Cody Rhodes is set to headline his third straight WrestleMania. (Credit: WWE/WWE via Getty Images)
Cody Rhodes rejected The Rock’s offer to sell his soul at WWE Elimination Chamber 2025, but The Rock had a backup plan: John Cena.
Moments after Rhodes’ NSFW rejection of “The Final Boss,” WWE fans in Toronto witnessed one of the most shocking heel turns in WWE history. Cena, the 16-time world champion, hugged Rhodes, only to eerily smirk at The Rock while displaying a throat slash gesture, blast Rhodes with a low blow and then lay a vicious beatdown on Rhodes.
Never has the saying “never say never” applied in pro wrestling more than it did at Elimination Chamber when Cena did what fans have been begging him to do for well over a decade.
In what critics described as a “bizarre” segment on last week’s SmackDown, The Rock rambled on and on before ultimately telling Rhodes that he wanted his “soul.” The strange interaction left fans baffled as to what The Rock meant and why he appeared out of nowhere to get involved with Rhodes after seemingly burying the hatchet with the WWE Champion on Raw’s premiere on Netflix.
The increasingly odd storyline between The Rock and Rhodes was only further muddied when The Rock said during the post-SmackDown press conference that it doesn’t have to “culminate into a match.” While The Rock doesn’t appear to be stepping into the ring at WrestleMania 41 like he did at WrestleMania 40, his overwhelming presence has been felt, nonetheless.
At Elimination Chamber in Toronto, The Rock and Rhodes once again interacted in a significant segment that confirmed that maybe the The Rock was right in saying he doesn’t have to wrestle Rhodes, after all.
Why? Because Cena will do that for him.
John Cena Finally Turns Heel At WWE Elimination Chamber
The ultimate tease so far has been a Rhodes heel turn, but with Rhodes being the No. 1 star during WWE’s biggest boom period ever, that would have been a shocking swerve. The only more unpredictable curveball? Cena, WWE’s poster boy for much of the past two decades, doing the same.
Who, in a million years, could have envisioned that Cena would “sell his soul” to The Rock? As The Rock’s “Final Boss” persona has now morphed into a blend of that gimmick and his legitimate role on the Board of Directors of TKO, the company that controls both WWE and UFC, WWE needed someone to fill The Rock’s shoes as the top heel at WrestleMania 41.
Enter Cena, who is unexpectedly doing what The Rock did roughly 25 years ago when he turned heel at the peak of his popularity.
The Rock And John Cena Join Forces In Recreation Of Attitude Era Storyline
Once referred to as “The People’s Champion,” The Rock famously became a corporate sellout during the Attitude Era when he was the WWE Champion and the top star of The Corporation, a McMahon family-led heel stable that did anything and everything to protect its investment in The Rock. This whole storyline is clearly a callback to that one, with The Rock now more of an on-screen authority figure than a wrestler.
The Rock was the beloved fan favorite who turned heel then. In 2025, as bizarre as this sounds, it’s Cena taking that role.
In tonight’s main event, the men’s Elimination Chamber match, Cena took his first step toward regaining the top spot in WWE when he made Punk pass out in the STF and secured his WrestleMania 41 title match. Step two was joining forces with The Rock, one of his greatest rivals, to potentially ensure a record-breaking 17th world title win.
Fantasy bookers wanted this to happen, but hardly anyone actually saw it coming to fruition.
There are relatively few main event level babyfaces whose potential heel turn would send shockwaves throughout WWE and the pro wrestling industry in general. Roman Reigns’ heel turn in 2020 did that, and Cena, one of the biggest stars ever in the midst of his retirement tour, is the ideal candidate to follow suit.
Cena taking up The Rock on his offer goes against everything he says he stands for, which is precisely why it could ultimately work out well. Of course, Cena vs. Rhodes sounds like a tremendous WrestleMania main event on paper, too, a bout that WWE fans would be easily invested in given how popular Cena and Rhodes have been at their peaks.
With Rhodes infamously rejecting The Rock at Elimination Chamber, there was no bigger move than a top star doing what Rhodes didn’t do at Elimination Chamber and joining The Rock as the 2025 version of the corporate sellout.
But to think that it was Cena instead of CM Punk or Drew McIntyre at WWE Elimination Chamber? Well, that’s a shocker for the ages.
Read the full article here