John Cena heel turn was considered by WWE for his program with The Rock

It's been covered before, and you pretty much knew that when John Cena sat down for a shoot interview, even on WWE Network, that it was going to be asked again.

As Chris Jericho joked when asking about a John Cena heel turn on Live! with Chris Jericho last night (April 6, 2015), it's a question wrestling fans ponder more than the meaning of life. And in answering it last night, Cena didn't cover a whole lot of new ground. But he did drop one interesting anecdote about Creative considering a plan to turn him during his two year program with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Beyond that, it's still mostly that company man Cena is up for it, but that he remains motivated by his young fans and concerned about who fills his shoes if he does turn on them:

It was discussed, briefly. It was discussed briefly with the program with The Rock. And immediately, I ran off like a cartoon - you could see my dust shadow - recorded new theme music, got new gear made...was ready to set, and this was just a causal 'hey we may be thinking about this'. So it's not like I'm not ready for it. But at the same point, I know what...I know...ya know, I'm just trying to my job the best I can. And I get what we're doing...

If it happened, I thought it would have been great. It would be great for me to be able to show that different side. It would be great for me to go out and do that. But at the same time, it is so rewarding for me to go out there and be aspirational, to be inspirational.

If you [Jericho] as a grown adult are like 'man, when is he just gonna be a bad guy?' but the eight year old kid in the front row is literally lit up. That [points to picture of him meeting with a couple young fans] makes everything worth it. Everything. And for everybody to say 'Come on, dude. Just turn heel', my comeback for that is 'you guys boo me anyway'. I'm the biggest heel in the company. You want me to turn heel so, what, you can cheer me? And that kid right there [points to a picture of him with Connor Michalek] can go 'what's going on?'

If there was somebody who could do what I'm doing as good or better than I do it...let 'em run. Let me have a little bit of versatility. In the same token, I think when you get into this - first of all you want to do it. 'Man, I never thought I could do this'. Second of all, it becomes a career, and you want it to achieve a certain amount of success. And then after a while, validity becomes the most important thing. 'Why am I doing this? Why do I enjoy this so much?' Because when I get to meet that kid [points at another picture with a young fan], who gave me a t-shirt, that I wore out for a dark match so I can see on his father's shoulder, in a 'Team Giovanni' shirt and him giving me the salute...I don't care if he's the only one cheering for me. I am performing for him. And that is just an unbelievable feeling. What we do is entertainment, and Daniel Bryan said it best when he inducted Connor - it is fiction. When you get that smile, when you get that feeling - it justifies what you do. And to me, that is not worth being bad, that is not worth turning my back on anybody. As long as that kid shows up, I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna bear the brunt of it.

I'd be open to doing whatever. But I've always, like I said, whether I'm in the first match, the middle or the last match, I play my hand the best I can. I don't care. So, if they tell me 'hey, the time has come, you gotta do it', I just truly hope they have someone waiting in the wings that's gonna give that, I don't think John Cena turning heel is letting the kids down. I think no one to give the kids that moment is letting the kids down.

Anything new there for you, Cagesiders? How do you think a turn during "Twice in a Lifetime" would have worked? Will WWE ever find a Superman-replacement so Cena can show us more versatility?

Prove Jericho right by talking about it below.