Triple H on John Cena heel turn: ‘It’s a challenge to him’

Paul “Triple H” Levesque says John Cena was fully on board with turning heel when the idea was presented to him.

Speaking to Mail Sport at WWE’s European tryouts, Levesque said it would have been easy for Cena to spend his retirement year “playing the greatest hits,” but said the 16-time World Champion is not a complacent person.

“You always want to approach things like the ‘what ifs.’ You have a blank slate and John’s amazing.”

“John comes in and goes, ‘I’m gonna come in for that year and then I’m gonna be done. Whatever we want to do in there, let’s go.’ So you begin to have those conversations. What is the absolute biggest possible thing we can do?”

Asked if it took Cena much convincing, Levesque responded:

“No. It was a conversation — without getting into the details — it was a conversation that when it was brought up, everybody… I think in John’s mind he was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t think you were going to say that. I love it.’’

“It’s a challenge to him. John’s not a complacent person,” he continued.

Cena turned heel in the closing moments of WWE Elimination Chamber last month in Toronto. The original plan, however, was for the big moment to take place at WrestleMania. In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that WWE initially planned for Cena to win the Chamber match, but not to be involved in the segment with Cody Rhodes and The Rock.

“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,” Meltzer wrote.

Cena has appeared live on two episodes of WWE Raw since Elimination Chamber and is scheduled to come face-to-face with Cody Rhodes on tonight’s show from the O2 Arena in London. On last week’s episode, Cena promised to win the WWE title at WrestleMania and retire with it.