The D'Amore Drop: In defense of the John Cena heel run
The D'Amore Drop is a weekly guest column on Uncrowned written by Scott D'Amore, the Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler best known for his long-standing role with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, where he served as head of creative. D'Amore is the current owner of leading Canadian promotion Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling.
I know it's fashionable online to rip on John Cena's heel run, but I think the man is doing fantastic work.
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Before I go on, I get that people were expecting nothing less than the new nWo — with Cena and Rock and their own 'third man,' going on a generation-defining run as the most powerful heels in the game. The historical comparisons to Hulk Hogan were obvious and unavoidable — no heel turn in 30 years has been so long in the making and so unthinkable when it happened.
The Hogan/nWo turn is still the gold standard. It's the bar every heel turn has been measured against for the past 30 years. (Though old-timers still shudder when they remember Larry Zbyszko turning on Bruno Sammartino in 1980.)
That said, it's not the fans' fault that The Rock was a massive part of Cena's heel turn — literally directing him to take out Cody Rhodes at the Elimination Chamber — and then just vanished and was barely mentioned again. Whatever the reason, Rock was central to the setup but absent from the execution.
But if we focus purely on Cena's work, he's been a revelation as a villain. I've loved it — and then came Cena's own 'pipe bomb.' Fourteen years almost to the day after Punk laid out Cena and delivered one of the best promos in WWE history, Cena returned the favor by putting Punk through a table and getting some things off his chest while Punk was left laying, 'as uncomfortably as possible.'
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I loved the promo. It was dramatic, believable and, like you have to be these days, it worked on two levels. Cena stayed fully in heel character, so the fans willing to suspend disbelief could enjoy it in-story. But he also mixed in just enough 'inside baseball' for the smart marks … the fans who like their wrestling with a wink and a nod.
One of the first names out of his mouth was Claudio Castagnoli — formerly Cesaro in WWE — who is now under contract with AEW. That got everyone's attention. It was like, 'Whoa — he's not supposed to say that.' Leading with Claudio was genius. I really don't think that promo hits the same if he doesn't lead with the AEW guy. That was the key. Claudio made it feel like a one-off name drop. But then, bang — he follows it up with two guys WWE could actually use: Nick Nemeth, who wrestles for TNA and, of course, TNA has a relationship with WWE; and then he mentioned Matt Cardona, who is the ultimate free agent and has made no secret he'd like to return to WWE before his career is up.
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What Cena did there was offer fantasy matchmaking. He gave fans one name that's impossible, followed by two that are technically very possible. That's genius.
It's a tightrope walk to be an effective heel and still give just enough reality for fans who won't fully suspend disbelief but still want to feel something real.
Overall, I think Cena's been fantastic in this run. I know that's not a popular opinion in some circles — but too bad. I like what I've seen. Cena's doing excellent work.
Cena defends his WWE Universal Title vs. Punk in Saudi Arabia at Night of Champions this Saturday. It is yet another "Cena retirement tour dream match" WWE is delivering … just think of all the crazy things that had to fall into place for this match to actually happen in the middle of 2025.
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Cena should go over. He's holding this title for a while yet.
Will John Cena beat CM Punk and retain his title this Saturday?
(WWE via Getty Images)
I expect Cody Rhodes will win the King of the Ring and challenge Cena at WWE SummerSlam … with the wild card of Seth Rollins holding the Money In The Bank briefcase over the head of the champion.
The Queen of the Ring finale pits Asuka — who only just returned from a year out with a serious knee injury — against Jade Cargill in one of her biggest singles matches to date.
No prediction on this one, I am just rooting for both women to put on the performances that will elevate them both.
Around about this time last year I invited several friends to a Zoom call.
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None of them are names you'd be expected to know, but all of them were vastly experienced pro-wrestling guys — not on-screen talent but award-winning television producers and behind-the-scenes talent who'd done incredible work for WWE, AEW, WCW and even the UFC.
They were all close friends of mine, but I started the meeting proper by introducing myself.
'Hello,' I began, 'my name is Scott D'Amore and I have an addiction — it is called pro-wrestling. You all know I am no longer with TNA … but I am not done with pro-wrestling.'
In that meeting I told my friends I'd bought the rights to Maple Leaf Wrestling, the historic Canadian promotion, and planned to relaunch it in the modern era as Maple Leaf Pro-Wrestling.
All of them wanted to join me, and I'm incredibly proud of the work we've done in the past 12 months — five sell-out shows, great results on pay-per-view and social media.
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And our biggest event yet takes place July 5.
After that Zoom call, one of my friends called me directly and asked me why I was prepared to spend (a lot) of my own money to get right back into the pro-wrestling business.
At first, I deflected. I pointed out I was going to spend lots of my own money to buy TNA, only for its parent to decline.
But the real, honest answer is that I love pro-wrestling and pro-wrestling people. I mean, in real life, what does someone like Don Callis — who's very educated — have to talk about with someone like Tommy Dreamer, a sweetheart who can barely count to five?
And yet we are all the same in this one critical aspect: We love this crazy, so-called fake sport that most of the world can't imagine anyone being this interested in.
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Wrestling came to me when I really needed it. In the early '80s my grandfather was in hospital for a while. I wanted to go see him, but hospitals are spooky to a kid, and seeing someone I loved looking so sick, hooked up to scary machines … it was tough.
But there was a tiny — remember this was a public hospital in the '80s — TV in the corner, and my grandfather would put pro-wrestling on when I visited. We'd sit there and we'd be transported to a place with larger-than-life characters who weren't afraid, who overcame.
It became our thing. Once he was discharged from the hospital, we'd watch wrestling together for the rest of his life.
And that's part of what I love about pro wrestling — it brings people together. I always say, when we do what we do right in pro wrestling, we create moments. And moments are meant to be shared. It's parents and kids. Siblings. Best friends. The guy at work who you noticed wearing an nWo shirt. Wrestling creates this sense of community. You experience it together and for a little while, you just escape.
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That's what got me hooked. That's what keeps me hooked.
As I said on that Zoom: I am never, ever leaving this business.
Have we really gone two whole months without naming Seth Rollins's faction?
C'mon Trips, give 'em a name.
(WWE via Getty Images)
I am very excited to tune into AEW tonight, for Kota Ibushi's first AEW match since 2023 booked for "AEW Dynamite." He is a real-life and on-screen friend of Kenny Omega, and he takes on Don Callis Family member Trent Beretta.
Speaking of Kenny Omega, he got a kick out of last week's column showing his uncle, the Golden Sheik, photographed next to Don Callis and his flowing mane of hair.
It was interesting, booking-wise, that Jey Uso lost clean again on "WWE Raw," this time to Cody Rhodes.
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Yes, Uso was protected in the loss — kicking out of three Cody Cutters and even giving Rhodes a Cross Rhodes for a near fall — but the fact is this is his second clean loss on the flagship show in two weeks, having lost his WWE World Title via submission to Gunther.
You have to trust WWE has a plan for one of the most over performers on their roster.
One direction they could go with Uso is for him to be the first major opponent for a heel Cody Rhodes.
Cody himself said last week that he's 'coming to the end' of his run as a babyface. Talking to a reporter at the Fanatics Fest he said: 'There's only so much someone can like you. I would love to do it (be a face) until the end of my career but … at a certain point they want to cheer someone else. I get that and that's when you have to change as a character.'
Pressed, Cody said he thinks the heel change is about a year or more away…
Or maybe he turns heel in time to headline WrestleMania 42 against Jey Uso in Las Vegas next April?
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