After a surprising heel turn earlier this year at WrestleMania and months of turning on the crowd, JohnCena turned babyface with a promo on "WWE SmackDown"in front of Cody Rhodes. Following this, Cena came out with a smile on his face at SummerSlam 2025, where he ultimately lost the Undisputed WWE Championship to Rhodes, before BrockLesnar returned to WWE, and hit him with an F5 to set up one last rivalry.
On "Wrestling Observer Radio," Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez assessed Cena's face turn as well as Lesnar's return. "They dropped [Cena's heel story] because it sucked, but also, because a John Cena-Brock Lesnar program which is obviously what they're doing does work better with Brock Lesnar as the heel," Meltzer opined. Alvarez also expressed how Cena seems to wrestle better as a babyface than a heel, and suggested that this could be why they had him turn before the match.
According to Paul "Triple H" Levesque during the SummerSlam press conference, Lesnar's return was something that Cena directly asked for, and claimed that 'The Beast Incarnate's' name was on a list the 17-time World Champion gave to him with all the wrestlers he'd like to face again across his retirement tour. Levesque further claimed that everything so far has been Cena writing his last chapter and, right now, WWE is focused on letting Cena go out the way he wants to.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
