Spoilers

So I wrapped up the final two episodes of WWE Unreal tonight with two episodes that I thought were the best ones of the series.

Episode 4 featured the heel turn of John Cena, including the parts of the story involving Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Episode 5 was Wrestlemania 41.

There were a lot of cool moments in these episodes. I did enjoy listening to the planning behind the Elimination Chamber where what exactly they wanted to do with the Rock/Cody story was determined. With it leading to John Cena’s heel turn, the writer’s room was pretty cool.

I did enjoy hearing CM Punk give the idea for the ending of the men’s Elimination Chamber where Seth stomps Punk and Cena puts him into the STF. It went exactly as Punk had laid out and hearing that was an awesome moment. Especially with all six participants surrounding Triple H in the planning. It showed how professional these men were.

My favorite part of the entire series was seeing how emotional CM Punk was over finally main eventing Wrestlemania. He had tears in his eyes before heading out for the match. Triple H told him that he had always been a main event performer and you could see how much that meant to Punk. The tears after the match were so powerful too. He spoke about how he had accomplished his lifelong dream and it was not just a written promo. This was Phil Brooks (CM Punk’s real name) speaking from his heart.

The show did mention some of the negatives that lead up to Wrestlemania, such as Jey Uso’s troubles where we saw a ZOOM meeting where creative had discussed not putting the title on him because of his malaise. They also addressed the Charlotte Flair-Tiffany Stratton promo that had gotten too real on an episode of Smackdown.

It still felt as if there could have been more that we saw, but, perhaps the dirt sheets that report all these things, do not necessarily get things correct. The relationship between Rock and Triple H is supposed to be very bad, but there was no even slight example of that in this docu-series.

This was an interesting docu-series and I do believe it was well put together. It was certainly produced carefully, but it was fun seeing the backstage parts.

Friday Night kicked off the Wrestlemania weekend with Smackdown on the USA Network. Three hour show (Smackdown was better when it was two hours, just saying) filled with fun promos and exciting action in Los Vegas.

Seth Rollins started the show off with a fantastic in-ring promo, sitting in the middle of the ring much like his rival CM Punk would do, delivering a scathing promo on the Saturday night match against Roman and Punk. Rollins is just one of the best all-around performers in the WWE. He threw even more gas on the fire of this match.

The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was won by Carmelo Hayes, which I found shocking. I expected Rey Fenix to win the battle royal, but El Grande Americano showed up and cost him the match. Funny, Chad Gable was in the battle royal and had been previously eliminated. It came down to Carmelo and Andrade and they have amazing chemistry with one another.

Smackdown tag team champions the Street Prophets do not get on Wrestlemania card, which was a shame, but they defended against Motor City Machine Guns tonight. However, Gargano and Ciampa interfered causing a no contest and they stole the title belts. Nick Aldis got them back and announced a TLC match next week.

LA Knight and Braun Stroman defeated Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu. Knight had injured Tama Tonga before the show. He was taken to the infamous “Local Medical Facility”.

Selina Vega pulled an upset against Chelsea Green in a non-title match.

Cody Rhodes and John Cena had a face off in the ring. Cena delivered another strong promo, and the crowd seemed to boo Cody when he started his retort, but Cody pushed on and seemed to win them back afterwards. Both men are great on the microphone. Cena may be right about the crowd and how fickle they are.

Triple H had stated that the WWE’s PLC this weekend, The Elimination Chamber, would be an “industry-changing event” and he was wasn’t joking. The biggest shock came at the very end of the show, as John Cena, the ultimate of all good guys, turned to a bad guy.

Some set up. Dwayne Johnson had returned to the WWE as The Final Boss. A week before, he went to WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and asked him to give him his soul, and become The Rock’s champion. He gave Cody until the Elimination Chamber to make his decision.

John Cena had just won the Men’s Elimination Chamber match by forcing CM Punk to pass out to the STF. Cena was still in the ring when Cody Rhodes made his way to the ring. This was not uncommon. By winning the Chamber, Cena earned a match for the championship with Rhodes at Wrestlemania and there is a long tradition of people in the matches like this facing off with each other. In fact, earlier in the PLC, Bianca Belair had won the women’s Chamber and Rhea Ripley (and Iyo Sky) came out to confront her. So when Rhodes came down to the ring, it was expected to be a confrontation.

Then the Rock came down, and he told Cody that he wanted his answer. He told Cody that if he said yes, he would have everything, and if he said no, his dream would die, again. However, Cody said that he had already given his soul away to the fans and the ring, and that Rock could go “F-himself,” except he didn’t say “F.”

Cena was excited in the background, and he came over to hug Cody. That was when Cena’s face changed and he received the throat-slitting gesture from The Rock. He then attacked Cody Rhodes and bloodied him with the championship belt.

Cena and the Rock stood over top of Cody Rhodes posing together.

Fans have been wanting a Cena heel turn for years, but the WWE rejected the idea. Cena was the ultimate babyface, granted more Make-a-Wish requests than anyone ever, and was always a heroic figure, even if the crowd was half chanting that “Cena Sucks.” They had chances to turn him heel before, and they never took it.

Cena had announced that he would be returning to the WWE in 2025 to engage in a retirement tour. That at the end of 2025, Cena would retire from in-ring competition. He has become a successful actor in Hollywood so this would be the final run. He wanted to win his 17th world championship, which would break the record of 16, a total he shared with Ric Flair.

Turning him heel on his final run with the company and in such a grand manner was gutsy. It was an amazing decision, one that has immediately been compared to the heel turn by Hulk Hogan when he formed the NWO, largely considered the most famous heel turn of all time.

The WWE is upside down and the Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena match suddenly has so many more stakes involved besides a Cena record. The industry is totally changed and will be for the foreseeable future.

The time is now.