Brian Gewirtz made an appearance on The Ringer Wrestling Show to discuss a wide range of topics.
During it, the former WWE head writer explained why Vince McMahon didn’t want to turn John Cena when he was a top star:
“Yes. For sure. There was a time. We all did. We did push plenty of times for John to turn heel. There was a lot of reasoning going into it. Vince was tempted. He was very tempted a couple of times, but ultimately, there was the merch and everything John does. John himself said when approached with the idea, he was like, and this is what is so great about John, is he was like, ‘Ok, listen. If you want to turn me heel, if that’s what Vince says you guys want to do, I’ll do it, but just so you know, I will go full boar heel. There won’t be any of that, oh, he’s a fun heel, he’s a cool heel, he’s winking at the audience, heel. He is going to go full heel.’”
“I think Vince was like, John is captain of the ship here. There’s the issue of who he would work with? Who would replace him as the top babyface? The merchandise and everything else John does off screen. So, ultimately, Vince didn’t want to pull the trigger on that. I think he made the right decision because John has been the standard bearer.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription