John Cena Discusses Making Amends After WWE Heel Run

WWE legend John Cena has discussed his heel run and subsequent babyface run, and revealed if he has any regrets about it.

Cena shockingly turned heel earlier this year, in his final year in WWE. However, with fans still cheering him on, he was switched to being a babyface for the final few dates of his pro wrestling career. Following his win against Logan Paul at Clash in Paris, Cena assessed the heel run and explained why he and WWE decided that it was the best decision for him to become a good guy again.

"I think you make a good point — [I'm now] The John Cena we know and love. Keep in mind, what we do is we try to entertain the audience the best we can, and sometimes that involves taking risks and sometimes that involves being bold," he said. "But you also have to listen to the audience, and it got to a point where, like, Cena versus Randy, you start hearing this [crowd chanting for Cena]. Cena versus Punk, Saudi, you start hearing the noise. Cena-Cody [at] SummerSlam, it changes, and I mean sometimes you can make bold and brave new moves, but going against this body of energy [the fans] is a losing battle. So sometimes you just got to listen and pivot and change course."

Cena, who has eight dates remaining on his retirement run, turned babyface ahead of SummerSlam, the pay-per-view where he lost the title to Cody Rhodes.

John Cena admitted that it is a nice feeling to be cheered by the fans and say goodbye to them, some of whom, he claims, are familiar faces that he has seen at previous shows. Cena said it is a cathartic feeling to apologize to fans for what he said just a few months ago.

"I will say, it is quite nice to be able to stand in the middle of the ring and say hi to familiar faces. Some of these people overseas, like, I've been seeing for years, it's the same fans. So to be able to say goodbye, to be able to apologize to my man [the young fan], it's great. To be able to say I'm sorry because I said hurtful things and you stuck by me, and you knew I was having a bad day, so to speak."

While many believe that Cena's heel run wasn't a success, he has a different point of view, saying that he doesn't dwell on such decisions and doesn't consider the heel run a mistake.

"I think we'll reflect on this a whole lot more in January," he said. "Nothing is a mistake. It's just something that happens, and then we move forward, and then we got eight left and we're gonna move forward. And I don't know what's gonna happen, but I'm gonna give it all I got," declared the 17-time world champion.

Cena has previously said that he doesn't consider his heel run a failure and explained that he views every failure as a teaching moment.