We Got a John Cena Heel Turn Before GTA 6 — and He’s in on the Meme

John Cena followed up his shock heel turn at WWE Elimination Chamber by posting a Grand Theft Auto 6 image on social media, showing he’s well aware of the meme.

For the uninitiated, the 12-year wait for Rockstar to release GTA 6 has spawned a meme in which people highlight the surprising things they got before GTA 6’s release date.

In this case, it was a John Cena heel turn — his first in 20 years and a narrative shift many thought would never happen. To put it in other words, Cena, the WWE's superstar ‘good guy,’ the Make-A-Wish world record holder and all-round much-loved wrestler and actor, became a WWE ‘bad guy’ before we got GTA 6.

Clearly in on the meme, Cena took to Instagram to post an image of GTA 6 alongside its 2025 release window to his 21 million followers. No, that doesn’t mean Cena has just leaked his role in GTA 6 (although wouldn’t that be something!). Rather, he’s just leaning into the meme for a bit of social media fun.

While it’s clear that Cena’s a GTA 6 memer at this point, there’s still some speculation that his Instagram post is some cryptic hint about the game itself. Given the lengths some GTA fans have gone to to try to work out GTA 6’s release date or the release of Trailer 2, perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

So yes, John Cena’s bad guy era has officially begun before we got GTA 6, but it won’t be long before GTA 6’s release date after parent company Take-Two committed to its fall 2025 launch window.

In December 2023, a former developer at Rockstar attempted to explain why GTA 6 is coming to PC after it hits PS5 and Xbox Series X and S, and called on PC gamers to give the studio the “benefit of the doubt” over its controversial launch plans.

We’ve got plenty more on GTA 6, including Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick’s response to concern about the fate of GTA Online once GTA 6 comes out.

Photo by Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].