How to turn Cena heel

[Rock Bottom]

So while I did not watch wrestling back when WCW existed I do like to go back through old 'attitude era' stuff on youtube and catch up with all the great stuff that I missed. Recently I have been watch lots of footage of the nWo back in WCW. I watched the formation of the group through to some of the Wolfpack stuff.

Now Hogan was a huge face for many years. He was the guy who made the WWF as popular as it became and fans loved him. However just like that he sided with Hall and Nash, and became one of the biggest heels in wrestling history. Nobody saw it coming, after all why would a company turn one of their biggest draws against the fans. Obviously we don't want to see a rehash of the nWo as it has more than played out over the years, but there are things we can learn and adapt in the modern era.

John Cena is a guy who many feel needs a heel turn and sure a lot of people want that to come as soon as possible but what if the WWE waited a little big longer, make Cena an even bigger face. Then, when we all least expect it, turn him heel. Use the nWo formula to instantly shake up the WWE.

So here is the scenario as I see it playing out. We have a group of bad guys, established heels or young hungry wrestlers who need a push. It could work with either. Lets say Wade Barrett and Sheamus for example come togther to take out everyone and anyone, running roughshot of the WWE Roster. Have them work over a major face say Randy Orton or The Rock or someone who isn't as big as they are at the moment. So the lockeroom slowly empties but Barrett and Sheamus just take everyone that comes their way out.

Then John Cena's music plays, he's here to save the day as usual. So he comes into the ring just as say Orton is stirring, there is a pause he looks at Barret and Sheamus then picks up Orton and hits him with an Attitude Adjustment. Standing beside Barret and Sheamus he cuts a promo saying he is fed up of pandering to the fans or something similar (I am sure someone can come up with something better).

This could be an effective way of swerving everyone and the crowd would turn on Cena pretty quickly. Then you have yourself a heel cena who can finally change up its career and a group of guys who can make things interesting for the wrestling fan again.

Feel free to adjust the idea if you feel it could be improved. The only thing I think could be an issue is that crowds tend to be a little more subdued nowadays so the reaction might not be as hostile.

Also if you have any other ideas on how old concepts can be reused to improve the current WWE product, feel free to chime in and explain them!

 

[baufan2025]

Wouldn't ever work now. You aren't going to catch the magic that was the NWO again for a long long time. The formula has been tried since then and has failed. You have to wait at least 20 more years IMO for an NWO angle to work again.

 

[Shilon006]

There's only one way to truly have this happen. Cena vs Taker at WM. some how have Vinny Mac be ref or at ring side or say he has too much invested in this match not to see it up close. As Takers about to finish Cena with the last ride or tomb stone, Vince runs in & hits Taker with a chair. It has little to no effect. Vince runs Taker chases and as they both slide into the ring Cena blasts Taker with the chair. Cena has a look of surprise at what he just did. Vince grabs the chair with a look of surprise as well. There's a second where they just stare at Taker and look back at each other with a smile and hug. Vince hands Cena the chair for a few more chair shots and finally Cena slaps on the stf til Taker passes out leaving the ref no choice but to ring tue bell ending Takers streak. A huge hug fest between Cena & Vince in the ring after the win and just for good measures spit on Taker. Hell, if a undefeated sign is in arms reach grab it & rip it. It would be a MONSTER shock & turn Cena into the most hated man in all of wrestling. Maybe even more than he is now.

 

[The Unforgiven]

First off I will admit that I am not a WWE fan. I am a TNA fan. I stopped watching WWE because of Super Cena ALWAYS winning. However i still keep up with it through the results on the main site. Anyway i agree that the only way a Cena heel turn will ever fully work is if he ends the Undertakers streak. The fans will shit all over him 50x more than they do now. Orton isn't big enough for a Cena heel turn to work. It's Undertakers streak or nothing.

 

[bigbootydaddyV]

Hogan and the NWO worked so well because the stars were so aligned for it. Hogan had been in WCW long enough to be considered a WCW guy, he was off TV long enough that I didn't even think of him as a possible partner, and it was just so damn fresh that it completely caught everyone off guard. With Cena you'd never have that perfect storm of events to make it work, at least not for a very long time. For one thing, people want him to turn heel, not nearly as many ppl would be legit pissed as they were when Hogan did it. Second, it wouldn't have nearly the impact just because the NWO is still rather fresh in people's minds. Give it another 5-10 years, preferably 10 and then maybe you can have something like this. Cena would have to be so engrained as a face that people wouldn't even consider a heel turn coming.

Also, on a side note, it'll never happen right now either because there is no one to take over that top face position to help market the entire company. From a practical standpoint a heel cena makes no sense so no matter how much we enjoy it more (i know i do with the raps and all) it won't happen for a long time.

 

[poppycock]

I don't see how you could make Cena a bigger face than he already is.. I think he is as over as he could be and people who don't like him probably never will, as a face anyway. I don't like him but that is because I really cannot relate to him at all not on any level.

I agree with turning him heel. I think it would benifit his career if this happend somewhere down the line. Right now the WWE is full of heels so it would need to get another face over in a big way first. The NWO was fresh and relevent for it's time i am not sure it could be done again and have anywhere near as much impact. It was just perfect.. pure genius.

 

[Rock Bottom]

Obviously it would never be on the same scale of what happened with the nWo but it could work. The nWo angle may be fresh with older fans but look at how many younger fans watch wrestling nowadays.

To be honest it was never about turning Cena heal for the sake of it, more about WWE needed to make an impact or their product will turn stale. At the moment there is nobody and I mean nobody else on the roster who will get a face pop as big as Cena so what happens if he gets injured, decides to become a more regular actor or even when he doesn't wrestle full time anymore! They rely on him too much as a face.

Plus it would get the other guys he sides with over if they end up being younger guys. The nWo didn't just help Hogan, it help Nash and Hall as well.

As far as screwing the Undertaker out of his streak at Wrestlemania, that could also work, but I doubt Vince wants to get involved in another storyline anytime soon.

 

[poppycock]

I don't think we have to worry about the next face of the company, it will just happen when you don't expect it like always I guess. There is always Orton if Cena does pick up an injury. Just like during the Attitude Era we had Austin and The Rock as the faces. Mankind, Kane, The Undertaker, Triple H were either heels or not face of the company material in a sense. Even just as main eventers during the biggest Era in modern WWE who would have thought a few before hand that the WWF main event card would consist of The Ringmaster, Rocky Maivia, Hunter with his blue blood persona, Cactus Jack and Isaac Yankem.

It looks like Swagger is about to turn heel and The Miz seems to be growing on a lot of people. The next face is probably either sombody we would never expect or sombody most of us do not even know yet.

I do think we need to give all this potential time to grow and some decent creativity would not go amiss. I like the idea of a heel Cena but not sure about a new NWO type group. Never know though..if it happend I would sit back and watch it one way or another.

 

[healyz84]

What made the NWO and Hogan's heel turn so big was not that he took out the likes of Savage, Sting, and Luger. But instead, it was that it seemingly felt as if Hogan hard turned his back of WCW and wanted to ruin the business and so it was the proverbial flip off of the fans.

While your idea for Cena to turn heel and join up with other top heels is good, it will never match anything that Hogan was able to accomplish that night. And probably never will. You would need to set up a situation where a rogue group of guys, who are not apart of the wwe roster and never have been, suddenly show up, take down the top faces of the wwe, run absolutely rupshot on everything. Suddenly Cena comes down, looking to be the savior, but turns his back on the faces of the wwe and the wwe in general (including the universe) and joins this rebel group.

Oh wait... this sounds a lot like what happened with the original nexus. Except wwe dropped the ball. Nexus was new, interesting, unpredictable, and in fact seemed to make the fans wonder what was going to happen. Of course it fizzled out to what we have now. But imagine if the nexus showed up between an Orton-Punk match instead of a Cena-Punk match, and destroyed everything. Then next week, Cena came down to confront nexus only to join them and screw over the wwe. That would have been fantastic. But alas, it did not happen, and this was the best chance to have that Hogan moment, to totally shock the wwe universe. But since that did not happen, I don't think it will ever happen.

 

[silrock316]

While I enjoy thinking about the possibilities of them turning Cena heel and putting him in a stable it has a very big inconsistency that will kill it right away for me. One of the reasons why the nWo worked so well is because we didn't know much via the internet.

1. I remember seeing Hall and Nash and looking at my brother saying "holy shit Joe, WWF is invading WCW, there might be a war, this is going to be awesome. Obviously at the time not knowing too much about contracts and this and that. So It felt like the ENEMIES were taking over the HOME show so to speak, kinda like your favorite sports teams fans taking over your stadium.

2. Hogan was only a "heel" when he first started wrestling but once he went to yellow and red he was NEVER a heel and he was the most over wrestler you had ever seen so it was soooo freaking left field it was crazy. He wasn't ever boo'd, the IWC which obviously wasn't around wasn't clamouring for him to turn heel there for having half the crowd boo and half the crowd not.

Which brings me to the conclusion: The fact that a Cena heel turn like this wouldn't come off as a "trading" against the promotion vibe to it and the fact if he turns heel im almost positive it will be leaked ahead of time via the internet so the shock and impact will really only be felt by the kids.

I also truely believe that if he did indeed turn heel, the fans that hate him right now, will start to love him and the ones that love him now will start to hate him. So it would almost be redundant to do it. It would almost immediately have to turn face again because of the fans.

This happened with Stone Cold Steve Austin when he first turned heel. No one wanted to boo him. I remember going to a Smackdown! in Philly and the place went BONKERS for Austin...massive Austin chants broke out several times in the arena but when I watched it live it came off as BOOS and Austin sucks chants.

 

[AntiChristDeicide]

There is no way to recreate the same effect now. The last chance we had was with the Original Nexus and it failed miserably. Wait at least 10 years and if Cena still wrestles by then you could try and do it. Hogan worked because it was so unexpected. For satan's sake he was hunted by the 4 horsemen and the Dungeon of doom the two biggest groups in WCW and then left to do movies. So when Hall and Nash showed up and talked about a third member, everybody assumed it would be another "WWE invader". Then Hogan came and since he wasn't seen for months no one thought he was the third guy. I remeber seing it happened and the first thing i said was "Holy Shit Hogan is heel no way".

 

[tripleddd]

To the original post it wouldn't quite work now for several reasons - first you would need to recognisable wrestlers(most likely) TNA who havent worked for the wwe coming over. And secondly a main star Cena or Orton needs to be away from our screens for a while.Just not going to happen.
What should of happened they should of run with the original Nexus for a lot longer than they did minus Cm Punk.They could have dropped the numbers down to 5 say and have them beating every one up as oppossed to super cena super Orton winning all the time.

 

[blackmetalbuick]

Sure it might be a little predictable considering it's been done before but it sure ain't any more predictable than continuing to have Cena keep being a dominant face every week. But it's just time to accept that this is not going to happen for a while. Maybe when they establish some more top stars who can move merch and they can afford to have Cena be a heel (although a successful heel/group like the nWo certainly moved merch too). Maybe if we all stop thinking about it and asking for it, when we least expect it, it'll actually come true.

 

[King Patrick Star]

This could work!! I think the two Heel Superstars to start things of should be Jack Swagger (if he’s still with Michael Cole) and Dolph Ziggler (because he’s with Vicki Guerrero). Having Cole and Vicki added to the mix would really get Cena firmly placed in the “Dark Side”. The keys to all this is to get a really good Stable name and start having John wear Black shirts. Even adding a Heel Rock as the Ric Flair / mentor type to the Stable would be ridiculously great!! This could also turn a few current Heels face in the process, like the Miz, by default.

 

[hollowpoint]

There are alot of reason's why doing this won't work this day and era:

1. WWE has no competition - WWE is really successful right now and they don't have anyone to compete with. They won't rock the boat or make any drastic changes because of the simple matter that they don't have to.

2. Cena is 50/50 in the crowd - Everyone loved Hogan back in the day. He was the ultimate good guy. When he turned, it was like WTF?! with everyone, not just half the crowd. If Cena did this, he would get the same reaction that he gets now only opposite. The old adults would love it and the kids/women would hate it.

3. Talent - WWE is lacking in the talent pool and the amount of top stars in the company right now is slim. Making a dominant faction like that again will cripple the show. What kept WCW alive was the amount of talent they had that wasn't nWo. Guys like Sting, Luger, Flair, Benoit, Goldberg, DDP, not to mention all of the cruiserweights.

 

[Rock Bottom]

Not sure if Cena is 50/50 with the crowd to be honest. He still gets some huge reactions. The point is, it doesn't have to be as big as the nWo was, its just a case of taking part of a concept and adapting it.

Yeah sure the WWE are fine at the moment, but long term I can't see them being able to be sustain it. Most of the younger audience only tune in because of Cena and while they can milk him as a super face for a while yet it is not going to last forever.

Plus they are really struggling to build up their roster the way they are going at the moment. The roster is bottom heavy in terms of mid to lower carders with very few draws. That needs to change.

A large part of the WRESTLING fan base are not huge fans of the current product so rather than just complain I thought it would be interesting to see if any of us could do any better.

So those of you who don't think my idea would work, are there any better concepts we have seen in the past that can be adapted to make the product better for you personally. Never mind whether they will actually do it.

 

[JaymacTG]

Silrock 3:16 said it best .. so I wont try.(though I have to wonder how you know my brothers name)

A Cena heel turn would be catastrophic failure the likes of which havent been seen in wrestling since Goldbergs WCW heel turn. Remember that? Yeah didnt think so ...

 

[The Idiot]

We've seen guys turn on faces and try and become heels but doesn't work. The best way to make a heel is to turn on the fans...then there's absolutely no way they can cheer for you. Here's how I would go about the eventual John Cena heel turn:


The commentators would say that Cena is coming out tonight to address his future with the company and that his contract has expired. Similar to what Bret Hart did back in 1997. Cena says he's had a great run in the WWE and is not sure where he'll end up...only time will tell. "In case I don't get to say it...I want to say thank you to all the fans...etc."

He takes a few months off, does a movie or two. But when he comes back he doesn't make his grand return with his music and flashy entrance. Instead I would put him in the front row during a PPV. The camera would catch him mid way point of the show and Cena wouldn't acknowledge the camera. After the main event when the face champion is celebrating his win (most likely a PPV) Cena would attack the him with a chair and leave him laying in a bloody mess. He would then grab the mic and go on a tirade:

"This is what you people pay money to see? This? (smirks and takes a step toward the camera)
I don't even know what to say. There's something I don't quite understand. When my contract expired and I decided to leave and make movies FOR YOU (which you people loved) all I heard was 'John Cena turned his back on the business' and that 'he left for greener pastures.' But when the Rock leaves for Hollywood...it's "OK." He returned and the fans took him back with open arms. But what do I get? (They can use the video screen to show fans with signs saying Cena sucks and whatnot...probably use plants in the audience at earlier shows to make this work).

"6 months ago I said that I wasn't sure where I'll end up....but now I know one place I definitely will NOT end up...and that is the WWE. So goodbye, good riddance and enjoy your new champion."

He drops the mic and walks off to end the show.

Cena would make occassional appearances from time to time and attack the face champion. The commentators would be huge in making this work. They would need to make Cena look like a coward and that "if he's too good for the WWE why is he here?" and so on. They can use a bit of the nWo angle with him attacking superstars but he isn't a WWE "employee."

He would eventually sign a contract in the ring and would be back as a full time heel superstar. If they really wanted to make this work they can bring the Rock back and have their big rematch to fully solidify John Cena as the #1 heel in the company. Cena got plenty of boos from the audience during his feud with the Rock around Wrestlemania...imagine what the Rock could do for Cena if he was already a heel?
__________________

 

[bigbadwolf8169]

At this point in the game, it would real hard to turn Cena heel. But, like everyone else, i have an idea of how it could be done.

I see alot of people writing about aligning Cena with Vince McMahon. Well, Vince isnt around enough to garner alot of heel heat. Plus people respect him so much that he gets cheers no matter what.

Even having Cena turn on The Undertaker, or Rey Misterio, or Randy Orton, or even The Rock wont really work cuz none of those guys are MEGA-faces like Cena is. Plus he is gonna get booed regardless when he faces The Rock next year.

So, i think the only way to effectively turn him heel is to align him with the one guy who gets more heat than ANYONE, more than any heel superstar, and thats with MICHAEL COLE!

It wouldnt even have to be a big set up. Just having Cena align himself with Cole and the "Anonymous Raw General Manager" would create tons of mega heat for Cena. You could have him come out to help Lawler against Cole, and nail Lawler with an Attitude Adjustment.

The only other person Cena could get heat with is Vicky Guerrero, but i see Cole as being the cash cow in an angle such as this. But, like so many other people said, with Cena BEING the WWE's cash cow, itll never happen.

BTW, someone posted something to the effect of,"Itll get wrestling fans interested again." Lemme tell you something ive realized over the past month, WWE doesnt care about WRESTLING fans. only kids

 

[Elliearose95]

Who brings in money? Who brings in kids and women to the PG wwe? Who shouldn't turn, John Cena. End of story.

 

[akrassikauda]

Another Cena heel thread. It's not gonna happen it won't make any sense right now he's too big. When Hogan turned heel he was absent from WCW tv for a while that's why I knew it was him who was the third outsider because to WCW fans he was always seen as an outsider. That Bash At The Beach was done perfectly because people forgot about Hogan.

Cena is everywhere now if they were going to turn him heel it would have happened when he came back at the Royal Rumble after injury. Things change they needed Cena to stay face and go PG after ****** flew the koo koo's nest and 1/2 the roster failed drug test. Cena was seen as the company's savior from all the heat they received you know the media doesn't talk about now because Cena made them forget.

Turning him heel for what for the IWC gratification. You can't please the IWC no matter what you do yeah turn him heel and 3 months later "oh this is boring, he's stale again" bullshit.

Look he's the best thing a company who needed good pub ever had and it's not fake. Haven't heard a former WWE star say a bad thing about him. Now why would the WWE or Cena fuck all of that up. Now if he still had the rapper gimmick and still was face when he was on Smackdown I see that working better than a heel Cena would. At the end of the day it's all about the money and heel Cena will not bring in money

 

[Rock Bottom]

Whoever changed the thread title kinda screwed up the whole discussion, and I cannot change it back.

This is not a Cena Heel turn thread. It was a suggestion on how to reuse an old concept which happened to involve turning Cena heel and also incorporated discussion about other old concepts which could be reused and tweaked!