Rikishi Believes John Cena’s Heel Turn Was “Good For Business”

WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi appeared on his Off The Top podcast, where he discussed several topics, including John Cena’s heel turn.

Rikishi said, “Well, it’s good for business. My goodness… It was written so well. This is John Cena’s last tour. And so the whole world was behind this guy because of what he’s given to the business. We’ve seen it, we’ve heard it numerous times. Probably one of the most iconic, loved professional wrestling superstars in history. To be able to just, out of the blue — boy, when he hugged Cody, and he’s looking at Rock, his face changed. It was like a demon. It’s just like a demon came up into John. And all that rage of whatever it is that made him throw away all those people’s love and support — supported him through the years, and he sold out. If WrestleMania wasn’t already a hit anyways, Yeet-Mania wasn’t a hit anyways? Well dammit, here comes John Cena and Cody Rhodes. I’ll be honest, I’m a fan of Cody, but I’m not like a ‘Stone Cold’ type of fan, like an Undertaker type of fan, a Randy ‘Macho Man’ type of fan. Those people are different. Cody’s good, he’s a good role model. But there was something that was missing for Cody, just to get people Cody full 100%. The one thing about wrestling fans, they don’t like to be fooled. They don’t like their intelligence to be played with, their mindset because they’re smart. But not one wrestling fan, even myself, seen that coming. All of us, it shocked the whole world. It made people that don’t watch professional wrestling — because all the sudden, you know John Cena’s a well-known guy in and out the squared circle. And news all across the entertainment world… besides the professional wrestling world. So hey, I think ‘Boy, oh boy.’ I kind of see Thugonomics coming back to the roots. It’s gonna be a good one. I guess when you think you know it all in the business man, you actually don’t. Because that was a good swerve.”

On whether Cena will go back to his Thuganomics days:

“We all want to hold onto the type of John Cena back in the day. But because how the Final Boss is moving, we can also see how the Final Boss, what he’s wearing. Him and Travis Scott came out. Travis Scott is Travis Scott. But you see the drip they got on. So I almost kinda see — John Cena will be John Cena. But to make John Cena relevant to the new era with this new heel turn, I would love to see a John Cena with the new drip. We all have longevity. All the kids back in the day, even some of my kids, my grandkids there was always John Cena with the jerseys, the padlock chain on. But to add on to that collection of the real hardcore fans of just professional wrestling in general for John Cena, it’d be nice to have a new action figure of the new drip of the John Cena, the heel John Cena. He’s been heel before but dammit, it wasn’t no heel turn like we’ve just seen.”

You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.

(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)