Dave Meltzer: Idea For John Cena's WWE Heel Turn Came From The Rock, Not Triple H

Last week, John Cena revealed that the plan for him to turn heel at the Elimination Chamber last year was WWE CCO Paul "Triple H" Levesque's brain child, but according to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had the original idea.

Cena voiced that he agreed to turning heel almost immediately when Triple H presented the idea to him, but Meltzer claims that Johnson pitched for the "Never Seen 17" to flip to the dark side after WWE turned down the same creative direction for Cody Rhodes. Heading into the 2025 Elimination Chamber, The Rock was in the midst of an on-screen storyline with Rhodes, where he was trying to get him to "sell his soul." However, when Rhodes rejected the offer to partner with Johnson at the Elimination Chamber, Cena surprisingly emerged as The Rock's ally and turned heel. Meltzer notes that too many higher-ups in WWE were against the idea of Rhodes becoming a villain, especially since he was world champion at the time, leading Johnson to recommend Cena as a second option.

Cena also provided his thoughts on his heel run last week, stating that the idea worked from a business perspective, but failed to impress from a creative standpoint, an opinion that Meltzer also agreed with, expressing that the entire story lacked logic. Meltzer continued to outline his perspective of Cena as a heel, arguing that WWE failed to capitalize on its biggest angle of the year, especially since they didn't seem to have a long-term plan for it. The journalist also criticized Johnson removing himself from the storyline, which meant the Elimination Chamber was the last time The Rock and the 17-time world champion interacted with each other on screen.

Many believed The Rock would appear during the main event of WrestleMania 41 when Cena defeated Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Title, but "The Final Boss" claimed he didn't want to be involved in the storyline after the Elimination Chamber.