John Cena’s 17th and record breaking WWE Championship seems inevitable. It could happen as soon as SummerSlam. If not, WWE would certainly love to have him do it at WrestleMania 34 against Roman Reigns. And if not then, surely at just 40 years of age, John Cena will have more opportunities to smash wrestling’s most prestigious record.
Not according to Ric Flair.
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In a recent interview with The Roman Show, Flair discussed the prospects of Cena eclipsing his record and gave a reason why he thinks it won’t ever come to fruition:
“I love John Cena. We are good friends. If he breaks the record, I wouldn’t be bothered at all. If they fly me in, it will be tipping me off so that can’t happen. If I am there that would be great. I don’t think it’ll happen. I think the next thing for John is hosting Good Morning America or the Today show.”
It is very hard to imagine WWE not making John Cena the greatest champion in the history of wrestling. With him being just one away and still relatively young, it seems like a foregone conclusion.
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However, Flair asserts that Cena may leave WWE before that could ever happen. Is he working on good information or just intuition? It sounds like Flair may be speculating a little but hosting Good Morning America was a pretty specific reference.
John Cena could wrestle, even just part time, for at least another 5 years. He’s stated multiple times, rather emphatically, that he plans to always be part of WWE as long as he walks this planet. To think that WWE will hold off of crowning Cena 17x WWE Champion for the rest of his life feels foreign, if not ludicrous.
What’s more likely to happen is that Cena reaches 20 Championship reigns. We’ll have to stay tuned but the clock for 17 has officially begun. All signs point to Cena being in SummerSlam’s main event with Jinder Mahal. While on paper it seems like slam dunk he’ll topple the Modern Day Maharaja in record breaking fashion, don’t be surprised if he leaves SummerSlam without the title. The bigger match, that WWE is clearly incubating is Reigns vs. Cena at WrestleMania 34. The context of that match has no precedent – with it having torch passing implication on top of Cena’s history on the line (Reings would be champion). Either way, WWE has some explosive potential with this Cena storyline. It will be a blast to watch.