Triple H says John Cena kept WWE heel turn secret from wife and manager

John Cena’s heel turn was a closely guarded secret within WWE and outside of it.

The long-awaited heel turn happened last month at Elimination Chamber with WWE kickstarting the build to Cena vs. Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41. Their Undisputed WWE Championship match will headline night two of the event at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas this Sunday.

Ahead of WrestleMania, Paul “Triple H” Levesque sat down with Peter Rosenberg for an hour-long interview on WWE’s YouTube channel. Levesque said that only three people on the WWE executive/writing team knew that Cena would be turning — and he claimed that Cena did not even tell his wife or business manager in advance.

“We kept that so quiet that, on our side, three people on the exec team, from the writing staff, knew. That’s it — me and two others,” Levesque said. “Nobody else knew. Cena knew, obviously. Cena didn’t even tell his wife. Cena didn’t tell his manager. Cody knew. Cody told no one. Obviously Rock knew. Travis [Scott] sort of knew, but he was just f*cking going along, just being along for the ride. You know, doing exactly what they told him to do, which is at some point slap Cody. And he was f*cking slapping him whether Cena wanted it or not, because Cena didn’t know about that part.”

Cena, The Rock, and rap star Travis Scott joined forces to beat down Rhodes at Elimination Chamber. There hasn’t been any direct follow-up to their alliance on WWE programming yet. Scott is expected to be in attendance at WrestleMania, but it’s unconfirmed if The Rock will be there.

With Cena retiring from the ring in December 2025, this will be the final WrestleMania he ever competes at. He’ll become a 17-time WWE Champion if he wins the title from Rhodes.

Rosenberg’s full interview with Levesque can be watched below: