Hulk Hogan Comments on John Cena’s Heel Turn Being “One of the Best I’ve Seen in a Long Time”
As noted before, this past Saturday’s WWE Elimination Chamber 2025 event featured John Cena making a surprise heel turn and aligning himself with the “Final Boss” The Rock.
The Undisputed held a recent interview with WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan. One of the topics discussed included Hogan’s thoughts about Cena’s heel turn being one of the best heel turns he has seen in a long time.
“It’s one of the best heel turns I’ve seen in a long, long time. All the major players were involved. I can’t say enough about The Rock, too–he was incredible. They did it right, I’ll tell you that.”
Hogan also gave his thoughts about the potential longevity of Cena’s new heel run in WWE and its potential legacy in wrestling.
“It’s going to work as long as John wants to stay plugged in. I don’t know his schedule or how many days he’ll work, but he definitely has everyone’s attention. Plus, The Rock is involved, too. This could heat up more than anyone is expecting. It could be so hot that it’s crazy, which will lead to a WrestleMania match you’ll never forget.”
AJ Styles Comments on Feeling His In-Ring Career Might Have Been Over Following Foot Injury & It Being His Decision to Bring Back Old Theme Song for His Return
A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured AJ Styles as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Styles’ thoughts about his foot injury this past October and his reason for not undergoing surgery for it.
“Little did I know, it was actually worse than breaking it. I didn’t know at the time but yeah, that was like, ‘Oh crap…’ Oh man, and I’d knew I’d broke it, right? Because if you’ve broken it before — same foot — I was like, ‘I broke it again’ and I’m pissed because now I know how long it’s gonna take to get back. But, again, little did I know, it was much worse than a break.
Because it’s tendons, and my doctor, who is also my friend, was like, ‘Do not look this up.’ I’m like, ‘I’m gonna look this up’ and it’s a career-ending injury, and it happens in car wrecks and in professional football mostly. That’s usually when it happens, and in football, of course, it’s one of those things depending how severe it is. Literally by the skin of my teeth, I was able to — they were (like), ‘We can have surgery. We can do surgery on your foot and it will heal faster. But, there could be complications as you get older. We don’t know. We don’t have to have surgery. Let’s try to do some therapy and get it back to where it is,’ and lucky for me, I was able to get that therapy that I needed. Wasn’t easy. It sucked. It’s so crazy that you have to learn how to walk again to a certain extent. Like, how did I forget how to run? Little things like that because I was in a boot for six weeks. Then I got six weeks in therapy, trying to figure this thing out. It’ll mess with you.”
Styles also gave his thoughts about how he had felt at one point that his in-ring career might have been over due to his foot injury.
“This is it (Styles thought his in-ring career could be over following the 2024 foot injury). I was like, ‘This is it. How am I going to recover again?’ I was like, ‘This might be it,’ and it sucked because like you said, I just came back. I was not hurt… after I wrestled Cody (Rhodes), right? In the ‘I Quit’ match. I was not hurt during that time. So I’m sitting at home going, okay guys, okay, and then, ‘Hey, we’re gonna bring you back in Nashville. It’s gonna be great.’ Hurt myself. I was like, ‘Mother–’ I was shoot-pissed. I was mad. It may have looked like I was acting. I was not… It was one of those you’re so mad… what can you say? Beat on the mat and I was like, ‘Mother–’ I was so mad because this was my moment and I screwed it up… and I’m back now. Mind you, I say I screwed it up. Not anybody else. This isn’t ballet. This is wrestling. People get hurt, mistakes happen and I blame nobody but myself. So, just wanna throw that out there.”
Styles also gave his thoughts about how it was his decision to bring back his old entrance theme song for his return from injury.
“Yeah, it was my call to change it, too, because as a bad guy, I thought my song was a little too cool. Everybody loves that song. I love the song, but that’s not who I was trying to be. I wanted you to not like me. I wanted you to despise me. I thought, ‘Well, if I change the song up, people are gonna hate it,’ perfect, right? If they do, perfect. Then, when I knew I was coming back, I was gonna be the good guy again. I was like, ‘I want my old music back.’ Nobody said anything. Y’ep, that’s fine.’ So yeah, that was my decision.”
Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com, Fightful.com
WWE News & Notes
Wednesday’s WWE EVOLVE show featured WWE SVP of NXT and Talent Relations Shawn Michaels officially announcing NXT General Manager Ava as the authority figure for WWE’s new brand.
Wednesday’s WWE Speed show on Twitter featured Ivar defeating Yoshiki Inamura to advance to the next round of WWE’s newest #1 Contender’s tournament for the WWE Speed Championship. Ivar will be facing off against Dominik Mysterio in the Finals of WWE’s current tournament.
As noted before, 2K Games recently revealed the full list of DLC packs and contents for their upcoming WWE 2K25 video game. Among the DLC wrestlers to be included in this year’s game is ECW legend New Jack. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that New Jack was added to the planned DLC roster after WWE made a deal with his family.
WWE recently removed two previously advertised appearances for CM Punk for their upcoming new European tour. The dates removed were the March 24th WWE RAW show in Glasgow, Scotland and the March 31st WWE RAW show in London, England.
Tuesday’s red carpet premiere event for the Queen of the Ring film in New York City New York featured WWE Hall of Famers Trish Stratus, Lita, and Madusa and former WWE talents Sonya Deville, Jazz, and Elektra Lopez among the notable guests invited.
As noted before, Asuka has been out of action for WWE since this past May due to a knee injury. Asuka had suffered the injury in March of 2024 but worked through the injury until this past May. Bodyslam.net’s Cassidy Haynes reported that his sources stated that Asuka is currently expected to remain out of action for at least another several more months. Haynes reported that WWE officials had been working on plans for Asuka to come back in time for WrestleMania 41 and compete in a tag team match at the event but dropped those plans due to them wanting to be cautious over her injury recovery. Haynes also reported that those spoken to stated that Asuka has been progressing well in her recovery.
WWE recently revealed the next match in their on-going countdown of their Top 50 matches in WrestleMania history. The 43rd spot was the WWE Championship match of Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena (c) from WrestleMania 23.
WWE also recently released two new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first video was a “Story of The Undertaker – Chapter 3: Creatures of the Night Years (1994-95).” The second new video was the singles match of The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez from WWE WrestleMania IX.
WWE also recently released one new video to their NXT Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was the full November 6, 2013 episode of WWE NXT.
As noted before, this past Tuesday’s WWE NXT show featured SmackDown ring announcer Lilian Garcia filling in for Mike Rome as the ring announcer for the show. Garcia recently reflected on Instagram about her appearance on NXT. Garcia stated “I wasn’t expecting to ever be able to announce @wwenxt and yet it happened!! …What an absolute blast announcing all the incredible NXT talent, my SmackDown gals @chelseaagreen & @pipernivenwwe AND yes….The Hardy Boys – @matthardybrand & @jeffhardybrand!! After all these years, that was SURREAL INDEED!! Life has a crazy way of shelling out surprises. Last night was a good one!! Thank you NXT for having me and all the love! You guys were awesome!!“
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