Wrestling
Kurt Angle makes surprising prediction for John Cena and Cody Rhodes WrestleMania match and shares thoughts on Cena heel turn
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WrestleMania heads to Las Vegas this weekend, headlined on Sunday night by the titanic showdown between Cody Rhodes and John Cena.
The match will mark Cena's last-ever WrestleMania bout as he continues to play out his farewell tour before retiring from in-ring action at the end of the year.
The WWE legend will be looking to beat the company's current face and become a world champion for a record-breaking seventeenth time.
Speaking to , Cena's first-ever opponent in WWE, Kurt Angle, believes his former foe will taste gold one last time - but it won't come this Sunday.
He said, "Knowing that his contract runs out in December, I believe Cena’s last match will be in December, which is kind of odd. Usually, you retire at WrestleMania.
"I don’t know how true that is, but this is my pick – and don’t count on it happening – but I would see John Cena losing at WrestleMania to give Cody Rhodes more credibility, and then they’ll have the rematch at SummerSlam.
"I think Cena will take it from Cody there, have a little bit of a run, then he’ll turn babyface and then he’ll give the title either back to Cody or somebody else.
The match will mark Cena's last-ever WrestleMania bout as he continues to play out his farewell tour before retiring from in-ring action at the end of the year.
The WWE legend will be looking to beat the company's current face and become a world champion for a record-breaking seventeenth time.
Speaking to , Cena's first-ever opponent in WWE, Kurt Angle, believes his former foe will taste gold one last time - but it won't come this Sunday.
He said, "Knowing that his contract runs out in December, I believe Cena’s last match will be in December, which is kind of odd. Usually, you retire at WrestleMania.
"I don’t know how true that is, but this is my pick – and don’t count on it happening – but I would see John Cena losing at WrestleMania to give Cody Rhodes more credibility, and then they’ll have the rematch at SummerSlam.
"I think Cena will take it from Cody there, have a little bit of a run, then he’ll turn babyface and then he’ll give the title either back to Cody or somebody else.
Sunday's main event comes with the added spice of John Cena's shock heel turn at March's Elimination Chamber, where he joined forces with The Rock and turned his back on the fans for the first time in twenty years.
Looking back at the moment, Angle shared his delight in how it was portrayed, but believes it will only make Cena an even bigger favourite when he eventually does switch back to his babyface roots.
"All I saw was kids crying!" the WWE Hall of Famer added when asked about the turn in Toronto.
"When John turned heel, seeing the reaction in the crowd, I was just like “whoa, I don’t know if they did the right thing!”.
"But it’s brilliant, because when you’re a huge babyface and you make that big heel turn, when you turn back babyface, you become even bigger than you were before. I think that was the psychology they were going to use.
"I think Cena will retire as a baby face, but they wanted to put that heel turn in so that he could earn the fans back to be babyface again.
"I think it’s going to be huge when he does it, and he’ll retire the biggest babyface of all time, up there with Hulk Hogan and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin."
