I'm tired of people saying that Cena drew all of those numbers for WrestleMania 28 and 29 all by his lonesome. Like there was no Lesnar, HHH, Rock, CM Punk, or Undertaker.
Ok, WrestleMania 26 and 27. No Rock, no Lesnar, Punk wasn't really a big deal... He was still drawing numbers way, way, way above what Flair was in the 80s.
In this day and age it's not the same as it was in the 80's. Someone like Flair as the NWA World Champion went all over the world and drew sell out crowds because HE was the star. Today, however, there are several stars. So you can't say that Cena out draws Flair because of these stadium WrestleManias because the fact is if there was no Rock, 'Taker, Punk, HHH, or Lesnar and Cena was the only worth while attraction, I guarantee that 80,000 people would turn into less than 10,000 really damn quickly.
But does not the exact same thing not apply to Hogan, who was routinely drawing 10-15 times the audiences Flair did. If Flair was great, that wouldn't have happened.
You see, often its hard to compare eras in terms of drawing because of the overall popularity of wrestling having peaks and troughs. But in the 80s, thanks to Hogan, we know it was possible to draw a large wrestling audience. We don't know what the limit of capability of today is, maybe Cena's not reaching it, but regardless Cena wrestling now, in a trough of wrestling popularity is massively outdrawing Ric Flair who peaked at a peak of wrestling popularity.
Back in Flair's day though, people came out in droves to see their home town guy wrestle who? Ric Flair! Cena is not a larger draw then Ric Flair. Not at all. So if you want to argue legacies, influence, and drawing power in this match, then Cena should lose and lose easily.
More people watch Raw now than ever watched anything Flair did when there was less televisual choice in the 80s, more people buy WWE PPVs, more people buy WWE merchandise, more people go to WWE shows, more people are aware of him outside of wrestling. How in the world is he not a bigger draw than Ric Flair. When Cena is and isn't on Raw the ratings have a 0.5 swing. When Flair was and wasn't on Clash of the Champions, exactly the same number of people tuned in.
Kayfabe wise, however, Cena would probably go over because he's the type of performer that Flair put over all of the time.[/QUOTE]
Phenom already made a great point, but you mention one instance of Starrcade not drawing a capacity crowd. In 1987, on Thanksgiving night. Not the fault of Flair, but of Vince McMahon and Jim Crockett for not pushing the event as much as he could have.
No edition of Starrcade drew more than 17,000 fans. No WrestleMania headlined by John Cena has ever drawn less.
And you forget about the Great American Bash, where he drew nearly 50 thousand fans to watch him wrestle RICKY MORTON! That's one half of a tag team.
In what world is drawing 23,000 fans to an arena that holds 24,000 "almost drawing 50,000 fans"?
Imagine Cena headlining Summerslam against - let's say Titus O'Neal or Jey Uso. Think he's drawing that number? No. Flair drew tons of money for Jim Crockett promotions and was easily the most successful draw in his era.
John Cena beat Darren Young on Raw on 18th March. The crowd was almost three times that which saw Sting beat Flair at Starrcade 1989.
Hogan gets the nod because he had a machine behind him with merchandise, cartoons, and wrestling dolls. Flair was a wresting draw that drew fans because of his matches, not his t-shirt sales.
Are you too stupid to understand how supply and demand works? When Ric Flair lost his title to Ricky Steamboat at Clash of the Champions VI, the audience was less than half that tuned in to see the Saturday Night Main Event card three weeks previously
And Flair would not do the job to Cena in this scenario. To prove who's the greatest of all time, this goes to Flair, because Flair doesn't buckle under Winner Takes All scenarios like Cena does. Cena was 'fired' because of a high stakes loss, he also lost a 'Once in a Lifetime' match with The Rock, a chance at MITB and to face Rock again, and numerous times to CM Punk.
How many retirement matches has John Cena ever lost? None.
How many has Ric Flair lost? Two.
That's as high stakes as it gets.
Flair came through when it counted. He beat Vader for the WCW title when Vader was as dominant as he'd ever been, pinned Hogan and Savage clean in WCW, and submitted a dude named Carlito for an IC title win in his MID 50's. Carlito beat Cena in his debut match, by the way.
I'm not getting into the Vader argument, again, but no, he wasn't at all dominant in 1993. Hogan and Savage have pinned him far more times, and big deal, he beat Carlito. He also lost to Shelton Benjamin. Cool.
So you fan boys keep voting Cena, but know that you're voting with no merit to your argument whatsoever, and that you've managed to make being wrestling fans even more shameful than it already is to society.
I don't really like Cena, but you would have to be either a fan boy or a complete and utter moron to not see that he is objectively a better wrestler than Ric Flair. He makes more money, draws more crowds and sells more merchandise - the only objective markers. It really is that simple.