Opinion: Nikki Bella is the Key to Turning John Cena Heel

How many times has John Cena been rumored to turn heel over the last decade?

Many WWE fans have been begging Cena to turn heel for several years now because his face character has become repetitive and bland for a vast majority of fans. There have been numerous opportunities for Cena to turn heel, but ever single one has passed him by for one reason or another.

The problem is Cena’s character has such a moral code of “Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect” that for him to turn heel, he’d have to completely revamp the character. That wouldn’t happen, considering that Superman can’t change his moral code. That’s what makes him Superman in the first place.

Unfortunately, Superman has a great weakness. There will always be kryptonite, but even more than that, Superman is a good person deep down to his core. That forces him to make choices to protect people or defend his beliefs when he should act or make other decisions. This also makes John Cena a flawed character.

What if John Cena’s moral code was able to stay the same, but there was a shift in his persona that allowed him to turn heel without losing the integrity of the character. The key to a John Cena heel turn has been by his side for three years now, WWE just hasn’t acknowledged it on television yet.

John Cena and Nikki Bella have been a WWE power couple for three years. Their romance is a consistent storyline on Total Divas. Other than fighting about marriage and children, the couple appears to be happy.

However, WWE television has managed to keep their relationship off the screen entirely and for good reason. Nikki Bella has been a heel for the majority of her career and John Cena is John Cena.

On paper, those two characters together wouldn’t make much sense unless WWE had the intention of changing one of their personas. Both Cena and Nikki are away from WWE programming right now.

Nikki is coming off the longest reigning Divas Championship title reign in wWE history. Cena is coming off his second run as the United States Champion. There isn’t a better time for these two to acknowledge their relationship and bring their romance to WWE television.

Naturally, John Cena will return a face. However, I think Nikki could return as a face if Cena presented her as the love of his life. During Cena’s return promo, he gets the crowd riled up, does his thing, and speaks passionately about his love for this woman. When it turns out to be Nikki, I think the fans would embrace her.

On WWE television, that would explain both of their absences. Suddenly, Nikki is Cena’s valet, and their love is on display for the entire world to see. They’d be amazing together, and their chemistry would be off the charts.

Maybe, Cena can regain the US title. Maybe, the couple forms a tag team and begin to wrestle together on a regular basis. Everything can go well for them until something occurs to cause friction.

Suddenly, they start losing matches. Nikki’s character begins to stray from the good girl act, and the pressure is on Cena heading into the Royal Rumble. Somehow, Nikki costs Cena the match and gets him eliminated.

Nikki is apologetic and like the good guy that he is, John forgives her. However, the gears have shifted for Bella. Suddenly, the heel persona shines through and soon she has her claws into Cena.

Little by little, she breaks him down until he’s losing matches he shouldn’t be. Cena’s passion for the business isn’t as strong as it used to be, but it’s never been stronger for her. Without even realizing it, Nikki Bella is controlling John Cena.

His fans are turning on him because the character is still motivated by love, hustle loyalty and respect, but now his focus is on Nikki Bella, not the WWE or it’s fans. John Cena is a slave to his passion.

In a perfect world, this storyline would set up Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena at Wrestlemania 32 with a Bella in each corner. Honestly, anyone with a strong submission finisher would do because, in front of eighty-thousand people, Bryan has Cena in the “Yes Lock”, but this time Cena quits and submits to Bryan at Wrestlemania 32.

First of all, whoever forces Cena to submit in a match for the first time in over a decade is going to be super over in WWE after Mania. For John Cena, he’s abandoned his code, and he’s blinded by his love for Nikki.

From there the character can change as WWE creative sees fit. That could lead to Nikki Bella vs. John Cena, or even allow Cena to embrace a heel persona, change his moral code, and make Bella and Cena a power couple that gets to the top in dominant fashion.

Turning John Cena heel isn’t difficult, but it’s one of the best stories WWE would ever tell after Cena’s decade as a top face. His heel run would be inspired by love and Cena’s ability on the microphone to make the villainous Nikki Bella appeal to John Cena fans before realizing that he’s the kryptonite that took him away.

This heel turn for Cena would bring new life to his character, allow him to be passionate on the microphone about something new, and make Nikki Bella the top heel in the industry at the side of it’s top face. It’s a great story, and there are so many ways to tell it. WWE just needs to put Cena and Nikki Bella on TV together.