John Cena turns heel for the first time in 22 years at Elimination Chamber as fans left speechless by 'insane' segment

For the first time in 22 years, John Cena has turned heel. I repeat, John Cena – the ultimate babyface of professional wrestling – has turned heel at the Elimination Chamber event.

Back in July, Cena confirmed that his final in-ring competition will be in 2025 as part of a much-anticipated farewell tour.

So far, the 16-time world champion has appeared at WWE Raw’s Netflix debut and the Royal Rumble ahead of Wrestlemania 41 in Las Vegas on April 20, which will be his final goodbye.

And on Saturday night, Cena made an appearance at the Elimination Chamber event in Toronto as he came up against CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Damian Priest and Logan Paul.

After a lengthy match, The Doctor of Thuganomics pinned CM Punk to book his place at Wrestlemania 41 but what happened afterwards was by far the biggest talking point of the night – if not the year.

As current champion Cody Rhodes took to the ring to congratulate Cena on his triumph, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and rap star Travis Scott interrupted their meeting.

'The Rock' then addressed Rhodes, demanding his soul. “I want it all, Rock," replied Rhodes. “My soul no longer belongs to me. You know why? I gave my soul to this ring, and these people a long time ago. Hey Rock: Go f*** yourself!"

Moments later, Rhodes and Cena embraced but in one of the most shocking moments in WWE history, the latter hit the champion with a low blow before smacking him over the head with a Rolex watch.

It didn't stop there. Cena hit Rhodes with the Undisputed Championship belt until he started bleeding before choking him with his tie. Travis Scott even got involved in the beating as Michael Cole pleaded for them to stop.

Check out the footage below – you won't be disappointed.

Here's how fans on social media reacted to the scenes.

One said: "I’ve watched wrestling for almost 20 years and this is the single most insane thing I’ve ever seen in professional wrestling. They really did it. They turned John Cena heel. This is REAL TO ME."

A second wrote: "In the final leg of his career John Cena embarks on his most creatively inspired venture yet by turning heel & becoming a villain for an audience who adores him. Moments like these stand the test of time. Only the greatest the industry has ever seen are capable of producing them."

A third commented: "This just solidified John Cena as the greatest professional wrestler ever," and a fourth said: "This John Cena, The Rock and Travis Scott faction tho. I’m here for it."

A fifth added: "You know how great of a babyface you have to be to get The Rock AND John Cena to turn heel in 2025? When his career is all set and done, Cody Rhodes will go down as one of the greatest babyfaces of all time."

After the event, WWE's Chief Content Officer, Triple H, opened up on what he'd just witnessed inside the ring.

“A lot of surprises tonight, incredible matches, incredible moments, and then John Cena drops a nuke,” he began.

“I’ve been fortunate to be around a lot of the biggest things in this business in the last 30 years. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt a more powerful moment, of the entirety of John Cena’s career being the one guy that you never really…when he really became John Cena and the champion, you didn’t see this moment coming.

"When you get to a place in your career when you know undoubtedly you have months left on your career and your dream and the thing that launched you to the rest of the world, it puts you in a different perspective.

“It puts you in a place of, it is now or never, and you can ride that out, and you can rest on the things that you have done, and you couldn’t really blame John for doing that, for just saying, ‘I’m gonna come in and I’m gonna ride the nostalgia wave for the next ten months. I’m gonna wave at everybody, I’m gonna do the tour. I’m gonna come to your town, I’m gonna say hi and expect you to react to the nostalgia of John Cena.’

“Or somebody like him can double down and say, screw it, I want to be challenged right to the last moment. I want to go out on my shield, I want to give this everything I have. I want to challenge myself, I want to do something different, I want to be afraid of it, I want to go out there and do it all. That’s the beauty of John Cena.”

Thoughts on Cena's heel turn in Canada? Let us know in the comments.