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New Report Details When & Who Made The Call To Turn John Cena Heel At WWE Elimination Chamber

The last real WWE Champion could have turned heel at WrestleMania 41, but the call was reportedly made to do it at Elimination Chamber instead.
Rick Ucchino|
Who made the call to turn John Cena heel?
Who made the call to turn John Cena heel? | WWE Twitter

As the dust still settles from a wild WrestleMania 41 weekend in Las Vegas, more information continues to surface surrounding the build to this year's 'Showcase of the Immortals.'

The top program culminated in John Cena winning his 17th World Championship in the main event this past Sunday night, with a major assist from rapper Travis Scott.

The Rock was not in Sin City for the big moment, despite being heavily involved in Cena's heel turn at Elimination Chamber. The Final Boss told Pat McAfee why he wasn't there earlier this week, and now we have a better understanding of why WWE didn't wait a little longer to pull the trigger on Cena's betrayal of Cody Rhodes.

"There was the decision about John Cena on the day of [Elimination Chamber] on whether the turn was going to be that day or whether they were going to save the turn for WrestleMania. That was John Cena's decision. He made the call to do it. Levesque makes the final call, but John Cena was the one."

Veteran pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer was the one who was able to shine some light on the decision making process during the run up to Elimination Chamber.

On the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer recalled the late schedule adjustment for the Chamber prior to going on the air last month in Toronto.

"If you remember the day of the show, the segment with Dwayne was originally going to be after the first or second match, it was not going to be after the [Chamber]. That's because they were not going to be doing the turn that night, the turn was going to be at Mania. And then John wanted to do the turn that night, so they moved the segment to the end of the show."

The last real WWE Champion has 27 dates remaining on his retirement tour. A first title defense has not been scheduled, but if what happened this past Monday night was any indication, John Cena has one last date with Randy Orton in the very near future. Perhaps as soon as Backlash next month in St. Louis.

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Rick Ucchino
RICK UCCHINO

Rick Ucchino is the Assistant Editor & Content Coordinator for The Takedown on SI. He also works full-time for 700WLW Radio in Cincinnati, Ohio as a local news and sports anchor, in addition to his time covering the Cincinnati Bengals for Sirius XM. Rick has been on the professional wrestling beat since 2019, having provided coverage for a number of outlets, including Fightful, SB Nation’s Cageside Seats and the Bleav Podcast Network. With an educational background in theater, creative writing and journalism, Rick focuses primarily on the storytelling aspect of pro wrestling, but he’s no stranger to the squared circle himself. He had the privilege of training with former WWE & WCW cruiserweight Jimmy Wang Yang for nearly two years and retired early due to back issues with a perfect 1-0 record in singles competition. Rick is a married father of two incredibly adorable children, who are budding pro wrestling fans themselves. Much to the chagrin of their mother. You can reach Rick at rwucchino@gmail.com

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