WWE President Nick Khan recently shared that John Cena’s merchandise sales are still ‘off the charts’ despite the fact that the 16-time World Champion had turned heel.
While speaking to Bill Simmons on his podcast, Nick Khan shared that instantly everyone was on board with the heel turn of John Cena. He also shared that the merchandise sales are still doing well.
“So, here’s what I thought was interesting about that whole process, number one, John Cena’s merchandise, still off the charts. Top of show, at every even or almost every event. The collective decision to make that heel turn, Triple H, Cena, Dwayne Johnson, Cody, everybody, immediately on board with the whole thing. So… [WWE had not pushed John Cena to turn heel before] Not since I had been at WWE and not since Triple H had been in charge of creative. So, I don’t know. Ten, fifteen years ago, perhaps. But certainly not in the last five years.”
Nick Khan compares the circumstances of Hulk Hogan and John Cena turning heel
Nick Khan also compared John Cena’s heel turn to the infamous Hulk Hogan heel turn in WCW. Khan feels the Cena heel turn was highly effective and was a smart creative decision.
“By the way, that [Hulk Hogan’s heel turn] is one of the greatest heel turns in the history of wrestling. But as you just articulated, sort of had to be done. Cena, on his final run with us, you’ve even saw the fans prior to the heel turn, the ones who were saying ‘Cena sucks’ and ‘We love Cena.’ There was no more ‘Cena sucks.’ It was 98% overwhelmingly positive reaction to John Cena for at least the last couple of years. So, to do it when again Triple H and Cena and everyone else decided to do it, I thought it was phenomenally effective and really smart,” Nick Khan said.
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