Roundtable: Is John Cena's heel turn the greatest ever? Plus predicting where WWE goes from here

Sound the alarms, we have our first emergency gathering of the Uncrowned Horsemen! Unless you’ve been living under a Rock (see what we did there?), you know the WWE world was turned upside down on Saturday night, with John Cena doing the unthinkable and turning heel for the first time in his legendary career. If the Royal Rumble was the official kickoff to the Road to WrestleMania 41, Elimination Chamber and Cena’s stunner put us on the highway doing about 90 in the left lane.

So with it being safe to say that no one saw this coming, Robert Jackman, Drake Riggs and Anthony Sulla-Heffinger are here to make sense of the chaos and plot out where this craziness goes from here.

1. Where does the Cena shocker rank in WWE heel turn lore?

Sulla-Heffinger: I think a lot of the placement and reaction to this will vary based on age, but I am going to slot this right in the middle of the Hulk Hogan turn at Bash at the Beach in 1996 and Seth Rollins betraying the Shield in June 2014. Hogan joining Scott Hall and Kevin Nash kicked off arguably the greatest storyline in the greatest era of professional wrestling and was about as unthinkable as anything up to that point in the history of the industry. It was a monumental risk that paid off better than anyone could've imagined at the time, so it'll almost always rank No. 1 on my list of shocking moments in wrestling history.

As for Rollins’ flip, while it was and always will be a monumental moment in WWE history, Rollins, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley) have accomplished so much more since that, so the June 2, 2014 episode of “WWE Raw” is less of a defining moment than another highlight in careers filled with them. Considering how the industry has evolved over the past 20 years, Cena was probably as close to Hogan as you could get in terms of pure babyfaces in professional wrestling, and despite turns being teased and rumored for more than a decade, it seemed hard to believe WWE would pull the trigger with roughly three dozen dates remaining in the legend’s career. Yet, here we are.

Cena’s turn also has the added benefit of the true presence of social media and instant meme culture to push it to new heights.

Riggs: What a world we live in. John Cena turning still doesn't feel like a real thing to me, and I stand by it never happening if he was a full-timer. This was the perfect way to get away with it. The two biggest Hollywood converts from WWE history aligning out of selfish (soulless) desires? Not too bad at all, Triple H. Not too bad.

This whole thing really hits home for me because Cena was my childhood as a wrestling fan. I grew up as one of the kids — to an extent — that everyone is talking about him abandoning with this move. Like most, I grew sick of him after so much time on top, hoping for a change in character. People should remember that Cena's Dr. of Thuganomics gimmick was essentially a heel character. He wasn't fully booked that way though, and the fans loved it, leading to that persona getting shed. Even when we saw little glimpses of it in recent years just for one-offs, it wasn't what happened at Elimination Chamber.

Cena's heel turn is the pinnacle for me. My favorite and one that will always be my go-to reference is Batista turning on Evolution, but that was a face turn, and predictable. Nothing comes to mind that is as stunning as Cena. Where Stone Cold Steve Austin's turn peaks in shock value, it lacked in execution. That was also simply right before my time, so it would feel wrong to choose that.

Thanks to the circumstances, Cena was heel for one night against Rob Van Dam at ECW One Night Stand. Outside of that, I never imagined a time like this coming down the pipeline so fittingly.

Jackman: It is an absolutely massive twist. It’s hard to think of a single play in modern wrestling that would feel bigger in terms of overturning everything we’ve learned over the years. Of course, John Cena is presented as the all-American good guy; that’s just how things work, right?

As far as where it ranks in heel turn infamy, I really think that Hollywood Hogan is the most apt comparison here. We’ve seen some shockers over the years with Seth Rollins and others, but they still made sense within the wider storyline, usually with someone turning on their old faction. This is a total rug-pull which basically tears up everything we thought we knew about John Cena as a human being, let alone a wrestler.

I think the proof of its significance is the way it’s being noticed by casual fans. I’m sure we’ve all seen the posts on social media of people showing texts from friends or relatives who haven’t watched the product for years suddenly saying “Wait, John Cena went heel?” That shows you what a seismic change this was.

2. How does this play out? Book out the ideal Cena heel run.

Jackman: This is the million dollar question. These sudden heel turns always hit hard in the moment, but they can fizzle out quickly if you don’t book them correctly. Just look at the New Day twist, which felt like prestige television when it happened, but has lost steam ever since.

I think the starting point is that this has to feel like a genuine evolution to Cena’s character. We need to know what pushed him to this point. The best heel turns are those which have their roots in logic, rather than just being a cartoonish embrace of the dark side.

I wonder if one idea would be to tie it to that longstanding losing streak which Cena himself referenced on the Netflix debut. Maybe he could cut some promos about how trying to please the fans only led to him losing, but by rediscovering his ruthless aggression he was able to win the Chamber.

As for the retirement tour, I’ll stick to the more conservative path here and say that Cena should not beat Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41. My reading of that particular situation is that it’s about a longer-term play for Cody vs. The Rock at WrestleMania 42, after “The Final Boss” decides that — having failed to defeat Rhodes by proxy for two years running — he is now throwing down the gauntlet himself.

A 17th world title win still feels inevitable to me, but later in the year. If heel Cena is here to stay, then perhaps the most powerful option would be for him to beat Jey Uso (who would have to win at WrestleMania) for the World Heavyweight Championship.

That also gives WWE a chance to go full circle with what happened at the Rumble, which they can present as the genesis of Cena's heel turn. Remember Cena’s quizzical expression when his feet actually hit the floor? Perhaps that was the moment that something inside him finally snapped.

Sulla-Heffinger: So I think there are a lot of people — including myself — who owe Dwayne Johnson a bit of an apology for doubting the creative direction of “The Final Boss” since he demanded Cody Rhodes’ soul two Fridays ago. This has worked incredibly and sets up one of the biggest years — not just WrestleManias — in recent memory.

With CM Punk and Rollins seemingly on a path toward their own WrestleMania 41 clash, Jey Uso locked in his feud with World Heavyweight Champion Gunther and Sami Zayn on the mend, Rhodes is running out of allies against Cena and “The Final Boss” quickly. The obvious answer here is that Reigns aligns himself with "The American Nightmare" and we get a tag-team match between all four at SummerSlam later this year. But I ask, where’s the fun in predicting the obvious?

Let’s assume Reigns doesn’t get involved until later in the year and instead injects himself into the Rollins-Punk feud to pay off the Royal Rumble tease. Rhodes can go into his WrestleMania match against Cena solo, and as he’s inevitably getting beaten down by Cena and The Rock, Allegiant Stadium becomes illuminated in green and tens of thousands of fans erupt as we hear “It’s Time to Play the Game.” Triple H’s in-ring career is over because of a medical issue, but he could don his leather jacket one more time, swing the sledgehammer a few times and hit a Pedigree to keep Rhodes as the face of WWE.

Johnson has spoken — and practiced — straddling the line between kayfabe and reality in his dual roles as a TKO board member and on-screen character. Triple H can do the same — and honestly the poetry of Rhodes having destroyed Trips’ throne and then needing his help to stay atop it is S-tier storytelling, if you ask me.

Riggs: The possibilities couldn't be any more limitless, and it's hard for me to imagine Cena's heel run not going beyond 2025. Cena may not have to wrestle beyond this year, but he'll stay involved.

Ultimately, the people against the authority is always a winning formula, and that's why this storyline can make for a quality, Hollywood anti-hero variation of the NWO. To swipe a reference from the series "The Boys," Cody Rhodes is the good guy in a sea of Homelanders, and from here, Cena and The Rock establish a complete takeover of the company.

We're selling souls to make history here, folks. Cena makes history and defeats Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 with the help of The Rock and another wildly over individual right now, Jey Uso, who both Cena and The Rock help win the World Heavyweight Championship because Uso simply can't beat Gunther alone. Cena then becomes the new Brock Lesnar titleholder, showing up on television once a month and only to defend the belt, scraping by time after time. Eventually, the egos can no longer co-exist — The Rock wants that title. He wants the "Tribal Chief" status. He wants it all. Rock cuts Cena's legs out from under him at SummerSlam to take the throne, leading to CM Punk vs. the man who stole his WrestleMania main event all those years ago — The Rock vs. CM Punk across the marquee at WrestleMania 42.

I like Anthony's usage of Triple H, and some injection of that into my booking makes plenty of sense too. But we're going far out of left field now, so we'll leave it there. Again, limitless possibilities.