Eric Bischoff Calls John Cena’s First Heel Promo “Weak”

WWE Hall of Famer and former WCW President Eric Bischoff appeared on his 83 Weeks podcast episode. He discussed several topics, including how John Cena’s first heel promo was weak.

Bischoff said, “I agree with you. It was exciting. ‘John Cena is turning heel. Oh, the potential.’ But there wasn’t anything dramatic about it other than the fact that he turned heel. It was interesting. Even — you know, and I did see the clip of his promo. I didn’t see a lot. I saw a clip of it. It was okay. I mean the delivery was great, but the message was kind of weak for that job.”

On Cena not changing up his look:

“I think it’s a really interesting question. And my view’s changed. Going in, I was hoping that I would get a look, a different look for John’s character that somehow represented this new heel character in some way, shape or form. I didn’t know what that is, necessarily. But I think they’re doing it the right way for John. Because here’s the downside, if you completely change his character over, it’s almost too drastic. It’s almost too — it’s not authentic at all. There’s absolutely no degree of authenticity when you go in the room dressed like one character and you come out of the room dressed like another without a reasonable amount of time and transition. It just becomes jolting, creatively speaking, without a reason. And therefore, in the process of doing that you lose any connection to authenticity. It didn’t feel organic, didn’t feel like it was happening in front of our eyes as we’re on this journey. It just happened, like you walked in looking one way, walked out looking another, another disconnect. So probably a week or two ago, I would have said, ‘Give me a different look.’ But I think especially with the creative that they’re giving him, because they’re giving him a kind of nuanced creative. There’s no why, so we gotta look for the reason, which means it’s a nuanced motivation. And I think keeping him in that same character the way they’ve introduced the story is probably the best idea.”

You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.

(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)