John Cena Reportedly Made Call on Timing of Heel Turn Ahead of WWE WrestleMania 41
The decision for John Cena's heel turn to occur at Elimination Chamber rather than WrestleMania 41 was reportedly made by Cena himself.
According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t WrestlePurists), Cena made the call "within the last couple of days" before Elimination Chamber, which forced WWE to reshuffle the show.
The segment involving Cody Rhodes giving The Rock an answer regarding selling his soul was reportedly supposed to occur early in the show, but it ended up being the main event instead since it correlated with Cena's heel turn.
After Cena won the men's Elimination Chamber match to earn the right to face Rhodes for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41, Cody made his way to the ring, as did The Rock with rapper Travis Scott.
When Rhodes emphatically turned down The Rock's offer, Cena shockingly turned heel by attacking The American Nightmare at The Final Boss' behest.
Despite The Rock being a big part of the heel turn, he was not involved with the build toward WrestleMania, nor did he show up at WrestleMania itself.
Instead, Scott interfered and helped Cena beat Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 41, making Cena a record-breaking, 17-time world champion.
During an appearance Tuesday on the Pat McAfee Show, The Rock explained that after he showed up at Elimination Chamber as a favor to TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, he made the call to remove himself from the storyline and put the focus entirely on Cena and Rhodes:
Operating in that manner put WWE in a difficult spot because fans were still expecting The Rock to show up at WrestleMania even though he wasn't part of the build and was hardly mentioned in the weeks leading up to it.
Instead of The Rock making his presence felt at WrestleMania, WWE presented a far less satisfying ending, which caused the show to go off the air on a sour note.
Had WWE waited until WrestleMania to do Cena's heel turn, the narrative surrounding the show likely would have been far more positive.
At the same time, Cena vs. Rhodes would have been a babyface vs. babyface feud leading up to WrestleMania, which typically isn't as compelling as babyface vs. heel.
It is difficult to say for sure whether Cena made the right call, but he can render all of that moot by knocking it out of the park with the remainder of his heel run during his final year as a pro wrestler.
It likely starts next month at Backlash where all signs point toward him defending the WWE title against Randy Orton in Orton's hometown of St. Louis.
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The Rock Responds to Criticism Over Lack of Involvement at WWE WrestleMania 41
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson took to Instagram on Wednesday night to address criticism for his absence from WrestleMania 41 and the build toward the WWE Championship match between Cody Rhodes and John Cena.
The Rock commented on a video on the Busted Open Instagram page, which featured Busted Open co-host Dave LaGreca going on a rant about The Rock and comments he made about the WrestleMania main event during an appearance Tuesday on the Pat McAfee Show:
In response to LaGreca's disapproving comments, The Rock called the pro wrestling business "a complete work," and invited LaGreca to sit in on creative discussions with himself, Rhodes, Cena and writer Brian Gewirtz in order to "expand your perspective."
The Rock played a pivotal role in Cena turning heel on Rhodes at Elimination Chamber, but The Final Boss was not a part of the rest of the WrestleMania build and he did not show up at WrestleMania.
Instead, rapper Travis Scott interfered in the main event of WrestleMania 41, helping Cena beat Rhodes to become a record-breaking, 17-time world champion.
Two days later, The Rock appeared on the Pat McAfee Show and revealed that he made the decision to not be part of the build or WrestleMania, opting instead to put the spotlight fully on Cena and Cody.
The Rock also noted that he would have done things a bit differently with regard to the WrestleMania finish, prompting LaGreca to call him a "Monday morning quarterback."
Despite The Rock not being involved with the WrestleMania build, there was still a large portion of fans that expected him to show up on the Grandest Stage of Them All to help Cena and screw over Cody.
After that didn't happen, it left many to question why he played a role in Cena's heel turn in the first place.
The Rock said it was merely a case of TKO CEO Ari Emanuel contacting him and asking him to do a big angle at Elimination Chamber in an effort to boost ticket sales.
Regardless of the reasons for The Rock's initial involvement and subsequent WrestleMania absence, the finish to the biggest show of the year left a bad taste in the mouths of many.
That was the entire point to a large degree since Cena is now a heel who is actively trying to avoid giving fans what they want, but the biggest issue may have been the lack of continuity when it comes to The Rock.
It seems Cena has now fully moved on from his alliance with The Rock, though, as he cut a promo on his own to open Monday night's episode of Raw before getting hit with an RKO out of nowhere by Randy Orton.
That was the likely setup for a WWE Championship match between Cena and Orton at Backlash in Orton's hometown of St. Louis next month.
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Breaking Down the Fallout of Rock's Stunning Pat McAfee Interview After WrestleMania
The Rock may not have had the time in his schedule to appear at WrestleMania 41, but he did make time for The Pat McAfee Show Tuesday afternoon, where he explained his absence from the big event (video includes NSFW language).
“I did feel — and I made the call, ‘I don’t want to be involved in that. Let The Final Boss step back into the shadows. Let all the spotlight go to John and Cody. Let’s not make it about Cody’s soul or John’s soul. Let’s let them do what they do,’” he claimed, despite a very clear creative decision to make it about Rhodes selling his soul and being front-and-center alongside Cena after a buzzworthy heel turn two decades in the making.
Rock also claimed he wanted to see Cody Rhodes turn heel at some point and had developed the soul-selling narrative as part of that larger story, then took some thinly veiled shots at the creative process surrounding the WrestleMania main event between The American Nightmare and Cena.
“They had six weeks to plan for that. I loved the finish of the match. I would have finessed things a little differently on how they got there, but that’s just me creatively,” he said, in response to a main event finish critically panned.
While it was a clear damage control attempt by a massive Hollywood star and a member of the Board of Directors at TKO, it also came across as a self-serving, pro-Rock spin on what appeared to be a tumultuous stretch of WWE Creative leading into the biggest show of the year and one that essentially threw Paul “Triple H” Levesque and his team under the bus.
It was ineffective and may have a negative impact on relations within the promotion.
What does the fallout of that explosive interview on the ESPN talk show look like for WWE moving forward? Let’s take a look.
A Final Boss Missing In Action
Rock made it very clear when discussing the reason(s) for missing WrestleMania that one of them is commitments elsewhere that he wants to honor and uphold. WrestlePurists’ Ibou noted back in December that they included reshoots for the upcoming Moana live-action film, which would make him unavailable to compete in the show’s main event.
If that is the case, one thing that must stop at the highest levels of WWE is the reliance on The Rock to help boost ticket sales and add spice to premium live events. It disrupts creative plans and sets impossible expectations among fans that The Final Boss will factor into the story when it matters most.
We saw it at Bad Blood, when he appeared in the closing moments of the show for absolutely no reason, teasing involvement with Rhodes and Roman Reigns that never went anywhere and prevented CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre inside Hell in a Cell from being the main event over a generic tag team match-up.
The more that happens, the more the company sets itself up for unnecessary backlash when the Hollywood A-lister does not appear as expected, even if he was never advertised to in the first place.
His commitments elsewhere also mean the company should not rely on him to make promotional appearances, such as the one on Tuesday afternoon.
For as iconic a character as he was and as much as he may genuinely intend to help, he tends to spin things in a manner best described as self-serving. It usually makes him look good, or like the emphasis of great ideas, at the expense of everyone else, all while undermining the actual Chief Content Officer of the company.
Speaking of which, the interview should also have an impact on how he creates stories, generates rivalries, and builds Superstars moving forward.
Re-Examining The Game
Triple H experienced his greatest success as a booker when he did not have to account for mega celebrities popping back into the frame and becoming a factor in his stories, then waiting around for them to become available to tell the next chapter.
Part of what made WWE as hot as it was entering last year’s Showcase of the Immortals was how he created new stars. Damian Priest, Rhea Ripley, LA Knight, Jacob Fatu, Liv Morgan, Dominik Mysterio, Jey Uso, Drew McIntyre, and Gunther all saw their stars skyrocket, thanks to concentrated booking that intertwined their stories with other, bigger stars on the roster.
Their creative plans were not at the mercy of whether Rock would be available for any given episode of Raw or SmackDown, let alone making an appearance at a premium live event.
They had clear plans and an obvious yet effective story direction, and the result was the most coherent WWE product fans had seen in a decade.
He needs to get back to that.
If Rock has made it clear that he has commitments elsewhere, he should not feel beholden to whatever it is he may want to pop back in and do. Book how he wants, which also meant getting as many faces in front of the audience as possible.
It was not uncommon for the 2025 Hall of Fame inductee to feature the bigger stars in backstage promos or video packages that could further their stories while ensuring Dragon Lee got on television in a match with Chad Gable that highlighted his incredible in-ring abilities.
Otis and Chad Gable had one of the best stories in WWE in 2024, and much of that can be attributed to the fact that they had television time for in-ring promos and matches, which, given the current state of the product, they likely would not have today.
Get back to creating those moments that benefit stars outside of the top handful of Superstars, tell those undercard stories that allowed someone like Gable to shine and become one of the most interesting and entertaining performers on the roster.
If Triple H cannot rekindle the magic of his first year as head of WWE Creative, it does not appear he will have The Rock to lean on when needed for the foreseeable future. If that is the case, and the product suffers, then it will be time to re-evaluate The Game.
Literally and figuratively.
WWE's Bianca Belair Reportedly May Have Suffered Finger Injuries at WrestleMania 41
Bianca Belair reportedly may have suffered an injury during her loss on Night 1 of WrestleMania 41.
According to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, there was some internal concern within WWE that Belair suffered an injury to "a couple of her fingers" during the Triple Threat match against Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley.
Night 2 of WrestleMania 41 on Sunday opened with the Triple Threat for the Women's World Championship, as Sky put the title on the line against both Belair and Ripley.
In what was arguably the best match of the entire WrestleMania week in Las Vegas, Sky retained by breaking up a pinfall with her signature moonsault and pinning The EST.
On Monday night's episode of Raw, Sky celebrated her victory before getting interrupted by NXT women's champion Stephanie Vaquer, setting up an impromptu match between them.
Roxanne Perez and Giulia made surprise appearances by attacking Sky and Perez, at which point Ripley made her way to the ring to run off both Perez and Giulia.
Belair did not appear on Raw, although it is unclear if that is due to a potential injury or because plans call for her to primarily be on SmackDown moving forward.
As she has done on so many occasions, Belair once again cemented herself as one of the best women's wrestlers in the world and one of WWE's top stars in general at WrestleMania.
She has a penchant for performing her best on the Grandest Stage of Them All, and she showed no ill effects from an injury if she did indeed suffer one.
Losing Belair for any period of time would be a major hit to the WWE women's division, although there is a ton of talent waiting in the wings, particularly if plans are in place to call up both Perez and Giulia to the main roster.
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