John Cena has confirmed that they have had to change the original story for his final run.
The Cenation Leader had shown signs of his heel turn early in his final run when Jey Uso eliminated him to win the Royal Rumble. The entry of The Rock in his story, however, changed things up. Many believe that the company had to alter the direction of Cena’s story to fit in with the vision of The Great One.
The 17-time world champion talked about these changes during a recent interview with Collider. He was asked how far in advance WWE plans their storylines. John Cena mentioned how he has done many different things as an entertainer and claimed that there is no more adaptable form of storytelling than wrestling:
“There is no more adaptable form of storytelling than WWE. WWE can change a story as it happens live. You’re seeing, so far over the farewell tour dates, the 18 of 36 so far, we’ve made a ton of pivots, a ton of pivots right there in the moment.”
The Audience Will Begin To Feel Differently: John Cena
John Cena’s story has seen another change in the form of R-Truth. The Attitude Era star was originally expected to wrap up his WWE run with his Saturday Night’s Main Event match against his childhood hero last month. The negative reaction to his release, however, forced the company to bring Truth back, and he has since continued his story with The Peacemaker star.
The Hollywood star told people that more such pivots should be expected as he enters the second half of his retirement tour. He explained that the decision of what to change and what to keep is dictated by the audience:
“As we get close to the end of this thing, what dictates those pivots is the audience, and I think the audience will begin to feel differently, because now we are truly coming to the end.
So, if you ever had a voice to use, if you ever wanted to say something, I hate to steal my own cliché, but the time is now. I look forward to the road ahead because the audience is going to dictate the direction we go.”
The WWE Champion is set to defend his title against arch rival CM Punk in presumably their last encounter at the upcoming Night of Champions PPV from Saudi Arabia on June 28.