Should have John Cena faced the Rock as a heel?

[CM Steel]

The WWE gave us the WWE universe John Cena vs the Rock at Wrestlemania 28 in Miami a year in advance on RAW the night after Wrestlemania 27 in Atlanta. The whole both Rock & Cena went at it on Twitter and on other social media outlet's as well as interview's.

Remember on the first RAW of the new year that John Cena was starting a feud with Kane. And Kane wanted John Cena to embrace the hate from the anti-Cena movement. At the end of the RAW taping we saw and heard the WWE universe chant "CENA SUCKS!!" loud as ever at John Cena closing the show. Indicating that John Cena was finally going to turn heel in the near future i.e. by Wrestlemania 28.

But by the time Cena's feud was over with Kane, the turn didn't happen. And John Cena faced the Rock as a babyface and lost clean. If the heel turn would or could of happened could the outcome have went down differently that night in Miami? Could the feud have been more intense as Cena brought back the rap version of himself more than once on RAW leading up to Wrestlemania 28.

John Cena was going to job to the Rock anyways at Mania. So should have John Cena faced the Rock as a heel?

 

[DeanoJX]

I think that he should of, not only faced the rock as heel, but for many more matches in the future.

he is much better as a heel, and also alot more entertaining, when i hear him talking on the mic now, i just get bored and dont even end up listening.

The only thing stopping him going back as a heel or rapper guy, is the fact that he is such a good role model to kids, and in the make a wish thing, they dont want to do anything to that, cause nearly every kid see's john cena as the best, they would lose alot of popularity from kids, but i think if he went heel it would also bring alot of other people back as fans of the wwe that got fed up with the nice guy john cena a long time ago.

 

[#heel420]

When he did the rap in the weeks leading to Wrestlemania 28, that was the 1st time in years I was entertained by something he was saying. It made me laugh. I wish he would of stuck with this, it's hard not to like Cena in his Word Life Basic Thuganomics mode.

 

[Fugazi]

When Cena came out as the doctor of Thuganomics I nearly shit myself. But of course he didn't turn. Would it have been better? Sure. Cena is a great heel if anyone remembers and he can get heat similar to guys like Jericho so, umm, yeah.

He's the top baby face though so as much as I wanted it I knew it wouldn't happen.

 

[Fansince1992]

I think originally WWE wanted Rock as the Heel and Cena the Face. (After Rock cost Cena the WWE title at WM27) Problem was Rock was loved by to many fans old and new so Rock portraying a heel wouldn't of worked as good.

I think The Rock vs John Cena match was better as Face vs Face. If 1 of them were heel, we could of seen heel like tactics at WM, and it could of disrupted the clean finish to the match which we got. Both being faces made the match more unpredictable keeping us guessing at "who was going to win"
and become the greatest superstar in WWE.

I would like to see John Cena inbetween a Face and Heel. He could come out sometimes Smily and goofy, and making a Wish for all those sick kids. Other times he could come out and dress Heelish (Thuganomics) and be more intense. Doing this though could complicate John Cena's Fueds and his Charactor.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

For all intents and purposes, Cena was heel in that match. He was in Miami and the crowd was obviously very partisan in the Rock's favor. His moves and demeanor during the match screamed "heel." Even the way he lost the match (trying to do The People's Elbow to mock his opponent). I think WWE purposely had Cena act like a heel in that match.
They knew the character wasn't turning into a full blown long term heel but they gave us somewhat what we wanted, Cena as a heel in a match. Go back and watch the match again, if you haven't already, Cena was heel in that match.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

No I think the WWE needs to keep Cena as a Face at the moment as he sells merchandise. During economic hardship for the WWE's core markets (USA, Canada and UK), they need this revenue. But that said, I do think a day has to be coming sooner rather than later that Cena turns heel. It would have been far better to have him lose at Extreme Rules and begin a storyline where he is written off tv til SummerSlam in August or even Royal Rumble next January and have him turn heel on his return, perhaps in a rematch with the Rock, where he joins with John Larangitis to beat the Rock... or something

 

[Mustang Sally]

Should Cena have faced the Rock as a heel? That's the beauty of it; in many ways, he did. The WWE machine was smart enough to realize that the gimmick was built in..... to many fans, anyone who opposed Rock was going to be seen as a heel.

As to their promos, Rock did his usual ranting and raving, a revue that should probably be viewed as a heel's act since it involves strictly dissing his opponent, yet his fans see him as a face and are going to think he's destroying his foe with words regardless of the message. Meanwhile, Cena was delivering calm, measured words that showed respect for his opponent and his profession, yet people who had long since decided they hate Cena were going to detest his promos too, and see him as the bad guy.

That's the point; if you love the Rock, then Cena is going to come off as a heel in your view. Cena didn't have to do any sneak attacks or speak disrespectful words in the lead-up to the match......people decided for themselves based on their preconceived notions of Rock and Cena, which is as it should be.

 

[Diet Soda]

When you've got a main event this huge, there are no heels or babyfaces, only superstars.

Look back at Hogan vs. Rock ten years before. Hogan was supposed to be the heel as part of his nWo gimmick, yet the Toronto crowd gave him one of the biggest pops of his career.

At the end of the day, these "once in a lifetime" matches hardly need a storyline to dictate who is the bad guy or who is the good guy. Fans want to see their heroes doing what they do best. By this I mean Cena is better as a face and therefore the match benefited because of it. A turn would've been unnecessary.
Similarly, at Wrestlemania X8 the fans wanted 'Hulkamania' Hogan, and not nWo Hogan, and this is reflected in how Hogan portrayed himself in the ring that night.

So, no, Cena should not have been a heel in that match. The whole point of the 'Embrace the Hate' storyline was not about any assumed inevitability that Cena would turn heel. It was about Cena's weaknesses, his faltering position as the top star in the WWE. None of this was carried through into the feud with the Rock.

Furthermore, if Cena was turned, how would you expect all his former fans (i.e. the little Jimmys) to switch allegiance to someone who (a) is as part-time as part-time gets, and (b) hasn't done anything relevant in wrestling for 8 years?

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Short answer, no.

Long answer, he sort of did. They built it up with him saying he would not being able to lose, he couldn't handle the loss, and it took place in The Rock's hometown. The crowd was against him for the most part.

As much as I dislike his in ring character, at this point Cena needs to stay a face. The WWE has been so reluctant to push anyone into his spot, even temporarily, that its very plausible that if Cena turns heel there won't be a face to step up to fill his role. He is the company's top draw and the top draw should always be a face.

The IWC bitches a lot and pretends like they know everything about wrestling, and sometimes we are right, but often times we are wrong. Cena turning heel anytime soon is a bad idea

 

[Workrate]

Short answer, no.

Yep.

I think that, collectively, us wrestling fans get way too caught up in who is a heel and who is a face. Way back in the day it mattered, but these days people see through most of that stuff. It really only applies to children who don't understand the mechanics of the business. Even casual fans these days know enough to not be swayed by a bad guy insulting the audience and a good guy pandering to them.

The way it was booked though, they wanted The Rock to be the heel (or at least they wanted a 50/50 reception). That's why they booked Cena as the company man who was there day in and day out, that was the angle they were using. I don't think there would have been any great reason to turn him heel for that match though.

 

[MrWrestlingIII]

You gotta keep Cena face....for now. There's no face as over as he is. I'd much rather have seen heel Rocky. I remember his promos on Goldberg and they were nothing short of awesome. If they meet again, I would have Rocky go heel sort of like when Rocky and Hogan wrestled again after their WM encounter.

The Super Cena persona really annoys me. If he went back to the "Doctor of Thuganomics", I'd be happy. His freestyles are spot on and very entertaining. He wouldn't be hated so much if could be allowed to do more than six moves in a month, which resulted in a "Same ole shit" chant at WM28. He's never going to be a Bret Hart in the ring, but he's capable of more moves than we're seeing. WWE likes to have its top faces do the same chains to establish momentum: Hogan hulking up, Michaels nip up, Orton's clotheslines into the snap powerslam, and Cena's flying shoulder blocks.

 

[The Perfect Max]

I completely disagree he should have been a heel going into the match. The energy that John Cena brings from the crowd is amazing. Everyone, in someway, is chanting for him, whether they are expressing how great they think Cena is, or how much they think he sucks. Not many can say they can do this, and John Cena is the best at it. And of the course, The Rock brings the electricity to every arena or stadium he enters. With John Cena as a heel, the crowd wouldn't have been as good. We needed the emotion and the split of the crowd in the match.

However, I think after the match, or the night after on Raw, John Cena should have turned heel for the future. It would be a breath of fresh air and it would be what a lot of people want. A heel John Cena is unthinkable at the moment, however, I wouldn't put it out of conversation at the moment.

Another quick thought, what about the idea of John Cena going back to the gangster gimmick. I mean, all year, John Cena stood up for what he had been doing since that gimmick, and he lost. Surely, with this loss, he would consider the old approach and head in that direction. Just a thought.

 

[steven87gill]

The whole point of the 'Embrace the Hate' storyline was not about any assumed inevitability that Cena would turn heel. It was about Cena's weaknesses, his faltering position as the top star in the WWE. None of this was carried through into the feud with the Rock.

None of it was carried through? He lost clean to the Rock at Wrestlemania, that's a fairly big 'not on top of his game anymore' type statement, I'd say.

Rewind 6 months and you have Roddy Piper specifically warning Cena that he's lose to the Rock and lose his position as the top guy unless he started listening to the boos. And well, that's exactly what's happened.

Sure he beat Lesnar at ER, but that was a fluke, and that's how WWE wanted it to be seen. Ever since the Rock came back last year there's been an underlying storyline thread of John Cena's star slowly fading.

 

[The Champ]

No.

The buildup to the match featured both men doing what they've always done. When you're billing a match as "Once in a Lifetime" between guys from two different generations, one shouldn't have go through a radical change to make it work. It was Cena being Cena and Rock being Rock, and it worked fine that way. Now, if you asked me whether I would have taken a heel turn in exchange for a Cena win, that's something I'd have to think about and might even answer "yes" to. But that's beside the point. Cena took his usual formula and stepped it up, and that was the right way for him to go. Trashing the fans would have come off as weak and destroyed the foundation of the feud in itself.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

If you want to see Roy Halladay pitch against Babe Ruth, do you want Babe Ruth as a Boston Brave or a New York Yankee?

Same thing. Cena as a heel isn't the same iconic figure and would have really killed the "once in a lifetime thing". Plus Cena as a heel is a boring, predictable idea. the crowds wouldn't be as hot and the interaction between him and Dwayne wouldn't have been as much fun because it would be 2 similar characters instead of polar opposites.