Ric Flair is cool with John Cena breaking his record for most world title reigns
Ric Flair offered his thoughts on the possibility of John Cena breaking his record for most world championship reigns.
Ric Flair is considered by anyone with eyes and ears who has watched wrestling to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. It’s not his in-ring storytelling, his styling and profiling, or even his patented “WOO!” alone that puts him in that high regard; it’s the whole package. And that whole package led to Flair holding a world title a record 16 times.
However, as John Cena will face Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Summerslam next weekend, Cena is looking to tie Flair’s record. As always seems to be the case with Cena, WWE fans are divided on whether Cena is worthy to tie and likely eventually break that record. Luckily we can still ask Flair whether or not he believes Cena is, in fact, worthy.
On his most recent WOOOOO! Nation! podcast, Flair hosted a Q&A and was asked about Cena winning the title. Here’s what he had to say on the matter:
"“I’d be thrilled if John Cena tied my record and surpassed it. I think the world of John and he has been the flagship for the company for a long time and if John were to catch that title again and then he can surpass the record, I would be very proud of him.”"
It seems inevitable that Cena will one day at least tie the WWE recognized record of 16 reigns with the world title. In that regard, it’s good that Flair is okay with it because if there’s one thing Flair deserves from WWE, it’s respect.
However, it’s worth noting that Flair might be fine with Cena getting a 17th world title reign because Flair says his actual number his higher than 16. WWE recognizes 16 as the record, but Flair has said on a number of occasions that he was actually a world champion on 21 different instances. If that’s how he sees it, perhaps Cena eventually breaking the WWE recognized record isn’t that important to him.
We’ll see if Cena will tie the record with a victory over Seth Rollins at Summerslam. If he does, it’s good to know that Flair won’t be apoplectic over the result. And if Flair’s okay with, the fans should be as well. After all, his shoes do cost more than your house.
H/T to Cageside Seats