Rob Van Dam discusses John Cena's response to being booed following his heel turn.
John Cena recently turned heel for the first time since 2003. As a result, he's getting booed by the audience on purpose instead of fans showering him with jeers because they're tired of his act. Perhaps the most notorious example of a hostile crowd towards John Cena is in the Hammerstein ballroom back in 2006 when John Cena defended the WWE Title against Rob Van Dam at ECW One Night Stand.
Chris Van Vliet recently interviewed Rob Van Dam for his Insight podcast. RVD spoke about John Cena's crowd reaction that night, and how he watched John on other evenings, completely turn a crowd from being against him to being in his favor
“Yeah, that’s true. He knew what to do that night perfectly at One Night Stand, and he’s really great at what he does. So I think he’s going to really master the heel persona and take it some places that we didn’t expect. By the way, I mentioned this before, but I had seen him get booed. It wasn’t a lot, but leading up to that One Night Stand match, there was a town or two, I think it was in Wales, it was the first time I think that I’ve heard it was very similar to the vibe in Hammerstein Ballroom; it was very similar. Anyway, that was the first time I saw him get booed, and he was great. I don’t know if I told you this story or not, but I’d never seen him [get booed]. Then he was like, ‘Good That’s right. Boo me. Let me know how you feel. As long as you’re out there in the crowd and you’re expressing yourself, and you’re screaming that I know you’re having a good time, and that’s what it’s all about tonight.’ Obviously, he turned them all of a sudden, they were cheering him, and I was like, wow, that’s why he gets paid the big bucks.”
Elsewhere in the interview, he spoke about whether or not he's retired. Learn more about that here.
Check out John Cena's justification for his heel turn here.
Check out the full interview embedded below.
