Why did WWE & Vince McMahon never turn John Cena heel?

John Cena is the greatest babyface of all time, who we never saw as a heel since he turned babyface in 2003. He has been celebrated by the fans, seen him as a role model, connected him to one among them and made him the greatest wrestler of all time. However, there was a time, where Cena was bullied by the crowd, who were sick of him. There were multiple requests on the internet to make Cena a heel and there were multiple rumors of him turning heel. But it didn’t happen. Here is the real reason why Cena was not turned heel by WWE and Vince McMahon, despite huge requests.

John Cena himself revealed

John Cena at The Pat McAfee show in Jan 2022 during the promotion of The Pacemaker, revealed that when he had a feud with The Rock, he pitched Vince about him turning heel instead of Rock to which Vince said, “Listen, I don't think we're ever gonna do it."

According to John Cena’s belief, he believes that as people always see him in uniform, with a ball cap, t-shirt, jean shorts, sneakers, which people always see him as somebody they can relate to. So if he turns heel, Vince sees it as being “stuck at both the ends”.

No Heel turn for Cena

WWE’s head writer Brian Girwitz in an interview with The Cheap Heat Podcast in November 2022 revealed the actual reason why he was not turned heel.

Brian Girwitz says,

“There was a time. We did push plenty of times for John to turn heel. There was a lot of reasoning going into it. Vince was tempted. He was very tempted a couple of times, but ultimately, there was the merch and everything John does.”

“John himself said when approached with the idea, he was like, and this is what is so great about John, is he was like, ‘Ok, listen. If you want to turn me heel, if that’s what Vince says you guys want to do, I’ll do it, but just so you know, I will go full boar heel. There won’t be any of that, oh, he’s a fun heel, he’s a cool heel, he’s winking at the audience, heel. He is going to go full heel.’

I think Vince was like, John is captain of the ship here. There’s the issue of who he would work with. Who would replace him as the top babyface? The merchandise and everything else John does off-screen. So, ultimately, Vince didn’t want to pull the trigger on that. I think he made the right decision because John has been the standard bearer.”

Cena is a perfect babyface and it is hard to see him turning heel against the WWE Universe. Since he is nearing retirement, turning heel is a no meaner for the greatest babyface of all time.