WWE Hall of Famer JBL was a guest on an episode of the Something To Wrestle With podcast, where he discussed various topics, including why John Cena’s heel turn failed to meet expectations.
JBL said, “I think sometimes when you draw something up it’s a great plan, and all of a sudden it doesn’t work. And I think that’s what it was. You know, I’ve been in a million different planning sessions where you plan stuff. In sports, you plan something. You think you’ve got this great play, you think you’ve got this great strategy or in business or in sports or anything. And all of a sudden you put it out there on the field or the ring or wherever you put it out there to implement it, and it doesn’t work like you thought it would. And I think that’s what happened here. You got one of the, arguably the greatest of all time in John Cena. Certainly on the Mount Rushmore of almost anybody’s Mount Rushmore for people. And he had something that was not resonating, I didn’t think it was resonating. As well as, people wanted to see Cena. I’m not sure they wanted to see the heel side. I think they just wanted to like, ‘You know what? We just love this guy. We want to see him.’”
On whether we will see The Rock back on WWE TV:
“Yeah, I definitely think we’ll see The Rock in the ring again. I would bet everything on that. You know, Rock loves being in the ring. And it’s not just a matter of ego. I mean, the guy’s the biggest movie star in the world. He’s making a freaking fortune. It’s not about ego, I don’t believe. It may be. You know, anybody who’s a huge star whether it’s Jordan or Bill Russell or anybody out there — Schwarzenegger, when he was on top of the world back in the ’90s? They all have a huge ego. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s why they’re big stars, because they’re driven to be the best in the world. I think The Rock loves to be in the ring. And so — I say I have no doubt. There’s always a little bit of a doubt, but I pretty much have close to zero doubt that Rock’s gonna be in the ring again.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
