John Cena joining The Authority is the next logical step for his character

John Cena will lose to Bray Wyatt at Payback.

Fine. I’ll correct it.

John Cena should lose to Bray Wyatt at Payback.

A John Cena loss to Bray Wyatt at Payback leaves the WWE creative team with an unenviable task — how to do what’s best for business AND what’s also best for storylines.

John Cena’s situation is very similar to Hulk Hogan’s right before his NWO turn. The WCW fan base was excited to see Hogan make the jump from the WWF, but after a while, his character turned stale — much like it did in the WWF before his exit. Eric Bischoff, then the head of WCW, saw no choice but to turn Hogan heel. Lucky for Bischoff, the move created not only one of the biggest moments in wrestling history, but was the catalyst for the Monday night wars and a real wrestling renaissance.

The WWE needs to turn John Cena heel for the sake of his own career. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

John Cena goes ‘Hollywood’

John Cena can’t go full blown bad guy. It would mean too much in merchandise dollars. The WWE also can’t officially turn Cena because of all the Cena does with charity, Make a Wish kids and community events. Until another major, kid-friendly face emerges from the WWE crowd, Cena will be the “go to” superstar for all things public relations. “Hollywood” John Cena probably wouldn’t play well to sick children and wounded vets.

John Cena must be part of a heel faction but not work as the main generation of heat for the group. A background bad guy.

The Authority needs hired muscle. Sure, Demon Kane is fine for now, but Glenn Jacobs probably doesn’t have much left in the tank after this run against Daniel Bryan comes to close. Triple H is often doing Evolution business. This leaves just Stephanie McMahon as the lone Authority figure.

John Cena gets some Authority

Enter John Cena, distraught from his loss to Bray Wyatt, and broken over the way the fans turned on him the last few months. Stephanie approaches Cena with an ultimatum of sorts — do the dirty work for The Authority and they’ll see to it that Cena gets not only retribution against those millions who turned against him but more than one chance at regaining his World Championship against a seemingly unstoppable Daniel Bryan.

John Cena has no choice to accept, against his better judgement, much the way Daniel Bryan joined the Wyatt family. The Authority, specifically Stephanie McMahon, get the heat. Cena is the heel.

John Cena needs a serious character change. He needs The Authority.

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Chris Illuminati is a 5-time published author and recovering a**hole who writes about running, parenting, and professional wrestling.