John Cena’s Heel Turn Left WWE Unreal Crew Blindsided

Chris Weaver just peeled back the curtain on one of the most chaotic behind-the-scenes moments from WWE Unreal, and it centers around a major storyline shift: John Cena’s heel turn.

During an in-depth update via Wrestling Republic about filming the Netflix docuseries, Weaver admitted that secrecy made documenting the twist nearly impossible—and that the crew had no real footage when it mattered most.

Weaver recalled how everything shifted during Elimination Chamber in Toronto, when he suspected something big was coming, but no one told the crew. That secrecy almost derailed the most compelling episode of the series.

“I think the most difficult thing is like something like the heel turn… that was so such a big story and had to be kept so secret for them that, you know, that’s like one of the few things we just had no knowledge of whatsoever. So when I found out—I mean, I was in Toronto for Chamber—and it was like I went into Chamber thinking that Cody was going to turn heel that night, and not through them, not, you know, there was no… it was just sort of my hunch and where they were headed with the story. It just made a lot of sense that he was going to turn heel.”

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He went on to describe how things pivoted with The Rock in New Orleans instead—and how Netflix’s crew was left scrambling:

“And then obviously, you know, he did the thing in New Orleans with Rock and they were sort of setting it up. And we’d been sort of told this, there’s going to be a big… it’s going to be a big show, you know, you don’t want to miss it… but without telling us explicitly. So when I found out like 15 minutes before that it was actually going to happen, I was like, ‘Shit, we don’t have… like what are we going to do in an access show that we don’t have what I knew was going to be the biggest story of the year now?’”

The production had to get creative fast. According to Weaver, this challenge ended up being a blessing in disguise:

“These boundaries and challenges create ideas and they lead creation… knowing that we had to take something that we didn’t have much on and turn it into what I think is sort of the most compelling part of the series… that’s an example of something that was really challenging to pull off and I think we did it.”

He also discussed the pressure of balancing deep-cut storytelling with new audience appeal:

“Another big challenge was trying to balance like, you know, the avid fan, the avid wrestling fan and what they know and what their expectations are, and balance that out with like the newcomer that knows absolutely nothing about it… there’s a lot of intricacies to their storytelling.”

Weaver gave credit to showrunner Eric Powers for helping manage that balance, especially when it came to complex characters like Roman Reigns and The Bloodline.

WWE Unreal premiered on Netflix in five parts, with each episode covering massive turning points—culminating in John Cena’s dark turn and WrestleMania 41’s chaos.

What’s your take on how they handled Cena’s heel turn behind the scenes? Do you think Netflix pulled it off? Drop your thoughts in the comments below—we want to hear from you.

Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.