Hating on Cenas personality is true but the way I see it is keeping Cena face will only continue to damage the product. Merch sales are only a small percentage of WWE's income so I will ignore that for the most part.
Thing is, contrary to what Cena said last Monday, most who watch RAW and SD aren't kids around the age of 9. The Nielsen ratings (A scientifically proven method) state that up towards 80% of WWE's audience are men from the ages of 14 and up. And having your main face cater solely to kids will only drive them away, especially if you take every character that they like (see Summer of Punk era Punk) and turn him into a carbon copy of Cena. That will only continue to drive them off since the product becomes more and more boring as time goes on despite all shining pieces of gold that can be found in it. Our live discussion threads are proof that.
Also turning a top face heel is the perfect way to shake up the ground work and make that product interesting again. Turning Cena heel would most likely give the same or similar effect to the Hogan heel turn back in WCW. And then pitting Cena with a younger new face creates a new hero for the children to cherish that will hopefully bring something new to the table.
WWE has nothing to loose on turning Cena heel if they only worry about merchandise, Punk, Bryan, Ziggler, Ryder and Sheamus pull enough merch of the shelfs and with Mysterios coming return and Sin Caras recent one they have enough cash cows to turn one heel. Add to the fact that Cena turning heel would most likely increase ratings as well since kids will tune in to see who will stand up to their traitorous former role model and adults and older kids will tune in to see what Cena will be up to next, being reminded of his run as the Dr of Thuganomics. Add to the fact that Cena wants to turn heel it would also reignite his passion with the business and as I can see the positives far outweigh the negatives.
