Triple H Discusses Passion With Which John Cena Approached WWE Heel Turn

WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque and WWE Creative did the unthinkable earlier this year when they turned beloved longtime babyface John Cena heel in his quest to win his 17th World Title. In an interview on "Flagrant," Levesque gave credit to Cena for his willingness to do something different for his retirement tour.

"I'll say this, from a bold standpoint, it would've been so easy for John [Cena]...to say 'I'm coming back for a year, let's go out there and do my greatest hits,'" Levesque explained. "When we threw the heel idea at him, he was like 'F*** yeah...This is challenging to me. I love the challenge.'"

Levesque said that Cena sounded excited about the idea on the phone but wasn't prepared for quite how excited the former WWE United States Champion would be about the prospect.

"Within the next five minutes, I got like six texts from him...He couldn't stop thinking about it, and he had to talk to someone about it because he was on a movie set," Levesque said. "This has piqued his interest and it's been cool to see John...so engaged and so passionate about this...It's so cool to watch."

Cena's heel turn worked. The Cenation leader is now a 17-time world champion, after he defeated Cody Rhodes with the help of Travis Scott at WrestleMania 41 on April 20. Cena's first title defense will be at the upcoming Backlash event, where he will face his rival Randy Orton for likely the last time in both men's careers.