“It had to happen sooner or later.” That’s what WWE legend Stone Cold Steve Austin told The Schmo during an exclusive interview on the latter’s channel when asked about John Cena’s epic heel turn on March 1 in Toronto at The Elimination Chamber.

While Austin seemed a lot less shocked than the rest of the professional wrestling world, he did ask an interesting question while discussing WWE’s huge storyline move and what it could mean for the future.

"It’ll be interesting to see if the people will accept him as a heel or if he just made himself an even bigger babyface."

Austin has a good point—not every heel or face turn works as designed. There were times when WWE attempted to flip Austin heel during his heyday, and fans loved him so much they just wouldn’t give him the requisite heat to go over as a heel.

Cena, perhaps more than anyone else in WWE history, could have challenges being accepted as a heel. He’s been arguably the biggest babyface in the promotion’s history. He’s done more Make-A-Wish volunteer work than anyone else in the world, and I spoke to a 23-year-old man about the flip a day after it happened. He told me, “John Cena will always be my superhero.”

That’s a strong statement, and trust me, the words were uttered with conviction.

The other side of this storyline lies with the man Cena turned on—Cody Rhodes. Quiet as it’s kept, some fans were seemingly beginning to tire of Rhodes’ awe-shucks schtick. And after the shock and awe of the heel turn wore off, Cena, The Rock, and Travis Scott’s actions might have been applauded by some.

Imagine Cena’s next on-screen appearance has him in an entirely new attire. I conjured up an image of him with a shaved head, wearing a plain black shirt, and looking more serious and menacing.

Cena likely needs to continue to do dastardly things, but the problem is, the man is so good at this, it might be hard to dislike him during this process. Many WWE fans will be marveling at Cena’s flip and how good he is at being bad, and that could interfere with the persona change.

In any case, I couldn’t be more engaged with this storyline and various others that are rolling as we move closer to WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas on April 19 and 20.

Triple H and The Rock both spoke about the depth of the stories being developed, and I must concur—the Cena turn is not the only major story unraveling before us on WWE programming.

I firmly believe Bianca Belair will be the next babyface to flip heel, as she is displaying far more heel tendencies than she ever has in her career. Here’s a theory: it feels like Belair or Montez Ford will be exposed as the mastermind behind the attack on Jade Cargill. Ford and Belair are real-life husband and wife but have almost never interacted on WWE programming.

How shocking would it be for Ford to have somehow pushed Cargill onto the hood of that car and to have said he did it for Bianca?

It would put Bianca in a position to choose her husband or her friend, and she’d likely choose Ford, setting off the heel turn.

That could ignite Ford’s solo career, and with Angelo Dawkins, they might be a formidable faction. It’s just a theory, but after watching Cena turn heel, is anything out of bounds?