Original plans for John Cena’s heel turn at WWE Elimination Chamber

John Cena turning on Cody Rhodes was not the originally planned finish for WWE Elimination Chamber 2025.

Dave Meltzer addressed backstage news regarding the angle in Friday’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Meltzer noted that Cena’s heel turn was initially set to happen at WrestleMania, and the segment featuring The Rock and Cody Rhodes at Elimination Chamber was originally scheduled to take place earlier in the show.

“During the day, when they were putting the show together, this segment was listed as coming after the Trish Stratus & Tiffany Stratton vs. Nia Jax & Candice LeRae tag match,” Meltzer wrote, adding that the Rock/Rhodes segment going on last was decided just hours before the show.

Meltzer continued:

“The segment as laid out would have Rhodes turn Rock down, but Cena wouldn’t be involved and would win the chamber. The plan was that the Cena turn with Rock would have been saved for WrestleMania’s finish. The idea is that once the decision was made, during the day, to do it on this show, then obviously it had to go on last.”

Cena turning heel was not The Rock’s first idea for his involvement at WrestleMania. Rock’s original plan was for Rhodes to turn heel and align with him leading up to the match with Cena. Rhodes turned down this idea and the decision was made to go with Cena turning heel instead.

“This angle was art imitating life to a degree,” Meltzer continued. “Dwayne Johnson legit, when he wasn’t going to wrestle, and decided to be a part of the Mania build, wanted to be aligned with Rhodes with Rhodes going heel.”

“Rhodes turned down the idea, and they went to Cena as the second choice.”

Rhodes addressed Cena’s actions on last night’s WWE SmackDown. He said Cena thinks he is the last of his kind, but he’s not, and told him to “come get some” before his music played to end the segment.