Former WWE Writer Reveals Why Vince McMahon Refused to Turn John Cena Heel

(Photo Credit: WWE)

Former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz recently appeared on the “Cheap Heat” podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling. Here are the highlights:

The writing team in WWE being very passionate:

Most of the writers there, especially the ones that have been there for a long time, are some of the most passionate, creative, and dare I say, ballsy people who’ve gotten into it with Vince, and have gotten into it with the talent, not in a ‘I know better than you way, but in a ‘I believe in this idea and I’m going to stand up for it, and I’m going to tell you the reasons why. I think we should try it.’ It’s always difficult when the internet wrestling community, to label it all under one umbrella, because there are a lot of different voices within it, but, I would say that that there is some stuff when you read about it, it’s like, ‘No one has the balls to challenge Vince. Him and his band of Yes Men are going to put out this crap.’ There’s many reasons why an angle, promo, storyline happens and many reasons why it doesn’t happen. But there’s a band of really, really talented people who are there who are the furthest thing from Yes Men.”

The beginnings of working with The Rock in WWE:

“Rock was different from the get go. There’s a mindset, and it’s not a wrong mindset. This was November of 1999, so it’s smack dab in the middle of The Attitude Era. WWE has taken over the ratings war. There are huge iconic stars, and a lot of those huge iconic stars don’t need the help of some 26-year old, alleged comic book fan helping them. But Rock always had the mindset of, ‘Look, I don’t know this guy, but I’ll give him a chance and see what he’s got. I’ll be over regardless. I have nothing to lose. So if he can help me, great, I’ll use that in my arsenal. That will just make me look better, and if he absolutely sucks, then I will just say, I got it, and I don’t need to work with him from there.’ So that broke the ice and made me feel super comfortable right away.”

On Edge and Christian:

“From a hanging out after the show perspective, Edge, Christian, and I are all the same age. We had similar tastes in a wise-ass mind set. In terms of socializing after the show, and I didn’t do a ton of it, but those are the people, Edge, Christian, and Jericho, that I found myself socializing with afterwards.”

If there was a push to ever turn John Cena heel:

“Yes. For sure. There was a time. We all did. 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.”

You can listen to the complete interview below:


(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)