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John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes at WWE WrestleMania 41 to secure his place in the history books.
The newly heel superstar beat Rhodes after blasting Rhodes with the WWE Championship to capture his 17th world title, surpassing Ric Flair for the most world championship wins in WWE history. It was a sight that would have been unimaginable just a few short months ago.
But Cena’s epic heel turn, which for years was nothing more than a fantasy booker’s dream, changed everything for Cena and Rhodes as well. For the first time in two decades, Cena, long the poster boy for WWE, found himself getting booed when he was actually supposed to be.
Of course, Cena spent at least a decade drowning in jeers from the crowd as a babyface, but it wasn’t until Rhodes took his spot as WWE’s No. 1 star that Cena was able to get the right type of boos. In one of the most shocking twists in WWE history, Cena spent the past two months transforming from do-gooder to villain, and even though he hit a few bumps in the road, his heel turn has presented WWE with countless possible paths for his future feuds.
So, too, did Cena’s win over Rhodes at WrestleMania 41, which went down in a way that no one could have envisioned at the beginning of the year as Cena the heel was widely cheered while Rhodes the heel was booed throughout the match.
It was way back in 2018 that Cena won his last major singles match, and so, it felt as if Cena’s 17th world title triumph would eventually be a moment to celebrate Cena getting back to his winning ways. Instead, Cena used a couple of ref bumps, interference from rapper Travis Scott, a low blow and the WWE itself to secure his record-breaking title win and send Rhodes back to the position of challenger.
That’s ultimately not a bad place for Rhodes to be, either.
It was, of course, Cody Rhodes’ famous “story” to climb the proverbial mountain and defeat Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. After failing to do so at WrestleMania 39, he ultimately achieved his goal at WrestleMania 40. Along the way, Rhodes was the driving force behind WWE’s sellout streak, its booming merchandise sales and its general uptick in quality.
Formerly an overlooked midcarder during his previous run in WWE, Rhodes helped catapult WWE to new heights, with his win over Reigns at WrestleMania 40 shattering numerous records in route to becoming the highest-grossing event in WWE history. That’s the type of undeniable impact Rhodes has had during WWE’s biggest boom in more than 25 years, and ironically, he’s passing the torch back to the man he took it from.
Cena, in the midst of his retirement tour, is now tasked with holding WWE’s most prestigious championship for the first time in nearly a decade. How will Cena fare as WWE’s alpha at this stage of his career?
As Cena proved with his effect on Royal Rumble ticket sales, he still has the drawing power that helped him rise to the top of WWE so many years ago. But his biggest challenge will be ensuring that he holds down the fort at a time when WWE has hit a creative rut.
After WWE spent much of 2023 and 2024 delivering engaging storylines across Raw and SmackDown, there has been a noticeable dip in the overall quality of WWE programming in 2025. Especially on the road to WrestleMania 41, even some of WWE’s biggest feuds wildly underwhelmed.
There is, however, nothing underwhelming about a newly heel Cena dethroning Rhodes and holding the WWE title as the clock is ticking on his career. But WWE must capitalize on that in a way that it didn’t with Cena’s initial heel turn, when The Rock disappeared from WWE despite being a key reason why Cena turned heel at all.
WWE must tie all the loose ends together and find a way to keep Cena’s momentum going as a heel following his tainted WrestleMania 41 win while ensuring that Rhodes doesn’t lose steam without the WWE title he’s held for a year.
And that, well, is easier said than done.
