Triple H has revealed new details on pitching John Cena on doing the unthinkable and turning heel for his retirement tour.
Cena turned on Cody Rhodes in one of the most shocking moments in WWE history at Elimination Chamber 2025. Ending a two-decade run as the company’s top babyface. The historic moment has received a lot of praise from casual and diehard wrestling fans. Now, WWE’s Chief Content Officer has broken down how it all started.
“I went to John and said, ‘What if we pulled the lever that no one ever wanted to pull? What if we turn heel?’” Paul “Triple H” Levesque said on the High Performance podcast. “To me, it sort of felt like if you never do it, you kinda just left that dangling there. So now we get to write for this guy who’s been this ultimate good guy for over 20 years, and we get to turn him bad. What does that look like?”
Triple H Shares How He Sold John Cena on the Shocking WWE Turn
“Exactly what happened at Elimination Chamber. Cody is being asked ‘sell out to me,’ and he says no, and you’re there, and it looks like — good for you — for telling The Rock to go f*** himself and all that stuff,” he recalled. “And then the unthinkable happens. You look at Rock, and Rock looks at you. And you kick him in the nuts and you beat the dog sh*t out of him and leave him laying there, and you turn heel. You sell out.”
Triple H said the story only works if Cena believes he’s doing the right thing — even if the logic is twisted.
“Because in your mind, I feel like the bad guy has to feel justified in the why. It has to make sense. It can be skewed, but it has to be like, ‘Well, I don’t agree, but I can see how he thinks that,'” he said. “Because in his desire to have one last big and successful run . He knows his time is running out .
“He’s thinking, ‘If I’m going to do this, I might not be as fast or as strong or as good as I used to be. So I have to sell myself out and do things I wouldn’t have done earlier in my career. But now I will because I’m desperate in my final hours.’”
Fast forward to today, John Cena is set to appear on the April 18 episode of SmackDown, the go-home show before WrestleMania 41, before challenging Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship on Sunday.
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