Jake Roberts Explains Why He Doesn't Think John Cena Has The 'It Factor'

03/18/2025 10:42 AM

Jake Roberts doesn’t think John Cena has the “It Factor” and saw his heel turn as the right move.

The 16-time WWE Champion turned heel for the first time in two decades at Elimination Chamber. He sold his soul to The Rock, kicking Cody Rhodes in the balls in the process. His promo on Raw just cemented the heel turn, as fans booed John Cena out of the building in an all-time great segment.

Speaking on The Snake Pit podcast, Jake Roberts was asked if he agreed with John Cena’s recent heel turn. He agreed with it and explained that they needed to do it to establish Cody Rhodes as the top babyface in the WWE.

“Absolutely. Why not? It's time for it—for a couple of reasons.” Jake Roberts said.

“Number one, Cody’s your top babyface now, so you've got to get those other guys out of there so he's the only one. And to turn him heel? He's gonna end up putting Cody over, which is exactly what they want.”

He was then asked if he thinks John Cena ever had the “It Factor” of other top stars. Surprisingly, Jake Roberts said:

“I don't think he did. I don't feel it, man. Nothing personal, but I've just always struggled with him.”

Catch up on everything that went down on RAW, including John Cena’s first promo as a "heel" in 20 twenty years, here.

Jake Roberts Reflects On Never Winning A World Championship

WWE Hall of Famer Jake "The Snake" Roberts was a recent guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet. When asked if he had any concerns over never winning a world championship in his career, Roberts said he didn't and joked that he was glad he didn't need to carry one of those titles around with a 50-pound snake as well.

"Not at all. My god, I'm grateful I did not have to carry that too," Jake Roberts said. "You know, I carried a 50 or 60 or 75-pound snake around, and we'd be on the road for two and three weeks at a time, all your clothing, everything you gotta carry, the last thing I want is a 10-pound belt to carry around too.

"Would I've liked to have had a championship? Yeah, of course. That would have been something, but I had had several championships up until then, maybe not WWF Championship, but I'd had several Calgary, I had it in Louisiana and mid-south. I had it in Texas. I had it in different places around Mid-Atlantic. So I'd had my time with the belts. I mean, it was all right, I would have liked to have had the money that is associated with that belt. But how can I complain about a career that I had?"

The post Jake Roberts Explains Why He Doesn’t Think John Cena Has The ‘It Factor’ appeared first on Wrestlezone.