John Cena’s heel turn is one of the biggest stories in WWE and pro wrestling history. The man helping him with this creative journey, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, believes his move to the dark side resembles an iconic film villain.
When talking about the most profitable and popular professional wrestlers of all time, there are only a select few names that reached the top levels of this list. Men like Hulk Hogan, The Rock, and Steve Austin. Another name that could be on that Mount Rushmore of money makers is the incomparable John Cena.
Hate him or love him, he was one of the biggest stars in the industry’s history. That is why many expected him to play his greatest hits on his year-long retirement tour. However, the 16-time world champion took a risk by doing what many thought would never happen. Shunning his legion fans and turning heel.
In the weeks since his turn at Elimination Chamber, Cena has sunk his teeth into this new version of his iconic character. And he has delivered some entertaining moments on the road to WrestleMania 41 and his match with Cody Rhodes.
It was a topic of conversation during an appearance WWE head of creative Triple H made this week on “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.” And the soon-to-be two-time Hall-of-Famer had an interesting comparison for the new evil Cena.
“So John Cena, who is the ultimate good guy and has been. His whole mantra his entire career – Hustle Loyalty Respect. He has just been the ultimate good guy,” Triple H said. “As a human being, he has done more wishes for Make-A-Wish than any other celebrity in history. He’s incredible. But the challenge on this is he’s in his retirement run.
“He will end his in-ring career in December with WWE. So he’s kind of got this year as his farewell. He came back and turned into a bad guy… It’s amazing to see that transformation of John from the most beloved character in WWE to just Darth Vader. They hate him, and he is working very hard to make them hate him.”
For many long-time and loyal Cena fans, his change was very much the greatest hero of all-time going to the dark side. That makes the Darth Vader reference fitting. As the most powerful Jedi ever, Anakin Skywalker, gave into his hate and also went down a dark path.
But also, he redeemed himself late in his life. Fans will surely hope Cena does the same before he leaves in December.
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