My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 413 - JOHN CENA TURNS HEEL (FROM THE TOP ROPE WITH JARED CARRABIS)

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Robbie Fox and Jared Carrabis break down the John Cena heel turn, the entire #WWEChamber show, where we're at on the Road to #WrestleMania, CM Punk's promo on RAW, and more! **************************************** My Mom's Basement is a weekly podcast hosted by Robbie Fox, started in March 2019, to discuss movies, music, comic books, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and more with his friends and idols alike! Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-moms-basement/id1457255205 Follow Robbie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatrobbiefox Follow Robbie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobbieBarstool My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basementYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey, My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello and welcome to From the Top Rope presented by My Mom's Basement, presented by Barstool Sports. It is Robbie Fox and Jared Karappas, and we are here for a very special episode. I think some could say like the most special episode ever, and it's not a big interview or anything like that. It's just the news that we have to talk about is so surreal, so mind-blowing, still even like what 72 hours removed. I still feel like I haven't fully processed the John Cena heel turn. Now I did a video real quick the next morning 15 minutes stream of consciousness. It's on the channel but people got my instant reaction. Jared, I want your instant reaction to the heel

turn of a generation maybe so I was I was in Arizona for spring training and one of the guys on my team is a big wrestling fan Jeremy so he was at the dork party he was one of the Prosecco boys with a Steve section 10. So everyone else there, not a wrestling fan, they know who John Cena is, did not understand the significance. Like I tried to explain it to you the best that I could to paint the picture, but I'm watching it. And of course I've got Nate, Nate's texting me being like can't believe Dwayne setting himself up to be the main event and I was

like well yeah I was agreeing with him too yeah but like the counter to that is don't you think they have something crazy planned if the show is called Elimination Chamber and the rock segment is main eventing over the elimination chamber Like that was the rock main evented over war games didn't he he came out at the end of that fucking That was not made of like that was just part of the well. I thought we were getting something like that again I was like why I have to be in the fucking closing. I know I listen. I was wrong hand up I was wrong me and they very wrong on this one. Very wrong. I was open to it just because they were even on like Raw and Smackdown and on the

pre show. They were advertising the Rock's appearances like this is going to be an actual segment. So yeah, like the last time he came out and did the one, two, three thing like that was impromptu and unexpected, whatever. This. So you are expecting something big going into this segment. They fucking told us to expect this. Triple H was like, the industry is never gonna be the same after tonight.

And the Rock and Cody segment is main eventing over the fucking match that the PLE is named after. So like being completely honest, did I was I anticipating a John Cena heel turn never crossed my mind, was not a thought in my brain. I didn't know what they were going to do. I was like, well, Roman has been off TV since the rumble. Like is something happening here? Like I didn't know what it was. I was like, is the punk favor

coming into play here somehow that that was a possibility and when he when he lost the chamber match in the fashion that he did that went out the window but I very much thought going into the pay-per-view maybe they're actually going through with the punk thing. Yeah. So I I absolutely was anticipating something big some big big swerve, because Triple H was telling us, he's like, industry is never going to be the same. How could you, you would set yourself up to get mocked forever if you're like, hey, the industry is never going to be the same after tonight. And it's not going to be the obvious thing.

The Rock wants Cody's soul. It's like, okay, well, he's not going to do that. So what is going to happen? Like who, you know, what foil is there? When I tell you, Bob, like I try to explain, I had this pillow that was, it's like shaped like a cylinder that's probably about, I don't know, two feet, three feet long. And when Cena turned, I took it and like a little autistic turned, I took it, and like a little autistic child, I wrapped it around my head and covered my ears

because I was in such shock that I thought, Sensory overload. I thought my brain was gonna come out of my ears. Like the back of my skull was tingling, I was like smiling, but I wasn't happy. I was just in, I was so taken aback and could not believe what I was witnessing. And like, I'm trying to like look around

to someone in the room to relate to, like does anyone sitting around me understand what's happening right now? And I'm just word vomiting to everyone else in the room being like, you'll get it dude, like he's been in the company for over two decades and he's never had a heel turn. Like he came in as a bad guy,

but he was kind of a tweener. Everyone kind of really liked this, you know, heel character, so he wasn't a true heel. He wasn't a bad guy. And he just announced his retirement and there's no way that he was gonna turn heel Why would he why would he turn heel on his farewell tour and look at what he just did and? No one was they were like oh man's I'm glad you I'm glad you got out of this show what you were hoping to get

You know now is that was lady Fox my fiance just being you know really supportive there for me Not not putting it down at all, but just being like I know crazy right and I'm like, I know in your mind, you don't know how crazy this is. It's been two decades. Make-A-Wish Foundation, this, that. He said he would never do it. The heel turn promo. Like, I was doing the same exact thing you were. And were you confused by Travis Scott being in the way? Oh my God. Because I was confused as hell about that the whole time. I was trying so hard to not let it ruin the moment. I was like, because everyone was like, oh, so then what did you have a problem with Dennis Rodman in the NWO?

I was like Dennis Rodman was not in the ring when Hogan was the third man. He just wasn't. And if he was, we'd be crazy. Like we're going to look back on this in 30 30 years 40 years even like let's knock on wood Let's hope we make it that long We're gonna tell our kids maybe grandkids about the night that John Cena turned heel and when they're gonna be like, oh can I see? A video we're gonna show it to him. Maybe that way who's that guy? Oh, that's Did you see the news report today that came about about him? But that he's training to have a match.

Oh no no no. He ruptured Cody's eardrum and gave him a black eye with that smack. So that smack was crazy. Even I... Crazy. In the moment I knew it. Before I saw the other angle I knew it. I am as big of a Cody hater as it gets, but when...

It's almost like, you know, trying to think of an example, it's like we can bully him because he's one of ours, but like someone from the outside, like I don't like that. Like even as someone that genuinely is a Cody hater, when he smacked him for real as hard as he could, I was like what the fuck dude, like what are you doing? I wanna know in Cena's mind, like Cena didn't react,

he's a fucking pro, but I wanna know in his mind when that smack landed if he was like, oh fuck. Yeah. Like Cody turned in a way that wasn't like I'm selling this smack, it was in a way like, oh my God, don't do that again. Yeah. Yeah.

It was weird seeing him there for it. I did say, all will be forgiven for me with Travis Scott if he comes out with a John Cena theme song, John Cena featured on a Travis Scott song, and he gets John Cena back on the Billboard charts in 2025. If he could get Cena playing on the radio top of Spotify, this is fucking Spotify, John Cena, Travis Scott standing there looking hard, all's forgiven. Well, you know, Bob, Bob, in the moment I was sitting there saying why is Travis Scott there? Why is he a part of this? It's taking away...

like I was trying to ignore him so that I could just fully just appreciate the moment. But then I'm sitting there and I'm like alright everything's for a reason right? You know like, everything has been very intentional. Like, you go back to last WrestleMania season where The Rock has beaten the shit out of Cody in the rain, he's bloodied up, and you can see John Cena's face on the truck in the background.

Yep. Seems intentional. Well, I'm like, okay, so the Travis Scott connection, his song is the theme song for WrestleMania, okay. It's The Rock, he's like, okay, so the Travis Scott connection, his song is the theme song for WrestleMania. Okay, it's the Rock. He's everybody's boss. He's the final boss.

Okay, I get it. Corporate connection. But then, like Travis Scott is beating the shit out of Cody Rhodes. So it's almost like, all right, so he's like Travis Scott turn heel too. And like no one gives him credit. Because the last time we saw him, he was with Jey Uso Yeaton. So that's my point. Yeah.

I think if you're the Rock and you're going to Cody and you're saying, if you sell your soul to me, this is what you get. You can be champion. You can be my champion. You can be in movies. Like look at, Roman has gotten jobs in film because of me and he goes down the line all these people have gotten roles in film Hollywood and

you know you can come out to like you can have Travis Scott do your music and be associated with one of the most famous rappers on planet Earth and It you know like it's he did the three kind of like I got for Cena He did the throat slit, but did then he held up a two if there's a third man Wouldn't it be Jay because then if Jay if they help him win the world heavyweight title at WrestleMania over Gunther Then he had like the Travis Scott connection. It's like well now Jay's the world heavyweight champion He's in our faction John Cena is the WWE champion. He's in our faction and it's, I don't know. I'm going to say something crazy because I was thinking the same thing about the third man.

And I thought about Jay as well. Like I think that there's a possibility. I don't think it's necessarily the way they're going. It should be punk. Well, I was thinking something even crazier. The last time we saw trucks in the background it was John Cena and Stone Cold Steve Austin yeah what if the glass shatters and we think Stone Cold Steve Austin's coming out to save it and he pulls a Hogan and it's the fucking

third man and he starts stomping a mud hole and Cody or some shit at that point I don't know how you could like, is Cody gonna beat Stone Cold, The Rock, and John Cena? I don't think so. Like, some crazy like that. But I don't know. We're in this realm of WrestleMania, WrestleMania season, where anything can happen. Like John Cena just turned heel. There's nothing out of the realm of possibility.

I would be less surprised by Stone Cold coming back as a heel than I was on Saturday night when John Cena turned heel. I said in my lifetime of watching wrestling, I think the only thing that is even closer, maybe over even succeeds the shock of John Cena turning heel was the streak ending. The streak ending is number one because I thought something was going wrong at the time. I was like, they're going to restart the match, right? They're going to play music like what's going on here. Did something go wrong? Did he forget to kick out?

When I was in that level of denial, that's true shock. I was like that man in the front row and he's like, but this is a close number to my gasp. And I want to know everything about it now. And I'm sure you're the same way. Like I want to see an in-depth interview with John Cena after. And did they decide to do this? When did they decide? And I'm sure you're the same way. Like I want to see an in-depth interview with John Cena after wrestling. When did they decide to do this?

When did they decide? Was there ever a moment? Yeah, where you came close before this that we didn't know about. We know about the time in like 2011, 2012 or whatever. Who knew? When did they decide? The second Rock match, right? I don't even remember. Might have been the second Rock match when he said he got the singlets made and he had the other theme. Yes.

So we knew that was close then. Were you ever close again? What made you want to do it? Was it your final run? You always knew you wanted to do it. Or did you see how much fun Roman and Rock have been having as heels and how they're the biggest stars in wrestling as heels? It's like, fuck it. If Rock could go be a heel, but also be the face of whatever and sell red one tickets.

And that's another thing. The Rock is still on thin ice with me. Like this was a great segment. And again, I feel like, all right, hand up. I should have fucking waited to see how it plays out with The Rock, but him going in the press conference afterwards with his fucking Terra Mana, wasn't that a great scene we just delivered to the people?

Yeah, I don't like that. The character of the final boss. We know it's fake, bro. Like we get it. We're smart enough to understand there's a separation between Dwayne Johnson and the final boss rock. Don't come out five minutes after the pay per views off the air, sucking your own dick about it.

Like, just let us have that moment. Let us have that night. John Cena came out, dropped the fucking mic. It was great. Yeah, that was what we needed. Like he should have came out with the rock. The rocks should have spoken for him or something. And he should have continued that final boss narrative through it. He's so desperate, I feel like, to be liked,

you know, in a weird way where it's like, bro, you're like the best heel going right now. If you take his final boss run last year, like leading it to WrestleMania, that's the best shit in the world. He wasn't going live the second after he bloodied Cody in the rain to be like, and scene like, you know, yeah, yeah, I'm with you. I don't like it. Um, I understand like people were complaining the other day when he was making that appearance on smackdown, uh, to, to pitch the whole like I want your soul thing. And he was like, man, I love playing this final boss character and

people were complaining about him tweeting that. But I get it, he is the most followed person on social media in America. So I get that he is like, hey, if you're a fan of my movies, then check out this shit that I'm doing with WWE if you've never watched wrestling before. I get it when he does it to his audience on social media. But when you do it to our audience, when we're already wrestling fans and we're already,

if you're tuning into a WWE press conference, like you are, like you get it, like you finish watching the show on Peacock and then you've got to go over to YouTube to watch it And there was like seventy seven thousand concurrence when I first tuned in at the start of it So like a lot of people are tuning in for this like those are diehard fans Like you don't need to be like man this shit is fake as fuck, huh? He's trying to get like it feels like he's not even speaking to us in that moment

It feels like he's trying to get a clip that he could post to You know his audience or whatever it's so strange I also liked how when they went off the air they like came back for a second just to show Michael Cole and Pat McAfee like getting Cody out of the ring, and he's all fucking bloodied I also think Cena clobbered him with that title a couple of times like Cena hit him twice with the title They tried to do it was hard blown away. I don't think Cody bladed or anything. I don't think he did either because it was so quick. And he could have because they cut to a quick shot of Cena and I'm sure Cody's such a pro

with it that he could have given himself a quick swipe. But I think they might have gone hard way with it because it was a cut over his eye too. Yeah. And if anyone's going gonna be able to land like a direct hit on your face to where you can do it the hard way, like Cena's a guy that you can trust without a doubt.

Cena knows how to do it. Yeah, so I don't know, but I know that we're mainly talking about the Cena-Hale turn, but I think the Sami-KO match really needed blood, but now I get why they didn't do that because they're not gonna do two blood spots in the same Blood spots. Yeah, and that's something that completely got overshadowed. I feel so bad for everyone on this card Really? I thought the women's chamber match was good. I thought Sammy and KO was incredible a fouls great war

And that was the match of the night It was and I have a real pet peeve with hardcore matches and unsanctioned matches that go from one big spot to the next. They set up like three tables, do a spot, set up another thing, do a spot and it feels like you're just like going from one spot to another. There's a couple matches in AEW like a couple John Moxley matches even a couple swerve matches that I didn't love that felt like that. This just felt like a war the whole time. There were false finishes I legitimately thought were going to be the end of the match.

There were spots that made me cringe. We heard the barbed wire was not gimmicked at the request of the talent, which is just like not surprising at this point with Sammy and KO in fucking Toronto. Oh my God, devastatingly brutal match in every way I thought the Orton return hit I thought that was good they'll obviously do that at WrestleMania triple threat or just one v1 I think I think one v1 because Kevin and Orton were in a triple threat with

Logan last year yeah what does that leave for me doesn't really matter I don't know Sammy gonna miss WrestleMania you can can't have so bad in this match with the double pop-up powerbomb on the apron. He also had a good save in the end there. When Kevin like lost him for a second, and Sammy just like fought his way out of it. It was a good like botch save. In that moment I was like, he's a fucking pro in that ring. But yeah, they got overshadowed. Even the men's main event, which I thought was great, got overshadowed by this. Like there were some spots in that. The CM Punk Cena first meeting in 12, 13, 14 years, whatever it's been, that was amazing. All the reversals

you sent me, someone put side by side, like a 2011 sequence they did at the chamber. That was cool to see. There were cool moments in it. But like when John John Cena turns heel we ain't talking about anything else, but John Cena turning heel I was almost surprised they didn't have like The shirt ready to go. I assume he'll come out with the shirt. I think he's due back March 17th That's gonna be the first raw he's back on which I'm a little bummed about cuz me and Nate are going next week at MSG We were you would get the fucking first appearance of Heal Cena. But I think we're gonna get enough with the Steel Cage match between Punk and Rollins. And I think that equals the return of the one tribal chief, the original tribal tribal chief Roman Reigns.

I was just gonna ask you that when do you think he comes back? You think it's that I think it's I think it's raw. Yeah, I think he comes back. Maybe Rollins does something where he's about to escape the cage, Roman's music hits, and he goes back into the cage, GTS, some shit like that, and then you set up that triple threat for Mania. And by the way, let's talk about this, because I was a big man in the beginning of this podcast. I put my hand up. I said I was wrong. Let's talk about moments where Jared Karabas might have to put his hand up and say I was wrong. Because this guy texted me.

Fuck yourself. This guy texted me not even a week ago. He goes, I have a take, Bob. I go, what's your take? Oh yeah. I might not watch WrestleMania this year. And I was like, what? I said, that's like not watching the World Series

when the Red Sox are in it, because you've got CM Punk and Roman Reigns likely going to be in the exact same match. You're two guys. This is the fucking pinnacle. At this point, Jared, would you say you're going to watch WrestleMania? I'm gonna check it out, Bob.

I'm gonna check it out. You were down on the product just last week. Yeah, I mean, the of heel turn changes everything. I think Roman feels, I know that they keep talking about like the punk Seth Roman triple threat but right now to me he feels displaced because he's been off TV. Roman does? Yes, like he's been off TV for too long. But he's been off TV because he got double curve stomped.

I get that but it's like you don't have a Title in this triple threat match so now it's like it's like a bloody it's a three-way blood feud But it is but like we need Roman on TV if we're gonna further the blood feud Monday brother that's what you think they further the blood feud this Monday Like we could get into that to see him punk kicks Monday night Roth with one of the best raw opening promos I've seen in a long time Even though the way they shot it when he comes out of the car walked straight to the ring

Like be lines not even doing the it's clobbering time not really engaging with fans And then he just calls everyone out you bald frauds that was such a good line He's calling everyone out then they do the brawl. This is the perfect blood feud It's literal hatred between Roman and Seth literal hatred between Seth and Punk And then you have the three way of Oh Punk means a favor He has an exhausted all avenues to get it to the main event He dropped that little nugget on Monday near Raw. I was like, Oh, maybe the Paul Heyman favor. Then you set up the possibility of, Oh my God, who's Heyman going to side with in the WrestleMania main event? Who's this going to have? This

is going to be fucking amazing. This is going to be almost as good as Cena versus Cody Rhodes. I think that and by the way, those that still think Jey Uso versus Gunther is going to headline one of these nights, I'm sorry to disappoint. They are not. No. And Triple H said as much. He said, no one is guaranteed a main event. We're going with the hottest storylines once we get there. So according to him, at least publicly, nothing's decided, but obviously Cena and Cody is gonna headline. That's night two, no doubt. Yes.

And I think night one has to be punk Cody and punk Rollins and Reigns. Like the crowd was hot for them last night. Every time security broke them up, there would be the boos and every time they got back together, huge pop. When they were in the ring,

when they like each snuck into the ring, that was great. And it's also one of the best tropes in the history of wrestling. Like I prefer a locker room clearing brawl when the wrestlers can't even keep them apart. But when you have the fucking referees coming out and everything, I think that's an old from the top rope thing too. I think old grapple fucks will remember my love for locker room clearing brawls.

Yeah, we haven't had one in a while. I think the last one I can recall was Sina in Lesnar when Lesnar caught Sina in the mouth for real. Yeah, that one was amazing We've definitely had him since then but I don't I can't remember off the top of my head who they've been for Yeah, honestly Ambrose and Rollins might have had one during their feud. Yeah Post shield I think that happened. Yeah. Another shocking thing I thought worth mentioning on this podcast, I thought shocking,

EO Sky beat Rhea Ripley pretty clean for the title last night in the main event. I mean, clean in the sense that like, she didn't cheat to win, she was distracted, I guess she was yelling at Bianca. Well. What do you mean well? Should have been a disqualification, Bob.

Bianca Belair. I guess you could say that.. Bianca Belair put her hands on Rhea Ripley outside the ring. Could have killed her, honestly. She pushed her into the ring apron on the outside, and she went spine first into the, she could have been paralyzed. The fact that she was able to continue the match is a miracle. I would have called for the bell. I think

that's probably where this is going. Stephanie Carr, was she the referee? I thought that was actually a good move though. I was like, Oh, they're kind of giving some depth and layers to like the referee doesn't want to call a championship match like this. Now Rhea's got a legit like Rhea could bring up all the points you're bringing up. Oh, she will. We've already discussed it. So I think, I think they have to make this a triple threat only for the fact that if you want to have Eoskai go into Mania as champion, fine, I guess. And to emphasize a point that I think you made via text last night, like we're now at the point where anything can happen. I think we had kind of fallen into

a trend with PLEs and storylines where everything that we thought was going to happen is ultimately what did happen. And now we're just in the, I don't know what the fuck's going on part of WrestleMania season, which is... I love that. I love being there. That's what I... I can't remember another time where I felt like this about WrestleMania season. Like, I don't know if there's ever been a time in my life where it's been this unpredictable. Jey Uso winning the Royal Rumble, even starting there, this entire road to WrestleMania, I don't know what's coming next.

Yeah. Also, if there is a third man, I keep going back and forth between if it could be punk or if it could be Jey, but now I'm thinking the Travis Scott connection to Jay. And then the fact that Cena was the last man with Jay in the rumble. And it like what if Cena what if his goal was, all right, let's make sure Jay wins the rumble and then I'll win the chamber. And then that's how we end up in title match. They were they were going at it in the rumble. It'd be hard to find that point. I mean, punk were they were going at it in the rumble. It'd be hard to find Uh at that point kind I mean punk and Cena were going at it in the chamber Yeah, but it's not like they they were aligned at that point. You know what I mean? Like no, but you know Maybe they're on after the fact you're saying maybe that maybe they just had a plan Bob

Maybe they just had a plan because other than that in terms of shock factor The only other one that would blow our doors off would be if it was just Austin. Like, if Cody, if Cody had and then on top of that fucking Rick flair was yapping his gums on Twitter the other day about how he does. It's like if you just made that says that's that ain't Rick flair, right? That's got to be a social guy trying to get his name back up in the headlines I don't know I think Rick probably fires him off from poolside in Florida or the fuck he does the Trump thing where he like Dictates to someone like say this and then they type it for him. I could see that also be in the case But if you made a faction to go up against Cody at WrestleMania where it's like, hey, you're going up against, like the faction could literally just be called

Mount Rushmore. It's the Rock, Cena, Austin, and Ric Flair align against you so that Cena can get- But then can he call in his favors from like the Undertaker? Can the Undertaker just be Cody's fucking guardian angel or guardian demon, where whenever he needs a fucking? All-in-all he could call it for the dong like think for the dong that should be an undertaker shirt Who would be like if you're looking at flair

Rock Austin and And Cena Cena like who would be the the opposite end of the opposition Yeah, cuz like Austin's greatest rival is the Rock and yeah, the Rock's greatest rival arguably is Austin or Cena I saw somebody say that Hulk Hogan should be Logan Paul's manager just to take it to the next level of heat. That is brilliant. That is good. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they know each other about taking Tina's seat. Do they? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We talked about something

that would add heat to Sina because I think they gotta be careful like last night when seen his name Got mentioned by punk he got big booze But I'm under the impression that Sina as a heel is going to get cheered Unless he's doing something dastardly to someone we love so we talked about it shit out of our truth Just you gotta do with our true conscious. Yeah, our truths tweets have been so funny. He's crashing out on Twitter He's tweeting it brandy like let's not jump to any conclusions here. You have him do a segment. That's very funny You let him show his comedic chops, and he's like I can't believe this my childhood hero He he turned on us what what the LC nation and you have seen to come out just like he was at the elimination chamber

Dead serious and beat the fuck out of R-Truth. Bloody him up, leave him absolutely disheveled, have people running out EMTs checking on him, stretch him out of the building. You need to make Sina hateable. I think there's only a few names that people will boo Sina against. It's like R-Truth, Sami Zayn probably, J-Usso maybe, Ruth, Sami Zayn probably, J Uso maybe, Reigns, Punk, we'll see about Cody. I hope that they'll boo him with Cody. I feel like they set that up perfectly, but I don't know. People are gonna, it's weird, his whole career they wanted to boo him for being a face. They're gonna want to cheer him for being a heel now.

I think it's gonna be almost unavoidable at Mania just because there's so many smarks in that crowd. I think you're gonna get a classic, let's go Cena, Cena sucks. That'd be cool. That'd be cool. I think we're gonna hear that. But if you think about the logic behind why John Cena turned heel, there's a lot of heels in this company that are heels right now, but their logic makes

sense where it's just like, I don't blame you for how you feel. Kevin Owens. Kevin Owens is one. Seth Rollins is, I still think he's more of a tweener. He's not like a pandering baby thing. He is. He's the leaning heel now, but he's a tweener for sure. But he's right about a lot of the stuff that is is you know heel behavior. He's right Kevin Owens

He's kind of right and now John Cena He's kind of right. You know it's like I did all these fucking make-a-wishes you guys booed me I Haven't won a singles match since 2018 Everyone talks about the golden shovel, like I came back, put everyone over, uh, I'm going fucking bald, I've seen a thousand memes about it, like you guys make fun of

my bald spot, like, you know, I feel like Sina has every right to be like, you know what, fuck you guys, yeah. It does, the losing streak makes the most sense to me for why he sold Assault of the Rock, like he wants that one final title that bad that he'll do whatever it takes and I appreciated him Capitalizing on punk getting curb stumped at the end of the chamber Yeah, like old scene it would never do something like that He meant putting the choke on the way he like did the weird choke He still doesn't know how to choke anyone out. Did you hear he's sorry?

Yeah, like that was good and in the the moment, I'm like, Oh, I guess he's desperate for the title. So he's willing to do that. But he'll say I'm sorry. No, that was just the first inkling of heel Cena kind of leaking out. And even he kind of had a serious face during the entrance. Oh, that's another guy he could get boot against. I saw the news. If he's still get out of when it comes out. Yeah, it doesn't even talk to Stu fucking shows the camera yeah something

like that like that's gonna be great do you think he changes his gear i think he goes like black jord or something i i absolutely think because he did that interview with chris van vleet where he talked about what he would have done had he turned heel i believe it was 2013 i believe it was the the second rock match at mania probably right right. He's like, I've got the gear, I've got the theme. And I truly believe that it's something that he always wanted to do in terms of like character work. And any reason why he probably stayed babyface his entire career had a lot to do with Vince. Well, Vince doesn't have a say in this anymore. I think that there was certainly a period of time where he had to stay baby face to

kind of like not necessarily save the company but like he had to carry the company. It's not like it's not like they would have floundered. Nobody else was doing it. No like no one else wanted to take the brass ring like he was the face the company for a very long time and kept them above water during a time period where like wrestling wasn't cool anymore. Those were the years that- This merch alone, selling with kids, like people don't realize how beneficial and massive that was for the company and the industry.

Like the fact that in his heyday, he was working every live event as well. He was doing every fucking house show, every TV. It was like he was the guy and nobody was even nobody the number two merch seller Wasn't hitting half of his numbers. No, no, and I so in that sense I get it But those were the years that I tuned out like oh Like I tuned out once Kane took his mask off in oh three I came back when he put it back on in 2011 so like I and that's like My day to where it's like I grew up with this guy is my like I remember

vividly WrestleMania 20 John Cena verse the big sex 2004 Yes, he grabs the fucking chain hits big show He bounces off the ropes and he comes back big F you before it was the attitude adjustment US title match I remember being like 2004 like this is the fucking guy. I was there in 2007 at SummerSlam for the first ever John Cena versus Randy Orton, Pay Per View match. I was there throughout the years.

I was there at that horrible steel cage match with Bray Wyatt at Extreme Rules where the little kids sang to him. And I was like, God damn, it was the first time I ever saw John Cena lose. I couldn't believe what I was seeing on Saturday. Like I can't say that enough. It was like my brain is wired to just not believe that that would ever happen, especially on the farewell tour. Now it feels like I know you're not a big Marvel guy, but they've recently announced

Robert Downey Jr. is coming back in the next couple of Avengers movies. Iron Man played Dr. Doom. Iron Man playing the villain. But they've recently announced Robert Downey jr. Is coming back in the next couple of Enders movies. I'm a doctor doom Ironman playing the villain so everyone's like, oh my god Now you flip the dynamic now instead of him and Peter Parker having this like father-son type relationship now He's the fucking enemy now. He's gonna break everyone's heart now you have face Kevin Owens versus heel John Cena face CM Punk versus heel John Cena face Randy Orton versus heel John Cena, face CM Punk versus heel John Cena, face Randy Orton versus heel John Cena. You flip the dynamic in the one last run.

The only thing that breaks my heart a little bit about it, we only got like nine months left of John Cena's career. So like, I kind of want this to be like Hollywood Hogan and we have the next couple years of John Cena being an awesome heel Someone tweeted we're pregnant with a heel John Cena. We have nine months to go and then we're done Yeah, that's that's if you believe that you know, like the most heel thing He could do is be like fuck you like I'm gonna keep going around. Yeah. Yeah, that would be good And so here's the question for you. Let's do a little fantasy booking WrestleMania Do you put the title on him in the main event? Yeah. You have WrestleMania ending with him

and rock and Travis Scott standing over Cody's dead body. Yeah, because how many how many times have we had like, you know, a babyface mania like it's it's it's been a lot of that one last year. Yeah, like it's always like the happy send off. The year before was Roman. Yeah, but that was correct. I was happy about that. I think there's been a lot of babyface happy send offs. And it's not even like it wouldn't be a happy send off. It would be something where people would be like, wow.

It's not like, god damn it, why? That was the wrong call. I think my nephew who's going to his first WrestleMania, I don't think he would be happy. My 10 year old nephew. I think he was pretty heartbroken over that because he's also not a Cena guy, you know? That's like an interesting thing about the 10 year olds of today. They didn't really grow up with John Cena that much. Like he's been away for a lot of the the last few years.

So if you were to go with the heel winning in the main event of night two, I would assume you go with a baby face winning in the main event of night one. Would you have, I would have Roman win that triple threat pinning Seth, probably. But it's like, I don't know. Seth took the pinfall in night one of last year's WrestleMania. Do you have punk win that one? I don't know. I hate to say it, Bob. I don't fucking care. I don't really. It sucks because like the way that I look at it is if it doesn't have a title, which it won't, then it's hard to care.

And there'll be no. Me to care about the matches with the title, though, like if it's not Cody's title, I don't really care about the titles that much. I agree. But I don't care about being held hostage by the title right now. The title is being held hostage by Cody. So that's why this program doesn't have the title hostage by the by the most hot program in the history of. Oh, yeah.

It's being it's being held by a paper champion. He's defended the title like five times in the last year. He's defended a bunch. He had one of the many times in the year last year. He's he's defended, I believe five times in the last year. He's defended a bunch. He had one of the matches of the year last year. He's he's defended, I believe, six times is the correct number, which is crazy for a three hundred and sixty five day reign to defend your title six times is fucking crazy, Bob. It sounds like you're talking about Roman Reigns right now.

Roman Reigns is the biggest star in the industry. And he was he was down to defending like six times a year after what? His fourth fucking year of being champion. Roman Reigns could barely go speaking line in Hobbs and Shaw. That was before, that was the big dog. The big dog was a shitty actor. The travel chief is a Hollywood megastar. And you know that. You know that. This triple threat match, as someone who is a huge Roman Reigns fan, and a huge CM Punk fan, it brings no resolution to any feud.

Like, Roman Reigns- We'll see though, we don't know that yet. Roman Reigns has never defeated Seth Rollins in a one-on-one, is that correct? No, they're two and two against each other? Lifetime? Probably. I know Rollins has beat him one on one for

sure. Yes. Twice. At least the Money in the Bank match where he won the title, reversal, spear, pedigree, and then obviously the DQ, right? Yeah. Roman, he never beat Seth in a singles match as champion. I want to say they're two and two lifetime against each other, but it's like, all right, do we care? I don't know. I want to care, really. I wanna care. Jeff calls them the title at WrestleMania last year.

Yeah, but like, I wish I could just focus on one story at a time. There's too many moving parts. Like the punk. Oh, Jerry's brain can't handle a triple threat match. I can't, I can't. I could just focus on one story at a time. There's too many moving parts like the Brain can't handle a triple threat math that I can't I can't The punk Roman storyline great the yeah, Seth Punk great Yeah, Seth great. Yeah, that's why this is such a good triple threat match it all clicks like a. It's not just oh, let's fucking throw someone in here like

Bianca Ria is good like it doesn't click like this better be this better be the fucking best promo video package Since it will be bro Not my way the highway it better be the best fucking one since that it better be the best one since that you have It can be they should reuse that song you have 13 years of Library to sift through to tell this fucking story you better tell it right from the beginning Yeah, you have see I'm gonna have see a book narrate it

You have like one of the best promo guys when he's at the top Of the game if Ryback it doesn't show up in this fucking video It's not done correctly right back is the piece that connects all of this together, and you know that Maybe we need if they don't nail it will need a grapple fuck to do their own or I could edit my own that includes Ryback It'll be set to my way, and it'll be the greatest promo package since WrestleMania 17. Were you watching live at WrestleMania 17 by the way? Yes. How would you compare the Stone Cold heel turn shock to the John Cena heel turn shock?

I was too young to like understand I guess I was more like... the way that I've talked about it, like with Kane, being a fan of someone is like, I've just always treated it like a sports team. It's like, alright, I guess we're a bad guy now. You know, like it was not like, damn it, why? Why? And then I don't like, like, I think it must be cool, I guess, to just watch WWE as a neutral fan who just... That's kind of how I was growing up, if I'm being honest. You're the good guy. Someone turned you on me. Yeah, I was kind of out on them.

Like Edge, I remember him going back and forth a few times. Randy Orton, obviously going back and forth a few times. Like I kind of wish I got to watch this as a kid because I know my 10-year-old nephew was like, what's going on here? Like I wish I had that because I wanted to be like why John why? But in my mind I'm like this is one of the greatest things I've ever watched like this is something that I Literally only get to see once in my lifetime Someone that for 20 straight years played the same character and then during their retirement or flipped it on its head like

the same character and then during their retirement tour flipped it on its head. Like, people that have been alive that got to see Hogan do it, if you got to see Hogan do it and you got to see John Cena do it, like, that's crazy that you got two of these in one lifetime because that shouldn't be possible. Yeah. And I had a very viral comment on the WWE Instagram page. Oh, you did? It's like one of the top comments, if not the top comment. I had a very viral comment on the WWE Instagram page. Oh, you did? It's like one of the top comments, if not the top comment.

Last time I checked it, it had over 20,000 likes. And my inspiration for that comment, as you know, Bob, comes from the X-Pac betrayal of Kane. Which I, it's shaped the rest of my life, really. And I've told X-Pac Xbox this as we have interviewed him on this very show yeah Xbox and Kane first of all Kane my favorite wrestler of all time Xbox I loved DX and then when Kane blended with DX I was like this is fucking amazing I'm riding high and then Kane got a hot smoking hot girlfriend

in Tory and I was like what could be better than this and then Kane got a hot smoking hot girlfriend in Tory, and I was like what could be better than this? And then all of a sudden Xbox is fucking Kane's girlfriend on Christmas by the way Christmas the Xbox and Tory Christmas story as I recall it being birthday of Jesus yep, and so after that I birthday of Jesus. Yep. And so after that, I was like, man, like, Kane didn't talk before this, he didn't have human emotions before this, he couldn't show love for the opposite sex before this. Like you humanized us. And then you fucked our girl and kicked us in the nuts and just left us to be this monster. So now me being a diehard Kane fan, I'm just like, I guess we're a monster now.

Like I would show up, I would show up to fourth grade, walk in the classroom. People be like, why do you look so fucking mad? I'm just like, shut the fuck up, dude. Like it's just that's you ride or die with your guy. Yes. You ride or die with your guy. I told that story recently of the betrayal you felt from Kana Nexbox. You know the Cinema Lord podcast, the Minifan podcast? Have you

heard of this? He's like one of the big Minifans. There's a podcast called Cinema Lord. What's his name? He talks a lot about wrestling. I don't know his real name, Cinema Lord. Oh, that's his. Yeah. So I'm probably going to yell that. The last time I didn't know who someone was in the Minifan world, it was Tom Shadding. Big Minifan. Well, I'm probably gonna yell that the last time I didn't know who someone was in the minifan world It was Tom Schadek Manifan guy as well. I'm on team minahan for the dozen now me and Kirk. Okay that now Yeah so Tom Schadek had a fucking mental breakdown because I didn't know who he was and then he started talking about how like

Is he an ex-convict with all those tattoos? I was like buddy what you? Yeah, no, you you don't got the balls to be an ex-convict no brother I don't go outside to be an ex-convict. That's what I mean Yeah, there's no chance you could be you're an ex-convict by like not going to jury duty or something like that Yeah, you didn't want to leave the house. I did tell him the story of like yeah We interviewed Xbox a few times and like the last time I interviewed Xbox was solo And I think he even started by being like, hey, how's Jared? Is he over it? No, I'm not over it. He's not like, you don't realize X-Bock like you joke Sean, but you ruined his life. No, and I also that's that's what I was

implying when I commented on the video for John Cena's heel turn. What was your comment? Yeah, read your comment. Paraphrasing, I said, you just created a lifetime of trust issues for an entire generation. Because if you were a kid, and you grew up, if you're a kid now, or you were a kid that grew up loving John Cena, he turned on you. X-Pac turned on me. That's different. John Cena turned on you.

I posted this picture I mean me at WrestleMania 29 look at that sign my sister made it my lovely sister we went to Party City we got like a John Cena tablecloth we cut that out our time is now I had another sign with the Brahma bowl on it I've told this story before big Brahma bowl and then I had the big fucking Ghostbusters no through it I held that up during his entrance someone threw a bottle cap at me and my brother was like, alright, I sit down Yeah, I mean now imagine that that was fucking WrestleMania 29 imagine Dropping in to little fucking 13 14 year old Robbie. Well, however old I was probably 15 by that point

I don't even remember how old it was imagine drop it in and being like bro at WrestleMania 41 those. Imagine dropping in and being like, bro, WrestleMania 41, heel John Cena is going to be aligned with heel rock in the main event. Like that would have blown my mind. I mean, even reading the headline I tweeted this morning, imagine just dropping in just a few years ago and reading the headline to yourself, Travis Scott injured Cody Rhodes during John Cena's heel turn. What? What? We would have been like, who's Travis Scott? And I feel like we're it's yeah, probably. Yeah, I, I'm with you. It's the second most shocked I've ever

been. I to a T, you agree Shriek would be number one? Yes, because I had the same reaction. I was sitting next to my cousin. And I was like that. Like what happened? Like did he did he get dropped on his head? He's unconscious? Did he did Brock like go into business for himself here and like he held taker to the mat and didn't let him kick out. I was like something went wrong here. It did not have the feeling of this was planned. This is what we wanted to do. Because the other thing that people forget when you're watching that match in real time, they didn't hit Brock's music right away. It was brilliant too, looking back, brilliant.

They didn't do the music, they didn't do the ring announcement, they just let everyone be like, what the fuck just happened? And the first thing they did was just they put like the 21 and 1, music behind it just the yeah on the screen and even seeing that was like oh wait They made the graphic. I think this is real like I'm pretty sure the street just ended that was Still looking back I could get the rock fucking Yeah, I could get chills talking about that and I love seeing punk calling them out for that shit because I'm so tired of that shit Do with the fucking Goose bumps. It's real though. I mean if you they they zoom in he really does have goosebumps

I'm sure he does when you get a fucking 20,000 seat arena to pop for you even bigger in Toronto 60,000 or something like that and by the way crowd not very good in Toronto I was expecting them to be much better, and I don't know if it was the crowd Mike was not good Yeah, I think it was stadiums. It's harder to hear stadiums than arenas obviously When we're now accustomed to like WWE International PLE. Oh my god. This is gonna be awesome They were barely any moments during the night where I felt like there was like a huge pop or huge reaction Obviously the main event you got a few big ones during KO and Sammy but like aside from that I was kind of disappointed

Yeah, I I that's gotta be a crowd mic situation cuz Toronto right? Yeah, that was that was Hogan Rock Like they like the greatest crowd in the history of wrestling Hogan Rock at WrestleMania 18. Yeah, WrestleMania 6 Christian in the crowd. Some dummy in the press conference was like, hey, Triple H, are we ever going to get a WrestleMania in Toronto? And he was just like, what the fuck? I saw and I hate calling out dumb questions at the press conference because I have had my fair share of them. I once asked Conor McGregor, like, are your kids going to watch this fight? People hated that one. But, but someone asked The Rock.

Why they hate The Rock? Uh, it was a stupid question. But someone went to The Rock and they were like, what's your Waffle House order? Bro, you just watched like the greatest heel turn ever that The Rock is involved in. This ain't the time to ask The Waffle House order. No. The Rock was even like, oh, uh, uh, a dozen eggs? Like and he gave him the answer and he was nice enough, but like just not the time No, that's what you get with

Wrestling media smack my arm too hard. I feel the smacks. I did it my own that I got a bulk up I got hit the iron fucking paradise or something you got to hit the RPC over here the RPC is crazy Can I put the picture I took in the podcast? Yeah That's as the rocket performance center, of course You're just stunning when I walked down into the rocket performance center. I couldn't believe it Yeah, it's there's a RPC logo that was photoshopped from the OTC logo And then the rocket performance center font is in like Samoan tattoo Rocket Performance Center font is in like Samoan tattoo tribal. Yeah, if you're watching on YouTube, you could you could see it here or on Twitter.

I've been uploading these things on Twitter now. I'm not calling it X. I did I did just for you. I called one of them a PLA this and I hated it the way it came out of my mouth. I just said PLA. It's a pay per feel. It's so I agree. Like I would rather call it a pay per view.

But I think it would piss me off if I said pay per view and someone corrected me and said PLE. So I'd be like, whatever, I'm just calling it PLE so no one checks me on that. True. I don't want to sound like- When I said I just hated the way it came out of my mouth, I think it was the first time I've said that out loud. You know what it is, Bob?

I think if I said pay per view, I wouldn't want a diehard wrestling fan to be like, oh, so he's not really like a- So like not up to date yeah like he is that like is that gonna be the new like hey who's the WWF champ yeah I can be the new like one of those yeah that's in my mind that's what it is growing up I remember that being a constant like not point of contention but my older cousins or uncles or aunts, even whoever used to watch wrestling, they would ask me that as a kid. They'd be like, Oh, who's the WWF champion?

I'd immediately be like, it's WWE and there's two of them. Do you want to know the Raw champion or the Smackdown champion? Heavyweight or the WWE? Because John Cena is the WWE, but Rey Mysterio is the world heavyweight. And like, I would immediately go into the explanation. They'd be like, all right, all right, kid, like, is Shawn Michaels still wrestling? I'd be like, yeah, they'd be like, all right Yeah, no him. Yeah, that was basically I had to I had to do that with Dallas in Arizona. Yeah, so who's the WWF champion? And I was like, well, there's there's two I was like, there's a world heavyweight championship that people care about

There's one that they say is to also world champ. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, I was like, all right, was there anything else champion and not even like being like a big deal? No. Is there anything else? Uh, wrestling was we didn't touch on everything from elimination chamber. I feel like we covered. I mean, it is crazy. I saw someone point this out that in 2025 Kofi Kingston and John Cena are both heels Kofi Kingston was a career baby face until now Yeah, this is kind of the year pigs fly like for guys like us John Cena as a heel oasis is back Like imagine telling us that ten years ago like 2020 punk is back punk is back Exactly Kofi Kingston's a fucking heel. Next week, I'm gonna be very

excited to see one of my guys, Rey Mysterio, tornado tag against the new day. It's Rey Mysterio and Phoenix? Or not Phoenix. Phoenix isn't even in the fucking company yet. Who's the other Luchador he's with? Yeah, he's definitely coming. I just saw that this morning. He's like officially a free agent. Yeah, and then the reports were that it's not going to take long. Like he could be on the wrestling. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dragon Lee, the dragon Lee. Yeah. I'm excited for that next week. There's like a couple of good matches. I think they're doing J Uso versus Kaiser maybe on the card. I think they're going to have something special planned for MSG. I don't know where we're sitting. We don't have AJ Styles and Logan Paul

That's right. AJ Styles and Logan Paul AJ also just said I saw this morning. He's about to turn 48 He said he will be retired by the time he turns 50. Mm-hmm. So we don't got much AJ Styles left That's not necessarily all that surprising to me, especially considering a slew of injuries recently I don't want to say like his body's telling him slow down But usually that's a wrestler's body telling you slow down. Yeah, and I love AJ Styles, but he's also He's in like Hall of very good like he'll be a WWE Hall of Famer no doubt no doubt like in terms of like tears of Hall of Famers He he'll be Hall of very good in the sense that if he went away for a long time and came back, it's not the same pop as like

the top tier guys. No, and they I think they almost doomed him with that Roman feud back in the day. AJ was so hot as a baby face and they had him feud with Roman and he put on some amazing matches with Roman I think that was the time to try to put the title on him and try something But that was when they were married to like Roman versus Brock every year at Wrestlemania. Yeah Like he could have been something he also had matches like the one against Shinsuke at Wrestlemania 34 in New Orleans that like really fell flat. He had some moments that were amazing, some moments that fell flat.

A good career overall, obviously in the WWE, a great career for his entire TNA and NJPW. But like his WWE career, I think way better than anyone thought when he came in, because it felt like he was already towards the end of his career, even though he wasn't that old. It was just like, oh yeah, he was the TNA guy forever. He was TNA's John Cena. Speaking of that, like babyface AJ Styles versus heel John Cena. We need to run that back before they're both retired because they had an amazing feud. That match where Cena wins 16 against him at the Royal Rumble. Go back and rewatch that if you haven't in a while. That's like a perfect match.

Their match at SummerSlam, I was lucky enough to be there for. Perfect match. I'm excited. I'm really excited. I also feel like AJ and Logan, I was wondering what they were going to do with Logan Paul at WrestleMania. That makes sense to do a WrestleMania match between them, to maybe throw another person in, to maybe make that a multi-man.

I'm hoping one of the matches is a multi Tiered ladder match. I feel like I love that as a WrestleMania tradition. Maybe the tag match will be that I don't know They're gonna do some there's no gimmick matches Thus far not yet. Yeah, we need a couple gimmicks and I love that We're gonna steal cage match between punk and Seth next week. I love a good steel cage match classic You usually show up, you know And I love that we're going to steel cage match between Punk and Seth next week. I love a good steel cage match. Classic. You show up, you know, it was the best back in the day when you show up to a raw and a

steel cage match isn't announced. It's hanging up there. Oh, it's the best. You're like, Oh, who is this for? You know, you're getting something special. There's nothing better than like a live wrestling show. I was also saying, well, we did the rundown yesterday, me, Clem and large, and I've said this before, but when wrestling is at its best,

I would put it up against anything else in my life for my personal enjoyment. Like that Cena heel turn, I enjoyed as much as the best scene in a best picture nominee. You know, like that is like, and I'm sure there's people, not people that made it 57 minutes into a from the top rope, but I'm sure there's people that would be like, you have trash taste, whatever. There's just nothing like the live crowd experiencing a heel

turn they never saw coming. It's fun to rewatch it and just watch the faces of everyone in the crowd when they cut to that first mean Cena face and he's like activated like the Winter Soldier. There's nothing like it. It's also, when you watch these documentaries that are designed to recruit non-wrestling fans into wrestling fans, they will all describe, yeah, there's goofy stuff, and there's a lot of stuff that is pointless and it doesn't work. There's a lot of filler.

But there's also great storytelling. And with that long-term storytelling, once in a great while while you will get that one moment that just blows your fucking brain and that was certainly one of them. I think it's not the same because it's not like it was I guess it was a baby face turn but the last time that I felt like oh my god I can't believe what I'm watching right now, was Sammy hitting Roman in the back with the chair at the Rumble in 22.

100%. That was the best segment since then, I think. Yeah, yeah, because now you're just, you're telling long-term stories, and then you finally get the payoff. And sometimes, like, the scene of heel turn is essentially a 23 year story Yeah, the payoff becoming his heel. He's it's been asked for has been talked about

He is a wreckly setting three. Yeah, he's done the fucking little yeah turn thing. Yeah, he's like a little Yeah Crazy crazy we are in a great timeline. This is a fun timeline to be living in. Fucking WrestleMania season is on fire. Oasis is like 121, 122 days away. I can't fucking wait for the remainder of 2022 and just WrestleMania in general. I am so excited for WrestleMania this year.

So excited that it's two nights. I was kind of against that for a long time like no WrestleMania has to be a one night special thing Now I'm at the like, oh it has to be two nights. Maybe make it three night. Yeah. Yeah All right, that was from the top rope we'll be back if there's any emergency breaking news We'll have to do a pre WrestleMania podcast, ofMania podcast of course, but let us know when you want us. I like when people kind of throw up the from the top ropes signal. Like we get the tweets right away when something huge happens on WWE, whatever it may be, they're like, hey, is Jared available for media?

I'm like, I'll be in touch. I always am, Bob. I always am. If ever there's something big popping off, this is the only place that I'll go with my thoughts. I love it. All right, we'll talk to you next time. See ya.