As everyone is aware by now, John Cena defeated AJ Styles for the WWE Championship on Sunday night to become only the second-ever 16-time World Champion. The WWE Universe is split down the middle about the whole situation. Half the universe agrees John Cena deserves it because he’s one of the greatest work horses ever and does lots of charity work as an ideal company representative. The other half doesn’t believe Cena, or anyone, should be in Flair’s league when it comes to championship reigns because Flair is considered to many as “The Greatest of All Time”.
The question that is being raised now is should Cena beat Flair? Should a Fruity Pebbles spokesman Cena beat the living embodiment of professional wrestling of the late 70’s, 80’s and 90’s?
Honestly, no.
As great as Cena is, and there’s no denying he is a legend, he seems to be using the WWE as a launching pad to Hollywood, similar to what The Rock has done. Granted, The Rock has only had half the amount of title reigns as Cena, and does make the surprise appearance here and there. But Cena has basically become an unofficial part timer and he’s been one for most of his career if you look back at it. Anytime Cena had to step away for a movie, he’s gone through an injury angle of sorts. Case in point, he dropped the United States title to a debuting Carlito on Smackdown. After the show, he was “beat up and stabbed” by what was later revealed as Carlito’s heavy, Jesus. The whole angle was done so Cena could take three months off to shoot “The Marine”. In recent years, Cena has been disappearing from WWE TV without any excuse to film reality television shows and movie spots.
He’s nothing like Flair. Sure, Flair is known for being the “limousine ridin’, jet flyin’, kiss stealin’, wheelin dealin’ son of a gun”, but he made all of that inside a wrestling ring. Hulk Hogan, Rock and Cena, all greats inside the ring, but none had the wrestling acumen of Flair.
Whether you want to admit it or not, Cena used the wrestling industry to make a name for himself in Hollywood. Yes, he’s an awesome humanitarian and gives back through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. But that doesn’t mean that Cena deserves to be in the same footsteps as Flair, a man who became famous solely for his in-ring contributions. Flair is the “Greatest of All Time” because he did that in the wrestling. John Cena tying or surpassing him is nothing but pure blasphemy.
Jay Mackle
Latest posts by Jay Mackle (see all)
- Mackle: Raw Is A Three-Women Division - March 20, 2017
- Mackle: WWE Cruiserweights Finally Hitting Their Stride - March 10, 2017
- Mackle: WWE Raw Is No Longer The Big Dog? - March 1, 2017
