Rikishi thinks John Cena might be taking Thuganomics back to the roots.
Since John Cena turned heel at WWE Elimination Chamber, fans have buzzed about the possibility that he could bring back aspects of his Dr. of Thuganomics gimmick. Cena recently teased this development by posting a TikTok of the turn with his "Basic Thuganomics" song.
Speaking on his Off The Top podcast, Rikishi discussed John Cena's heel turn.
“Well, it’s good for business. My goodness. It was written so well. This is John Cena’s last tour. So the whole world was behind this guy because of what he’s given to the business. We’ve seen it, we’ve heard it numerous times. Probably one of the most iconic, loved professional wrestling superstars in history. To be able to just, out of the blue…when he hugged Cody, and he’s looking at Rock, his face changed. It was like a demon. It’s like a demon came up into John, and all that rage of whatever it is that made him throw away all those people’s love and support, supported him through the years, and he sold out. If WrestleMania wasn’t already a hit anyways, Yeet-Mania wasn’t a hit anyways, well damn it, here comes John Cena and Cody Rhodes. I’m a fan of Cody, but I’m a ‘Stone Cold’ type of fan, like an Undertaker type of fan, a Randy ‘Macho Man’ type of fan, those people’s different. Cody’s good, he’s a good role model, but there was something that was missing for Cody, just to get people Cody full 100%. The one thing about wrestling fans, they don’t like to be fooled. They don’t like their intelligence to be played with, their mindset, because they’re smart. But not one wrestling fan, even myself, seen that coming. All of us, it shocked the whole world. It made people that don’t watch professional wrestling, because all the sudden, John Cena’s a well-known guy, in and out the squared circle, and news all across the entertainment world, besides the professional wrestling world. So hey, I think, boy, oh boy. I kind of see Thugonomics coming back to the roots. It’s gonna be a good one. I guess when you think you know it all in the business, man, you actually don’t, because that was a good swerve," Rikishi said.
Rikishi was then asked whether he thought that Cena would go back to the Thuganomics gimmick and clothes or he would change his look otherwise. He responded by saying that he wanted to see Cena with some new drip.
“We all want to hold onto the type of John Cena back in the day. But because how ‘The Final Boss’ is moving, we can also see how ‘The Final Boss’, what he’s wearing. Him and Travis Scott came out. Travis Scott is Travis Scott, but you see the drip they got on. So I almost kinda see…John Cena will be John Cena. But to make John Cena relevant to the new era with this new heel turn, I would love to see a John Cena with the new drip. We all have longevity. All the kids back in the day, even some of my kids, my grandkids, there was John Cena with the jerseys, but to add on to that collection of the real hardcore fans of just professional wrestling and general for John Cena, it’d be nice to have a new action figure of the new drip of the John Cena, the heel John Cena. He’s been heel before, but damn it, it wasn’t no heel turn like we’ve just seen," Rikishi said.
Cena previously said that he hoped to give fans sprinkles of every facet of his career during his farewell tour.
Click here to see what Matt Hardy had to say about John Cena's heel turn.
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