Will Cena surpass Flairs 16 World Titles?

[Mustang Sally]

It doesn't matter, because they are fake titles. They are props.

Well, yes. It's always amusing to talk about "titles" in that who wins 'em and who loses 'em is determined by a group of writers sitting around a table in Stamford, Connecticut.....rather than by the performers who compete for the belts. Obviously, there's a hell of a lot more that determines these results than just the fighting skills of the wrestlers.

I think John Cena has it all: presence, personality, charisma, ability to perform in the ring. If the best performer (not necessarily the best technical wrestler) were the one to hold the championship, Cena would hold it all the time, imo. Just as obviously, WWE can't have that; as it is, there are plenty of people who "hate" when Cena is on top. The Creative people have to move the title belt around to keep things fresh.

Meanwhile, while Ric Flair's career accomplishments are remarkable, I keep coming back to the notion that he didn't really want to join WWE in the 1991; he wanted to escape Jim Herd in WCW....and for all he did the next two years in WWE, as soon as his contract expired, he jumped back to WCW because Jim Herd was gone. The next time he returned to WWE, it was because WCW no longer existed, right? Sure, Flair was a legendary performer, but hardly a WWE loyalist.

Personally, I prefer Cena as a guy who has done it all with one company. As down as many folks are on him, he's the personification of WWE. Will he surpass Flair's 16 title reigns?

Of course he will. The man has years of pro wrestling left in him. The only way to stop it is to have him hit by a bus tomorrow.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

According to wikipedia and Pro Wrestling Illustrated Ric Flair is a 20-time World Champion (10-time NWA, 8-time WCW and 2-time WWF) and Flair considers himself a 26-time World Champion.
It doesn't matter what WWE bills or thinks, what matters are facts.
And fact is that Ric Flair is a 20+ World Champion. Cena isn't, yet. He will definately surpass Flair's 16 reigns, but he will never top Flair's actual reigns.
And to be honest, reigns doesn't matter, what matters is days.

 

[Pedigree1]

OF course Cena will surpass Flairs record,it was a given years ago that eventually it would happen.. I personally have no problem with it,but would that make him the greatest because he holds the official record?? Depends on how you look at it I suppose.

If Flairs true record were to be counted,Cena would still be 11 behind with Flair holding the belt 26 times! But Flair held belts in the NWA,WCW,WWF,a feat to never ever be repeated.. Its an amazing accomplishment,that Flair held belts in the top three promotions of all time.. But then again Flair did drop the titles or at least some of them rather quickly a month reign here and there. So that to me,has to at least hurt him to some degree..

Cena as we all Know has held the WHC WWE titles 15 times albeit in one Promotion not three like Flair did.. But Cena doesn't play hot potato with the Belt either.. I can say at least Cena has another 4-5 reigns in Him before his career is over.. Cena is just destined to be a 20 time World Champion,IMO.. Cena already for his accomplishments is in the top five all time! Its a matter of time before he will be No1 all-time IMO

 

[the green b@stard]

Yes of course he will break the record barring some sort of catistrophic injury.

The real question is what do he titles mean as far as ranking him?

Difficult to say, its all subjective. But if we're talking greatest champions of time I dont think it carries much weight at all.

Who's the greatest home run hitter of time? Barry Bonds? He hit the most both in terms of single season and career. But even disregarding the whole hgh thing I'd argue babe's hr acomplicments far exceeds bonds. Hrs were simply less common in babe's day, and hit more hrs than entire teams.

So who's the greatest champion of all time? My vote goes to hh but I wouldn't call anyone stupid for picking any one of a dozen or so guys. Flair and Cena included on that list.

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

So you're saying John Cena doesn't have staying power? The hell does it matter if he goes to other places or not? What matters is what you do wherever you are not where you go. John Cena didn't beat the man because he was the man. And still is for a long time to come. Much like Ric Flair, John Cena is a one of a kind talent that will never be seen again.

Don't think you're really getting where I'm coming from. If you work for a company and your boss likes you, that's great. If you then quit your job and start over somewhere else, you have to find a way to win over a whole new company and you may or may not be as successful there. We will never know that about Cena. Flair did that multiple times, which I feel adds legitimacy to his title runs. As for staying power, again Cena has had a good 11-12? year run in WWE so far, but Flair is still to this day a guy that can generate a big pop (and if they wanted him to) could still work a solid match, and he's been doing it for over 40 YEARS, that is some serious staying power.

I also feel I should add that many of Cena's title runs occurred during a time in WWE when there were 2 world champions. This might not mean much to some people, but when Flair was winning those belts he was THE face of the company, not one of two.

No I think what he means is that professional wrestling is scripted...so being over in one company doesn't mean as much as being over when you're in multiple companies

You totally got what I was saying, thank you.



There have been many guys who've jumped ship that were big stars in one place, but couldn't get over or move the needle in others. Flair was the best no matter where he went, thus he deserved to hold that companies title.

Obviously, if Cena went to TNA they would make him champion in 2 seconds because they want the attention, but if this were a true competition like during the monday night wars, and Cena went to the competition he would have to prove himself all over, with new bookers, new writers, other wrestlers, new fans, etc. and he may, or may not have the same star power he did in WWE.

Wrestling is very political, and the fact that Flair knew how to navigate those waters and be a top draw everywhere he went, proves to me just what a pro he is. Hell, he went to the WWF during Hulkamania and was champion at Mania within a year, is there seriously any question of his greatness or the value of his title runs? I'm not taking away anything from Cena, just pointing out what I feel is the obvious, it's not just the number of runs it's the quality of them, and if we're going by that he's got a long way to go if he wants to be talked about in the same class as Flair.

 

[ddn2488]

I'm pretty sure that john cena will go past 16 times being a champion. I'm mean he is already on 15 and even though his career may be winding down if you want to look at it like that I still think he will be there for a long time. I mean I haven't heard anything about him retiring and wether you hate him or love him he loves the wwe. I don't really think it's that big of a deal if he passes it, he is really "the guy" and has been in wwe for a long time wether you like him or not

 

[JoeMallard]

Cena turned into into a placeholder champion after his first three reigns. The majority of his reigns were within a three year period, which is outrageous! He is the definition of transitional champion. With that said, he will still surpass Flairs record, there is no doubt about it.

 

[Skinsley]

It is inevitable. Cena and Orton will both surpass Flair in title reigns, simply because the title is swapped out way more often than it used to be.
WWE without Cena will be a much better place, the entire era that WWE based around Cena has been like Wrestlings Dark ages for me, and it is not even his fault. It is WWE creative. The resurgence of Bray Wyatt and the former shield members has been a breath of fresh air for me and long may it continue.

 

[MeisterMan]

Cena will surpass Flairs 16 World Title's. As long as a Cena stays around he will win more and more World Titles. I will even bet he will get to 20 World Titles before his retires. While it is ridiculous and it is obvious Cena's presence in the main event scene holds back all the other talent from reaching that level, WWE seems determined to keep shoving 'SuperCena' down our throat.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Cena seems to be at the end of his run as the #1 Guy, however with titles traded more often in the monthly PPV/Live Weekly TV era it's very conceivable he gets 17 titles. If he does I would expect WWE will make a huge deal out of it, not just the win but the chase itself and it will likely come at the expense of someone really big on the roster, not a short term transitional champion, Cena going for #17 would be like a WrestleMania Storyline, something built for several months. You can bet WWE wont waste the 17th title if he is written to win it on a random mid June Raw or Smackdown when viewership levels are in the tank between summer viewing declines against the NBA Finals for instance, kind of like you knew when Flair retired his last match would be at W-Mania, you knew you wouldn't turn on RAW one random Monday and find out his "Win Or Retire" storyline ended at a house show in Maine over the weekend against Kenny Dykstra!

Obviously people have strong feelings about this. Cena to me is one of the hardest working and most dedicated stars WWE has ever had, despite his "Status" he still works a full time schedule, including house shows and foreign tours, in addition to his charity work. Old School fans wont like seeing the record broken, many of todays fans would prefer a more diverse character on top of the card (like Flair was in his heyday) since Cena essentially plays the Brett Hart Hero role that has extremely limited creativity. Cena truly is today's Brett Hart, a guy who works tirelessly for the company and has a loyal, large fan following, but cant just shake the critics who for a variety of reasons never liked him as much as predecessors like Flair, Hogan, or Savage or contemporaries like HBK.

The big thing really is the amount of time a wrestler remains at or near the top of the card, where inevitably you have to deliver TV ratings and attendance or you wont be there. This is more important than the number of times you wear the top title. Flair, even in his final years far past his prime, was consistently one of the best TV draws WWE had and always brought in good attendance numbers on the house show circuit while being one of the company's most in demand stars for foreign tours, and that almost 35 years after he first became a top star in the late 70s. Hogan obviously had similar staying power, in fact he might have surpassed Flair in the 2000s if not for his shaky health severely limiting how often (and how well) he could actually wrestle (Flair was wrestling 50 to 100 times per year much of his last WWE run in addition to a full booking schedule when he was an on screen manager). Cena has been the most consistent and reliable main event star the company has had for the last decade, bigger than Randy Orton, and has remained a full time performer while super stars like The Rock & Batista left for Hollywood and CM Punk quit among others. No one can doubt Randy Savage or Sting's popularity over similar long stretches of time, even if they didn't get as many title runs as Flair & Hogan did (or took a back seat to let a fresh face hold the belt like Vader or Ultimate Warrior)

We can argue that Cena's reigns are shorter and they have been but there's no doubt he's been "The Man" for over a decade, Flair had at least one run as champ every year from 1981-96 which is incredible, even better than Hogan (who admittedly took long sabbaticals and tried his hand at TV, outside of some short injury related hiatus Flair never took much time off). For Cena to get to 17 he will likely need another 2-3 years, at which point he'll be closing in on 15 years as one of the marquee attractions, which is exceptional in it's own right.

I think it helps his cause that he has a good relationship with HHH and The McMahons, is the company's best merchandise seller, and has a good relationship with Flair as well (don't be surprised if WWE works him into the "Chase For The Record" somehow, either as Cena's corner man against super villain Champ or as the primary obstacle trying to help the villain champ maintain his title and thwart Cena's record, I can easily see WrestleMania 33 ending with Cena and Flair in the ring shaking hands and celebrating the moment)

At the end of the day, if Cena breaks the record it's WWE's way of honoring him as the best SuperStar in the post 80s Wrestling Boom Hogan/Flair era, which a strong case van be made he is. id prefer he doesn't get it just because Im a huge Flair fan but I understand if he does and he no doubt has been one of the industry's top attractions for a very long time.

For those interested, Flair's official title lineage according to WWE & Pro Wrestling Illustrated reads like this...

#1 - Dusty Rhodes April 1981 (lost to Harley Race June 1983)

#2 - Harley Race Starrcade 83 (Steel Cage) (Nov 1983) - Lost to K. Von Erich May 1984

#3 - Kerry Von Erich May 1984 (Lost to Dusty Rhodes at Great American Bash July 1986)

#4 - Dusty Rhodes Aug 1986 (lost to R. Garvin Sept 1987)

#5 - Ron Garvin Starrcade 87 (Steel Cage) (Nov 1987) (Lost to R. Steamboat at Chi Town Rumble PPV Feb 1989)

#6 - Ricky Steamboat WrestleWar 89 PPV May 1989 (Lost to Sting June 1990 Great American Bash PPV)

#7 - Sting Jan 1991 (stripped of title in contract dispute with WCW June 1991)

#8 - Royal Rumble 1992 (Lost to Randy Savage WrestleMania VIII April 1992)

#9 - Randy Savage Sept 1992 (Lost to Brett Hart Oct 1992)

#10 - Barry Whyndam (NWA Title, aka WCW International Title) June 1993 Great American Bash (Lost to Rick Rude Sept 1993)

#11 - Vader (Win Or Retire Match) Starrcade 93 Dec 1993 (Lost to H. Hogan July 1994 Bash At The Beach PPV)

#12 - Lex Luger & Sting (Triangle Match) w/ Winner vs Randy Savage Starrcade 95 Dec 1995 (Lost to R. Savage Jan 1996 Monday Nitro)

#13 - Randy Savage (No DQ Cage Match) Super Brawl PPV Feb 1996 (Lost To Giant, aka Big Show April 1996 Nitro)

#14 - Hulk Hogan at Uncensored 1999 (March 1999) - Lost to DDP in Fatal Four Way (Flair/Hogan/DDP/Sting) at Spring Stampede April 1999

#15 - Jeff Jarrett (May 2000 Monday Nitro) (Stripped of Title due to injury)

#16 - Kevin Nash (awarded title to Flair due to controversy over title being stripped due to injury) (Lost To J. Jarrett May 2000 Monday Nitro)

Along the way there was the infamous "Singapore Title Swap" where Flair & Race agreed to swap the title during a tour of the far east to drive up interest in their rematch (unsanctioned by the NWA and officially not recognized at time in US).

It appeared Flair lost the title at Starrcade 85 when he was pinned by Dusty Rhodes but the decision was reversed on a technicality and officially Flair's reign continued.

Flair was pinned by Tatsumi Fujinami in a show at The Tokyo Dome in 1991 and initially considered as having lost the title but again the decision was reversed on a technicality (]Flair pinned him in the re match in May 1991 in the US)

Flair's title reign was officially "suspended" but not ended in 1994 when the WCW Title was held up due to the "double pin" ending to the Flair-Steamboat Match in April 1994. Flair pinned Steamboat in the re match later that month and was reinstated as Champ but WCW never recognized his reign as being ended or a new separate reign as starting.

Flair essentially was WCW Champ Dec 95-April 96 except for a brief three week period where Randy Savage held the title, part of a ratings ploy by WCW to show the unpredictability of Nitro (where main event matches and title changes happen on live TV) vs RAW in the early days of The Monday Night Wars. WCW continued that trend when Hulk Hogan suffered his first pinfall loss ever in WCW also on Nitro (vs Flair, who used the win as the springboard to a title match at the SuperBrawl PPV where he defeated Savage).

 

[FlairFan2003]

I think John Cena has it all: presence, personality, charisma, ability to perform in the ring. If the best performer (not necessarily the best technical wrestler) were the one to hold the championship, Cena would hold it all the time, imo. Just as obviously, WWE can't have that; as it is, there are plenty of people who "hate" when Cena is on top. The Creative people have to move the title belt around to keep things fresh.

Meanwhile, while Ric Flair's career accomplishments are remarkable, I keep coming back to the notion that he didn't really want to join WWE in the 1991; he wanted to escape Jim Herd in WCW....and for all he did the next two years in WWE, as soon as his contract expired, he jumped back to WCW because Jim Herd was gone. The next time he returned to WWE, it was because WCW no longer existed, right? Sure, Flair was a legendary performer, but hardly a WWE loyalist.

.

Flair was loyal to The Crockett family who went out on a huge limb when he was a hot young star and made him the face as champ over older, more established veterans like Harley Race and Dusty Rhodes. He did decline at least two offers to join WWE in 1985 and 1988 according to various sources, Flair himself stating he was promised the main event at the first Summer Slam PPV if he would join. He signed with WWE after the contract dispute with WCW once the Crocketts were gone, Ted Turner owned the company, and Jim Herd was in charge.

Vince McMahon has made no bones about his respect for Flair and his accomplishments, wether in WWE or WCW, and how he views him as one of the all time greats. WWE practically fell over themselves promoting Flair as "Wrestling's Greatest Champion" during his final run. If anything Vince McMahon appreciates the loyalty Flair showed The Crocketts in addition to work ethic and match quality. RE: 1993 Vince offered Flair a chance to leave because he was going with a youth movement, he wasn't firing Flair and wanted him to stay but was up front that in the short term he didn't have a main event storyline for him. Flair left (with ample notice) to return to WCW even though initially they had no plans to use him as the #1 star (that soon changed) because the less frequent travel and match schedule would allow him more time with his family. Remember Flair stayed and lost a "Loser Leaves WWE" match on Live TV to Curt Henning to help Vince elevate Henning back into the Main Event picture on his way out. No doubt Vince appreciated that as well.

 

[FlairFan2003]

I think it's a pretty safe bet that John Cena will have at least 2 more runs as World Champion before his career is over. It's all but written in the stars at this point that Cena drops the title to Lesnar at SummerSlam only to regain it from Lesnar at Night of Champions because of how Brock Lesnar's deal with WWE is structured.

Even if Cena surpasses Flair's "official" record, which I think is very likely, I think most will still say that Flair's runs meant more due to a combination of nostalgia and wrestling companies playing hot potato with their World Championships for much of the past 20 years. At the same time, Flair's runs probably wouldn't seem as glamorous at the time if people had easy access to information the way we have now. For instance, Flair dropped the title on four different occasions to four different wrestlers that aren't officially recognized by the NWA: once to Jack Veneno in Santo Domingo in late August of 1982, once to Carlos Colon in Puerto Rico the first week of January 1983, once to Harley Race at a house show in New Zealand in late March 1984 and once to Tatsumi Fujinami during a joint WCW/New Japan show in late March 1991. While those title drops and lack of recognition by the NWA is all backstage politics, having that sort of knowledge then and growing up with it would still lend some degree of taint to the greatness of Flair's runs to some degree.

They weren't back stage politics. The title matches in South America like with Jack Veneno were not NWA sanctioned matches. Back in the early to mid 80s Flair would take independent bookings outside the NWA as long as it didn't interfere with his NWA schedule. He wrestled frequently in South America and Japan, occasionally worked for The Rock's Grandmother's promotion in Hawaii, and appeared as a favor to Verne Gagne (who trained him in the early 70s) in the AWA, all non sanctioned NWA appearances. Since the US wrestling press didn't cover much wrestling outside the US Flair would create "title swap" situations where the local fan fave would beat him in a Rocky-Like moment to the delight of the home crowd, thus insuring a big box office for the rematch, where Flair would inevitably regain the title. He also did this while touring Asia with Harley Race in 1984. He didn't use this tactic to sell re match tickets in Japan because the US Wrestling press like Pro Wrestling Illustrated did cover Japan wrestling since so many US talents appeared there (Flair actually won the NWA title from Kerry Von Erich in a sanctioned match in Japan, he also wrestled AWA Champ Rick Martel in a supposed Title vs Title match there, although since neither federation sanctioned the match it was booked to end in a draw, just as his Title vs Title Match with WWE Champ Bob Backlund had a few years earlier).

The Fujinami situation was addressed by WCW - there was a disqualification and the match technically was over before the pinfall.

As for tainting Flair's reigns if knowledge of these were promoted to US fans, essentially it would have added several additional reigns to his credit, he'd be a 25 Time Champ or near about right now and no one would even be having this discussion. The fact that Flair was champ for 70% of the decade of the 1980s and had at least one reign every year from 1981-1996 is remarkable in terms of staying power. Still, for Cena to get to #17 he likely needs another two years to do it, at which point he'd be coming up on close to 15 years as the top attraction which in itself is pretty impressive.

 

[Alabama Slam]

I agree...Cena becomes champion when the WWE needs to bring in a new feud of upgrade a heel to main event status...want to be somebody, start a feud with Cena...secondly, Cena is a transitional champion, as most of his reigns led to the WWE going into a new direction...reminds me a little bit of Sting...bottom line, Cena will surpass Ric Flair, as this generation's wrestling needs a legend, and Cena is it...I also agree about Flair's championship reigns...he would be a 26-time champion if not for certain circumstances, which no one remembers or was swept under the rug.

 

[MCMG]

He will break the record soon enough. It is a certainty.

I don't take great issue with it. Cena is a incredible performer but he doesn't need to have the most World Titles. He is one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time and a superb face of the company.

The fact that there were two World Titles in one company helped to boost his numbers. I'd be happy if Flair was still number one, thus giving him an extra accolade. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter that much. Both are wrestling legends and will be remembered accordingly.

 

[Prasdana]

Most likely yes. He is still 37 and he might have another 3-6 years behind him. I have no problem with that, I respect Cena

 

[Navi]

As soon as Brock Lesnar broke the Undertaker's streak at Mania, it was almost certain that no record is safe in the WWE anymore.

Would have preferred Taker to retire and take the streak with him, that was not to be, and Flair's record will probably fall as well. Records were made to be broken and Cena and possibly Orton will break this one before they each retire.

The bigger question is, who will break their records, whatever they end up with. No one on the roster at this point in time could come anywhere close.

 

[The Man]

It's pretty much a given that Cena is going to break Flair's record. Do I hate it? Absolutely. We all have to get used to it, though, because it's going to happen sooner or later. Also, Cena will probably retire a 20-time World Champion.

 

[Rooneybhoy]

Unfortunately it looks likely. It's an absolute disgrace that he will, but I suppose it just shows you what the big belt now means. They have passed it about like a joint at a party for years.

At least Flairs title wins meant more. His reigns were more legit than Cenas..

 

[CanadianDeviant]

Of course Cena will. He still has good years left in the tank and when WWE needs a guy to hold onto the belt temporarily he can easily step up and fill that void.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Most definitely and I have no problem with it. WWE have broken a lot of records and created new ones in the last 10 years.

-Shortest time in the Royal Rumble (Santino)
-Longest time in the Rumble (Rey)
-Most eliminations in the Rumble (Reigns)
-Kane entering the most Rumble matches
-Cena and Batista winning 2 Rumble matches
-Tie for most eliminations in a single Survivor Series match (Reigns)
-Youngest WWE and World Champion (Orton & Lesnar)
-Punk's 340 day reign with the WWE Title
-Cena's 1 year reign with the WWE Title in 2006-2007
-Brock ending the streak

It's a good way to remember all these guys that came after the Golden Era, the New Generation Era, and the Attitude Era 10-20 years down the line in the future. Austin, Hogan, Michaels, Rock, Flair, even Warlord etc. have all had their time being remembered for those records, now it's time for a new generation to be remembered for the records.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

After Monday... No...

That segment and handing Flair the belt was a very subtle but definite message from Cena to Ric... "Keep your record".

Whether Vince was "signed off on it" or not is another matter, but it was a pretty unmistakable message sent. Cena knows he is now in that territory, by giving Flair that belt and saying those words publicly he distances himself from that 16th reign, it ties in with the storyline and his promo earlier in the night... once he loses this one it's "over" in terms of the title and he knows it... no ties, he gets 15...Ric stays on 16 as it should be... and Cena is clearly VERY cool with that.

 

[Mudlup50]

After Monday... No...

That segment and handing Flair the belt was a very subtle but definite message from Cena to Ric... "Keep your record".

Whether Vince was "signed off on it" or not is another matter, but it was a pretty unmistakable message sent. Cena knows he is now in that territory, by giving Flair that belt and saying those words publicly he distances himself from that 16th reign, it ties in with the storyline and his promo earlier in the night... once he loses this one it's "over" in terms of the title and he knows it... no ties, he gets 15...Ric stays on 16 as it should be... and Cena is clearly VERY cool with that.

I don't know why you took it to mean that, I took it to mean that belt would be gone granted you might be right but I'm thinking it was just a subtle way to slip away one title

 

[That N Word]

This thread is more wishful thinking and fanasty because we all know John Cena will surpass Ric Flair's record by know. But I think they should just have the two tie and have Cena retire from world titles after. I also think that Randy should only have one more world title reign as well. Even though both John Cena and Randy Orton aren't going any where any time soon. WWE should quit being so heavily reliant on them if they really want the next batch to succeed. If I was booking title reigns it would be just up-and-coming talent like Reigns,Ambrose,Rollins,Wyatt,Cesaro,Sheamus,Bryan
holding the belt for the next two years after Reigns wins the belt at WrestleMania from Brock. After that John Cena should win the belt for a final time in a rematch against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 33 (who beats him at WrestleMania 32 in a non-title match.) After that the next night on Raw they are heavily promoting Cena's huge announcement. There is a huge celebration set up in the ring. John Cena comes down and he has Flair come down as well. He say's that this is the party of the 16 time world champions. But he announces this will be his last world title reign. But this is only if he never turns heel. If he does turn heel him as a heel champ would be fresh. Why I say only if he doesn't turn heel because him as a face champ is stale. He would only need one more if even that. But the reason why him as a heel being champ more times because it's fresh.


Your thoughts? Sound Off!

 

[Navi]

Records or streaks, whatever you want to call them are made to be broken. And Flair's will fall as well. There is point trying to tie it and quite honestly when Cena does surpass it, I can't see it being broken again.

Cena's been around for 12 years already, much longer than Reigns, Rollins or any of the new guys in the main event picture. And with today's schedule don't see them staying around long enough to break his record. He benefited from starting earlier and having most of the main event picture leave. I don't think anyone else will have that happen to them, with NXT going strong. Cena will hold the record, don't think Orton will pass Cena, until the WWE goes tits up.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Not how WWE are pushing Flair... He didn't get that "Re-introduction" for nothing...

If they REALLY were gonna have Cena go over him then Flair would have been with Miz that night...as "rumored" for the last year... NO!!

They made a point of putting THE GUY out there with Ric and making him equal... Ric is their legend on an equal footing with Hulk now... the title reigns is the one piece of "history" they can still control.

And sorry Cena is FAR too smart to want to ever be the guy to beat that streak... in his head... if someone has to have it "let it be Randy"... he has enough mindless hate without that...

That honor is the very definition of an Albatross round the neck...