The Rock Reacts To John Cena’s Heel Turn, Reveals Whether He’s A Heel Or Babyface, Here’s What He Told Cena After The Show

During Saturday night’s WWE Elimination Chamber: Toronto pay-per-view event, John Cena turned heel and joined forces with The Rock after winning the 2025 men’s Elimination Chamber match.

Cena and The Rock assaulted Cody Rhodes after The American Nightmare refused to sell his soul to The Final Boss.

During the post-2025 WWE Elimination Chamber media scrum, The Rock commented on Cena’s heel turn, the newly formed heel alliance, and more.

You can check out some highlights from the post-show media scrum below:

On John Cena’s heel turn: “It was an amazing moment. We as entertainers, whether in pro wrestling or film or television, you really live for moments like that where you can hopefully create something that can be very compelling and moving for the audience and take 38,000 strong in Toronto and what we have collectively thought about and talked about in the back, before and certainly after this moment, no one knew really what was going to happen. Maybe if you called it, but for the most part, I thought the moment was incredible and I personally love that. I’ve been around the block in terms of being a pro wrestler. I love this business. What I felt tonight, and I’ve been a part of some really phenomenal professional wrestling angle, and as a kid growing up, I’ve seen some amazing pro wrestling angles. I felt like tonight stood beside all of those that were iconic angles.”

On where the angle ranks among the iconic angles in wrestling history: “What I felt tonight, and I’ve been a part of some really phenomenal pro-wrestling angles, and as a kid growing up, I’ve seen some amazing pro-wrestling angles. I felt like tonight stood beside all of those that were the iconic angles, so it was really incredible. Overall, I thought the performances by everybody across the board, all the women, all the men, they put it out there, and I’m very proud of them.”

On if the Final Boss is a heel or a babyface: “The Final Boss is a lot of things. He’s a heel, he’s a babyface, but also, he’s one who doesn’t adhere to the typical pro-wrestling tropes that we find of, oh, a heel talks like this, or a babyface talks like this.”

On how he loves long term storytelling: “I’m a long gamer, and I like long gaming, and I like creating with Paul, with Brian Gewirtz, and Maya Lasry, who is on my side of the team, and I like creating with Paul and his team as well. We’re long gamers.”

On how they discussed being flexible if the crowd pushed them into a different direction: “This crowd tonight was exceptional. And without getting too far into the weeds, we had discussed, hey, let’s be prepared with how this crowd is going to be, because when you go into something like this, this crowd tonight, they’re waiting, they know something is going to happen, it’s building up, we have the Elimination Chamber, all these matches that we have put together, that we have advertised, but then at the end, is our number one hero going to give his soul to the Final Boss. What’s going to happen? And so we had all collectively discussed, let’s be prepared, if the crowd goes this way, don’t stay on track, don’t be rigid, let’s be flexible, and let’s just see. I had to do that with Hogan when we had our match. For those that don’t know, we had a big match at WrestleMania 18, I was the big babyface at that time, Hogan was the big heel, the moment we locked up, crowd turned, and at that time, I think there were about 60,000 people here, I think the setup was different, and I became the heel within two minutes of the match, so I had to adjust, Hogan and I. So we went into tonight being flexible, amenable, let’s see if we have to shift and turn. This crowd tonight was unbelievable.”

On what he told John Cena tonight after the show: “I told him as he left, by the way, he flew in today, this morning, from Budapest, he’s flying out right now to Africa to continue, so that’s a level of commitment. And I told him as he left, I said, we say two things in our wrestling vernacular. He said, ‘Hey, thank you for the house’, and I said, ‘I’m proud of you’. It’s a big deal.”

On what his Waffle House order is: “A dozen eggs, but only 10 egg whites, two whole eggs, do the hash browns, I’ll do the waffle, scattered, smothered, covered.”

On his Bad Blood 2024 cameo: “It meant something. I’m a long gamer. I like long gaming. I like creating with Paul [Levesque] and Brian Gewirtz and Maya Lasry, who is on my side of the team. I like creating with Paul and his team as well. We’re long gamers. A lot thought Bad Blood, when I just did a small subtle thing, there was a lot of criticism, ‘Oh, it didn’t mean anything.’ It did. It’s okay. It’s okay if you’re not thinking about it now, but just trust me when I tell you, we are thinking about this stuff and long gaming this. Same thing when we opened up with Netflix in LA when I came out at the Director of the Board and welcomed everybody and thanked Cody Rhodes for carrying the company. I gave him dap and a big hug. I knew this night was coming. We are long gaming.”

On Travis Scott potentially teaming up with him and John Cena: “Yes, absolutely. That’s why we’re doing it. Long gaming. I love Travis. That’s my guy. Where we have expanded to in WWE, I feel like professional wrestling has always found its unique place in culture throughout the decades. We remember Rock N Wrestling, Cyndi Lauper, Hulk Hogan, we remember the Attitude Era. Pro wrestling has had its place in culture for some time. I think we are tapping in to a unique time now, I’m not quite sure what we name this era, we’ll all figure it out. Someone will come up with something cool, I’ll say it and take credit for it. I feel like with Travis, he loves the business and loves pro wrestling. He’s a culture guy. Travis Scott is one of the greatest already, of all time. He’s a GOAT, a legend, an icon, he loves the business. We get guys and girls like that who want to come in and who are already tapping into the culture and disrupting culture in their own cool way. They want to come in, have fun at the show. Maybe they want to sit and enjoy or be on camera. But some want to get involved. Some, like Travis, deeply want to get involved. That’s what you saw tonight. We have this opportunity to create this big moment in pro wrestling that is arguably one of the biggest, maybe the biggest, and we had an opportunity to bring Travis Scott in too and start to form a union and an alliance with The Final Boss and Travis Scott. He wanted to get, to steal a term, he wanted to get his hands bloody. I whispered to him as we were going out, ‘if you get your hands bloody, make it count. Make it count.’ He slapped the s*it out of Cody. He was really hyped up. Travis landed, we went in, had some words, chopped up what the night was going to look like, and I caught a contact high for about three hours, and I loved it. I need Travis every time I do an appearance. Travis smoke with Teremana, it’s game over.”