“WWE Made a Joke of ”Itself”—Ex-Writer Rips John Cena’s Failed Heel Turn, Calls Creative Team Clueless

Former WWE head writer Vince Russo isn’t holding back when it comes to John Cena’s short-lived heel run—and he thinks WWE embarrassed itself in the process.

Cena briefly turned heel earlier this year during his farewell tour, with The Rock pulling the strings at Elimination Chamber 2025. That shocking twist even led to Cena capturing his record-breaking 17th world title. But just as quickly as it began, the heel run was dead. By SummerSlam, Cena was back to being the smiling hero, admitting the darker turn wasn’t even his vision.

On Writing with Russo, the outspoken former writer blasted WWE’s top creative minds—Triple H, Bruce Prichard, Michael Hayes, The Rock, and even Cena himself—for hyping up a storyline that they had no intention of following through with.

“I was watching Unreal the other day,” Russo said. “They were patting themselves on the back like geniuses for turning Cena heel. Six months later, the whole thing is dead, and now they just look like idiots who had no clue what they were doing.”

Russo compared their obsession with plotting Cena’s heel turn to a meeting of world leaders deciding on nuclear war.

“Bro, the way they were consumed with this… you would’ve thought they were about to press the button for World War III. At the end of the day, it’s a TV show. Just an angle for a TV show.”

Now back in his babyface role, Cena is gearing up for one of the biggest matches of his legendary career — a clash against Brock Lesnar at WrestlePalooza.