I eluded to this earlier in the week, but it is time for a reality check.
John Cena has a combined WWE and World Championship reign totaling 14. Ric Flair, has 16 World Championships, which include his NWA, WCW, and WWF World Title reigns.
I hope I do not need to spell it out, but it is quite obvious. If John Cena remains injury free for at least another year, there is the possibility he will surpass Ric Flair for title reigns.
This record is up there with CM Punk’s longest championship reign, Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak, and Barry Horowitz’s incredible loss record. One has to wonder if it really will be Cena who one-up Flair in World title reigns. Not too long ago, many thought it would have been Triple H, who now sits with a total of 13 reigns. From 1999 into 2000 Triple H had a number of WWF/E title victories, then racked up the World title wins from 2002 through 2005 and again more WWE reigns in 2007 through 2009. For a while, and many thought this was the plan to have Triple H and Ric Flair eventually feud over the title reign record, but this was while Flair actively would compete. Flair has not wrestled in quite some time, so the likelihood of a feud between he and Cena over the record is highly unlikely.
Title reigns have come frequently and predictably for John Cena in the past few years. 2009, 2010, and 2011 were big, totaling seven WWE Championships in just those three years. The reigns which many likely forgot about, but significantly contributed to the sudden realization and acknowledgment of his 13 reigns, comes with the recent defeat over Alberto del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship. Cena has only claimed the strap three times, once in 2008 and 2009, the third being the most recent win.
Cena has amassed his 13 major title reigns in the span of eight years, beginning in 2005. Ric Flair however, has his first major reign in 1981, his last in 1992, making it 11 years from first to last. With Cena still young and relatively healthy, despite numerous injuries, his superhuman ability to return to action after a short time makes it likely Super-Cena will add at least two more reigns in his career. Despite not being the central focus of current storyline programming, John Cena is still the poster boy for WWE, and will probably main event WrestleMania 30 in a Championship situation.
It is highly unlikely Flair will return to the ring anytime soon. Cena’s path to a new record may very well go unimpeded, as long as he can remain physically healthy.
It would sadden me to see a streak like Flair’s come to an end, but this is WWE and it is a new era. Should this happen, it might not come as a surprise if the Undertaker’s streak should come to an end sometime in the future.
One thing to keep in mind, whoever has a record-number of championship wins, it also means said person has a record-number of losses.
