The Rock reportedly wanted Cody Rhodes to turn heel before ‘The American Nightmare’ turned the idea down.
At Elimination Chamber, fans watched on to see whether Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes would sell his soul to The Rock to become a corporate champion. Instead, viewers around the world were stunned when it was John Cena who aligned himself with ‘The Final Boss’ to turn heel for the first time in over 21 years. Now, an update has emerged indicating that things could’ve been very different if The Rock’s initial idea had come to fruition.
Per Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it’s believed that The Rock originally wanting Cody Rhodes to turn heel and side with him before ‘The American Nightmare’ turned it down.
“Dwayne Johnson legit, when he wasn’t going to wrestle, and decided to be a part of the Mania build, wanted to be aligned with Rhodes with Rhodes going heel. There are those in the company who believed the only thing that could have hurt the company would have been a Rhodes heel turn at this time. Rhodes turned down the idea, and they went to Cena as the second choice.
-Dave Meltzer
It was also noted by Meltzer that, once it was decided that Cena would turn, it was initially pencilled in to take place at WrestleMania 41 before things changed on the day of Elimination Chamber.
“The plan was that the Cena turn with Rock would have been saved for WrestleMania’s finish. The idea is that once the decision was made, during the day, to do it on this show, then obviously it had to go on last.”
-Dave Meltzer
Cena’s heel turn went down as one of the most shocking moments in WWE history, with all attention now turning to WrestleMania 41. Following Elimination Chamber, Cena is set to take on Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship as he looks to win a record-breaking 17th world championship in Las Vegas.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on John Cena’s heel turn as soon as we hear more.
