John Cena was close to turning heel during his feud with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson from 2011-2013.

John Cena was a babyface for almost all of his run, but many fans wanted to see WWE turn the multi-time World Champion heel.

Cena always generated a mixed reaction from fans. While some fans loved him, others thought that he was pushed beyond his means and turned against him as a result.

Despite this, WWE never went ahead with a heel turn for Cena, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't considered.

Speaking to Pat McAfee on his podcast, Cena revealed that Vince McMahon thought about turning him heel for his first match with The Rock at WrestleMania 28 in 2012., 

“I remember Vince toyed with the idea of turning me heel versus The Rock in Miami. I said, ‘No problem, I understand, I’ll do it. Just remember that we are so deep in at this point that we can’t do it and then jump back because we’ll be sunk at both ends.’ If we do it, I have to be the opposite of virtue, I have to be pure evil and we go all in.’ From a believability standpoint, people always see me in uniform because I want people to know that what they see is someone they can relate to.

Cena went on to explain that when it was decided that he wouldn't turn heel for WrestleMania 28, McMahon explained that it was very unlikely to ever happen:

“He decided against it and at that point he said, ‘I don’t think we’re ever going to do it.’ I have the luxury of playing this character, but I always play this character, which is great because it got me to dive into nuances like the Firefly Fun House match where I was like, ‘what if I have a meta experience through all of my flaws, all my timeline,’ and do stuff like that.”

John Cena recently revealed that while he isn't done with WWE, he is unlikely to be able to attend WrestleMania 38, which you can read more about by clicking here.

Thanks to Fightful for the transcription.