5 Things that would have happened if WWE turned John Cena heel in 2012

#4 CM Punk doesn't turn heel and his WWE Title reign ends in less than a year at the hands of John Cena

8 years ago today, CM Punk won the WWE Title at Survivor Series 2011. This began a reign that would last 434 days, making him the 6th longest reigning WWE Champion in history. His reign would end at Royal Rumble 2013 on January 27, 2013.November 20, 2011November 20, 2019 pic.twitter.com/xUc5N0fw7x

— P̷u̷n̷k̷.̷™̷ (@TheEnduringIcon) November 20, 2019

One thing that would have been certain if John Cena turned heel in 2012, was the instant reversal of his fortunes. His "rotten" year would have been quelled by a WWE Championship victory within a couple of months. Due to this, CM Punk's title reign would not have lasted 434 days.

Nevertheless, Punk would still have been the top babyface in WWE. He turned heel because The Rock needed to defeat a villain to win the WWE title at Royal Rumble 2013.

Hence, Punk would have remained as a face and Paul Heyman wouldn't have aligned himself with the Straight Edge Superstar. In fact, Heyman may have been a part of John Cena's stable and managed the younger talents in it. Meanwhile, Cena's subsequent run on top would be largely uninterrupted for a few years, barring a couple of feel-good title changes.

With every fresh title win, he'd inch closer to the record of 16 world title reigns.

September 16th 2012, Night Of Champions. CM Punk beat John Cena to retain the #WWE Title. @Coach #WWENetwork #WWE2K15 pic.twitter.com/YSXMBoQIBK

— WWE Today In History 🌐 (@WWE__History) September 16, 2014

This would have been similar to Triple H's reign of terror on RAW from 2002 to 2005, only with more shenanigans. Anyway, CM Punk as the face and John Cena as the heel would have made their feud even better.