's against already established talent. After he lost to the Rock, when Kane was trying to get him to embrace the hate, the theories that Cena would allign with Vince to take down Punk back in 2011. So Bray is kind of a different situation.

The last time Cena could've turned heel to help put over a younger talent was when the Nexus were hot all the way back in 2010. They didn't turn Cena heel for Wade Barrett, but I think WWE are higher on Wyatt than they ever were on the Nexus. So it's not impossible.

I'm rambling now, so I'll say that it would be interesting, but, as ever, it's still unlikely.

 

[salopstick]

The cena heel thread always goes the same way

For the record one of hogans concerns was his work with kids

Cena is the number one make a wish guy I can't see him dropping that

If and a big if he goes heel it must be for a minimum of two or three years I don't want to see a turn only for a return to facedom 3 months down the line

Maybe that's why he didn't break the streak, it may have never been possible to go back to a face

 

[enviousdominous]

Let me just say, I fucking love armchair booking.

I think that the WWE was very stupid to put Daniel Bryan in a program with The Wyatt Family. Daniel Bryan joined them, and then it quickly became a program where it was all a ruse to undermine the power of Bray Wyatt.

John Cena should have had this program. His loss to Randy Orton that made Randy the WWE World Heavyweight Champion should have been one where The Wyatts interfered. The program we're seeing now could have been one we've seen before, and Wrestlemania culminates in a match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt under the same circumstances that had Daniel Bryan facing Bray Wyatt at the Royal Rumble.

Will they make John Cena a heel? Oh Hell no. If John Cena joins The Wyatt Family, he'll do so because of a stipulation in a match he lost or whatever. Every generation churns out new chunks of Cena marks; I guarantee that no matter how endearing a heel program with Bray Wyatt might seem, the WWE will lose a lot of money if they make John a willing member of The Wyatt Family under the leadership of Bray Wyatt.

If John Cena turns heel at this point, it'll go down like when Sergeant Slaughter became Saddam Hussein's best friend. Sure, Sarge got the belt and a pretty decent program out of the deal. Slaughter would spend the rest of his career trying to unwrite that chapter by being psycho jingoistic in everything his character ever did, he came across as a poser. If John Cena goes heel, they will eventually have to make him good again for the sake of using him at all. I highly doubt that he'll be able to find a way to be nearly as notable as he is now if he worked a pointless heel program.

I see this as John granting Bray Wyatt a stronger presence on tv. I'm not going to go into my opinions of John's ability to convincingly compliment his opponents' presence, I've shared them so much that even I'm sick of reading them. John is presenting himself as legitimately spooked by Bray Wyatt; even if John breaks free from Bray's spell and destroys him with his usual onslaught, Bray will be remembered as the guy who kept a guy as brave as John Cena looking over his shoulder.

If John fully joined The Wyatt Family, it would reek of when Daniel Bryan did the same thing. It would look stupid by comparison, I don't think that either performer would benefit from rehashing an angle that's not even a year old. I expect John to come within a hair of having his crisis of faith cause him to accept that Bray is his master when he hears a kid decked out in Cena gear shouting "I still believe in you John!" from the front row and it gives him the courage to not be seen or something.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Honestly, I see Bray Wyatt turning face sooner than Cena turning heel. Listening to Wyatt's promo last night, I can easily see him cutting that exact same promo as a face against a group like the Authority.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

For some reason, I think this could be a merchandising masterstroke. What better way for the antiCena brigade to show their displeasure than buy a T-Shirt supporting his nemesis? "He's got the whole world in his hands" available at a all WWe merchandise outlets, anyone?

Bray is really encouraging the audience to "follow the buzzards", the most likely to do that are those who'll boo and scream "Cena sucks!" This could be a business move that could make the WWe a very tidy some.

However, for it to truly succeed, both the Wyatt family and John Cena have to maintain the current heel / face dynamic that both sides portray currently (that way the CeNation keeps buying his stuff). This also means that I believe that Bray will win at Extreme Rules and that there will be more twists and turns to milk the cash cow as long as possible.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Clearly you've forgotten that John Cena is already one of the biggest heels on the roster. What's so amazing about it is he's also one of the biggest faces on the roster as well. He's practically the definition of the word polarizing.

Besides shock value, there's no reason to turn him full heel anyways. All that will accomplish is the same crowd split he has now, just a reversal in who boos and cheers him. This would be accompanied by less merchandise sales to all his kid fans and their parents.

But if people really believe there's even a remote chance, I guess WWE is doing their job.

This guy understands pro wrestling. I honestly can't add much more to it. Wouldn't let me rep him so I'm doing this instead. This should be somehow programmed into the forum where before you ever think about writing the words "Cena" "possible" "heel" "turn" in a post, this pops up and you have to acknowledge it before you read it. It's the most logical thought process. If you think through it, you'll realize just how dumb of an idea it would be to turn Cena "heel".

 

[MoRtAnDaD]

Why change the only guy who ALWAYS get a reaction from the entire crowd? We can go forever about the character. But the reality is Cena fuels the passion of the fans (doesnt matter if its heat hate love...whatever) every single week.

If its not broken, dont fix it.

 

[IT Factor]

If we are talking possibilities, that's the first thing I was thinking when I seen the results of the WWE.com poll. Fans voted for a 3-on-1 handicap match, so essentially it was a big FU to Cena from the WWE Universe. Cena's facial reaction to the poll results was done perfectly because he looked like he'd been betrayed by us fans. IF WWE ever wanted to turn Cena heel, now would be the most opportune time to do it. The Wyatts are getting over and more fans are getting behind them with most singing along with Bray. Although I HATE the Wyatt family, this could be an interesting swerve storyline.

The problem is that Cena doesn't seem sold on the idea of changing his character and WWE isn't big on it either. Cena is the biggest merchandise seller and he is the biggest novelty PG act WWE has. Still, that turn would be the biggest heel turn since Hulk Hogan's heel turn with the NWO. I'd like to see how Cena's work on the mic and in the ring changed with his heel turn. But that is a very slim possibility. Chances are it's just a way to bring out the vicious side of Cena for Extreme Rules and see a few big moments from him against Bray.

 

[LSN80]

After Bray Wyatt's promo last night, Cena's own promo, some comments from Michael Cole on commentary and the story of more of the fans becoming "converts"; a notion popped into my head. I hate to suggest it...I honestly do because we've ALL seen threads on this throughout the past several years only for our speculation to be us reading too much into things. I'll probably hate myself for even suggesting this but.....well......could this be a sign of John Cena turning heel at some point?

You should be blushing, Jack, because you're the one who generally rips into someone who suggests that Cena may be turning heel. However, so am I, and I couldn't help but think the same thing. Wyatt's promo was that good.

But that got me for all of an hour and a half, as while the fans voted for the 3 on 1 match, I think the reason so was for the intrigue of how the match would play out, not that they wanted to see Cena get killed. It was certainly a pro-Cena crowd, I thought, and this was never better illustrated then when Cena hit the AA on Bray Wyatt, and the crowd absolutely erupted. There were also some singing along with him as he sang "He's got the whole world in his hands", but the majority seemed to be pro-Cena.

As for a turn? There's the usual drawbacks, such as can WWE truly afford to lose two of their top three faces, turning Cena, and losing Punk? A heel character will likely be detrimental to his merchandise sales amongst kids, women, and those male adults who love him in his current role. The same doubts that there always are, in other words.

But here, I think that they're at least open to the possibility. This is a feud that likely won't end until Payback, so they've got time to decide. And I think how they'll go about it is based on crowd reaction to Cena's character. Yes, he was the smarmy, cutesy character that make people hate him two weeks ago, but he tied it back around as to why he does it. Bray plays mind games, those are Cena's. But when Cena is serious, there are none better. His promo on Raw reinforced this. Cena can cut as serious a promo as anyone in the business.

So, I think it's how they book him and that storyline from here on out that will determine what they decide to do with him. If he's booked as "The only guy in the room who thinks his routine is funny", I think we could see a frustrated Cena losing fans because of it, and eventually succumbing to the monster.

Of course, it;s 's the battle between what's best for the product against what's best for profit. Cena is due a heel turn, anyone playing (close to) the same character for almost ten years is. But that would obviously diminish his merchandise sales and his Make-A-Wish and other ambassador duties, which hurts the business aspect of things.

I could see them doing a quick heel turn, but nothing long term. Something to give what about half the crowd has been clamoring for, "satisfying them", then turning him face once against. His character would likely be much different at that point, so it could be a very good thing should it happens.

Right now, for the first in some in time, I'm not sure. And I like that.