Hard to understand why they wouldn't let Cena do a full-time final run. Maybe they didn't want a nostalgia run to overshadow the rest of the product for a year? I kind of get it, but at the same time... it's John Cena. There's a way to make it work, to weave it into storylines to enhance them rather than take away from them. I can't help but think it was simply because Cena was a Vince guy, and Triple H didn't want a Vince guy coming in and taking the spotlight.
Ultimately the Cena retirement run will be one of those things that is talked about for years to come, but for all the wrong reasons. It was such a bizarre clusterfuck that often made no sense whatsoever. How hard is it to just sit down and say, "OK, this is the story we're going to go with and this is how we're going to get there from now until December". From everything I've read a significant amount of it ended up being off-the-cuff - which is not only idiotic but just outright negligent. It's even weirder because Triple H is generally known for planning things out in advance - what happened here to throw all of that out the window? Was there interference from TKO/The Rock? The heel turn certainly seemed predicated on Rock having a major part in the story, only for him to vanish the night after it happened and never reappear.
Knowing Triple H's logical booking style, I am tempted to believe him when he says scripts were being changed on the fly. I am unsure as to why Cena would be doing this, though, when he's out there saying he's just doing what he's told. It all points to a third party fucking things up, that neither Triple H or Cena wants to name outright. The only obvious candidate in that scenario is TKO/Rock.
My guess (and it really is pure speculation) is that Triple H and Cena did have the year planned out at the beginning. I doubt it involved any kind of heel turn. TKO/Rock come along early on and pitch the heel turn - Cena is possibly intrigued by it and says yes, or maybe he just says yes because he's a company man and will just do whatever he's told by his superiors. Triple H is likely against it, but goes along with the idea because, hey, he's outnumbered and at the end of the day TKO are in charge. He pretty much has to roll with it. To go against it is to basically say "I can't do the creative for this", which wouldn't be a good look for him.
Rock decides to bail after the initial heel turn. Who knows why. TKO also lose interest. Now Triple H is left with a heel Cena scenario he didn't plan for and didn't want. Cena is still on board to try and make it work, but ends up at odds with creative, leading to disagreements. As a result you get this weird, fractured heel run with little direction or purpose. Eventually they realise the whole thing is beyond redemption and just jettison the entire thing into the sun. I mean, they literally just decided Cena wasn't a heel anymore on a random Smackdown and that was that. Clearly no thought went into this, either - or arguments between Cena and creative led to this sudden illogical shift.
Now you've only got a few months left of the retirement run and the majority of Cena's dates are used up. Best you can do is go through some of Cena's classic opponents and call it a day. Fuck knows why they had him job to Brock, just another utterly strange decision. But by this point it didn't much matter.
End point with Gunther was likely the final destination from the beginning. I doubt this was how they planned to get there, though.
That's the best explanation I can come up with for what happened. We'll probably find out in the future what really went down, but for now likely it'll all be speculation.
Ultimately the Cena retirement run will be one of those things that is talked about for years to come, but for all the wrong reasons. It was such a bizarre clusterfuck that often made no sense whatsoever. How hard is it to just sit down and say, "OK, this is the story we're going to go with and this is how we're going to get there from now until December". From everything I've read a significant amount of it ended up being off-the-cuff - which is not only idiotic but just outright negligent. It's even weirder because Triple H is generally known for planning things out in advance - what happened here to throw all of that out the window? Was there interference from TKO/The Rock? The heel turn certainly seemed predicated on Rock having a major part in the story, only for him to vanish the night after it happened and never reappear.
Knowing Triple H's logical booking style, I am tempted to believe him when he says scripts were being changed on the fly. I am unsure as to why Cena would be doing this, though, when he's out there saying he's just doing what he's told. It all points to a third party fucking things up, that neither Triple H or Cena wants to name outright. The only obvious candidate in that scenario is TKO/Rock.
My guess (and it really is pure speculation) is that Triple H and Cena did have the year planned out at the beginning. I doubt it involved any kind of heel turn. TKO/Rock come along early on and pitch the heel turn - Cena is possibly intrigued by it and says yes, or maybe he just says yes because he's a company man and will just do whatever he's told by his superiors. Triple H is likely against it, but goes along with the idea because, hey, he's outnumbered and at the end of the day TKO are in charge. He pretty much has to roll with it. To go against it is to basically say "I can't do the creative for this", which wouldn't be a good look for him.
Rock decides to bail after the initial heel turn. Who knows why. TKO also lose interest. Now Triple H is left with a heel Cena scenario he didn't plan for and didn't want. Cena is still on board to try and make it work, but ends up at odds with creative, leading to disagreements. As a result you get this weird, fractured heel run with little direction or purpose. Eventually they realise the whole thing is beyond redemption and just jettison the entire thing into the sun. I mean, they literally just decided Cena wasn't a heel anymore on a random Smackdown and that was that. Clearly no thought went into this, either - or arguments between Cena and creative led to this sudden illogical shift.
Now you've only got a few months left of the retirement run and the majority of Cena's dates are used up. Best you can do is go through some of Cena's classic opponents and call it a day. Fuck knows why they had him job to Brock, just another utterly strange decision. But by this point it didn't much matter.
End point with Gunther was likely the final destination from the beginning. I doubt this was how they planned to get there, though.
That's the best explanation I can come up with for what happened. We'll probably find out in the future what really went down, but for now likely it'll all be speculation.
