John Cena is one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time, and that's just a fact. The man who has stood atop the company for well over a decade is now on the verge of making history, needing just two more World Championship reigns in order to surpass Ric Flair's total of 16 world titles throughout his career.
Now we can debate the validity of those reigns for hours, but that's not the point. The point is that the WWE has potentially one of the biggest storylines in the recent history of sports entertainment on their hands, and it's extremely important that it's handled with care. Honestly, there aren't going to be too many things more vital than this.
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Cena's rise to wrestling immortality has already been solidified, but this would just be the cherry on top of the entire situation. After all, it seems highly unlikely that anyone would topple Cena's total for the next 10-15 years at least. With that in mind, everyone should probably have a good understanding of why this needs to be a picture perfect moment.
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So, where do we begin?
Well, it seems only logical to start in the present day. At this current moment in time, John Cena is booked to challenge AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble, which would seem like the perfect opportunity to notch world title number 16 onto his record in order to tie The Nature Boy.
Unfortunately, for this fantasy booking session, things are a little bit more long-winded.
Our journey does indeed begin at the Alamodome in San Antonio. John Cena is facing off against AJ Styles once again, and following a series of unusual events AJ doesn't really look like his normal self.
The Phenomenal One is constantly looking towards the stage, and Cena looks set to pounce on this complacency as he loads Styles up for the Attitude Adjustment.
Unfortunately, as you will know if you read our Styles vs Balor fantasy booking, The Demon King costs Cena the title in order to focus on facing AJ for the strap at WrestleMania 33. Following this Cena enters a feud with The Undertaker, and at the show of shows The Deadman beats Cena and rides off into the sunset to retire.
Also read: How WWE could book a dream fight between AJ Styles and Finn Balor
Obviously, Big Match John is devastated by this, and on the SmackDown following ‘Mania, he cuts a sombre promo apologising for his performance. He seems deeply affected by it, but tries to remain optimistic and says he'll carry on fighting because he loves the business.
At that point, he's challenged to a match by Luke Harper who says he's lost a step, with the Wyatt family member wanting to make a name for himself.
Later in the night Harper actually defeats Cena with relative ease, following which the latter exits the arena. Backstage, he is seen getting into a limo but the audience isn't shown who is in there with him. This writes The Doctor of Thuganomics off television for a few months.
We fast forward and arrive at the main event of SummerSlam, where AJ Styles is defending the WWE Championship against Randy Orton. Styles wins the bout after an entertaining affair, however, Shane McMahon comes out and announces that his night is not over yet, much like Vince and Batista back at Elimination Chamber 2010.
Out comes John Cena with no music playing as he walks down to the ring with a plain expression on his face. Cena immediately hits Styles with a low blow before exiting the ring to acquire a chair, and then proceeds to hit AJ and Orton with it repeatedly.
Shane makes a No Disqualification match that begins immediately, with Cena hitting Styles with an AA onto the chair, before pinning him to win his 16th World Title in the WWE. Shane raises Cena's arm in the air, with the long-time babyface completing his heel turn to the dark side, revealing that it was McMahon who was in the limo on the SD after WrestleMania.
On the following SmackDown, Shane fires general manager Daniel Bryan for saying that he doesn't share the same creative direction as him going forward. Bryan doesn't protest following an initially heated conversation that led to the decision and decides to leave the arena.
Later in the night Shane makes yet another No Disqualification match, with the emotionless Cena going up against Luke Harper, the man who defeated him two nights after WrestleMania 33. Cena brutalises Harper, which includes an AA through the announcer's table before defeating him, bringing out AJ Styles who has turned face as a result of Cena's actions.
At Backlash, Cena defeats Styles in a Steel Cage match after Wyatt prevents Styles from escaping, beginning a feud between those two Superstars. Cena himself continues to hold onto the belt for a few more months, leaving a path of destruction in his wake.
At Survivor Series, Cena faces Jason Jordan, who unexpectedly wins a tournament for the right to be #1 contender at the event. The Champ barely acknowledges Jordan as being on his level throughout the build up, but at the actual event Jordan catches Cena off guard with a mammoth Olympic slam and pins him to shock the world and become WWE Champion.
Cena is in utter shock and can't comprehend what's just happened, walking away before Shane goes off on a tangent on him in the backstage area. He completely snaps on Shane-o-Mac and begins choking him out before launching the boss' son through a glass window. He walks away, clearly a broken man.
Cena is suspended indefinitely the next week, with Jason Jordan now holding the world title much to the annoyance of Shane. At the Royal Rumble, Jordan defends the WWE Championship against Randy Orton, who says he doesn't care about controversy anymore at this stage in his career as it's all about being the best once again.
Unfortunately, he doesn't live up to that and instead cheats to defeat Jordan, therefore aligning himself with Shane McMahon. The crowd are less than pleased and Orton simply utters the words "sorry" with a big smile on his face before nailing Jordan with yet another RKO to seal the deal.
Two nights later, Jordan demands his title rematch on SmackDown Live and is granted that request by Shane. In the match itself, Orton retains following a valiant effort from Jordan, but when celebrating he's jumped from behind by a returning John Cena, who now sports a full beard and casual clothes.
Cena hits an Attitude Adjustment as Shane runs out with a furious expression on his face, with security guards chasing away the 16-time world champion.
The next week Shane and Orton are berating Cena's actions, stating that because he was still suspended, there's going to be a big price to pay. Shane says he always thought he could do this better than his dad, looking into the camera and preparing to fire Cena, before Daniel Bryan's music plays to a thunderous reaction.
Bryan reveals that whilst Shane did try to fire him, once his dismissal papers reached the desk of Vince McMahon, the chairman of the board refused to sign them. Instead, Bryan has been waiting for his moment to return and reveal that John Cena's suspension ended just minutes before he attacked Randy Orton last week.
Cena's music plays for the first time in months and he comes through the crowd, once again, to attack Orton but the WWE Champion and Shane escape. The two men are sandwiched between Bryan on the ramp and Cena in the ring, with the latter grabbing the mic to state that he's going to make history.
He goes on to say that he is invoking his rematch clause at WrestleMania, where he will become the first ever 17-time World Champion.
So the match is set - John Cena versus Randy Orton at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans for the WWE Championship. The next week, Cena cuts a promo stating that losing the title to Jordan was one of the darkest periods of his entire life.
He feels disgusted at what he did at SummerSlam but stated he was a completely different person because he was enduring the worst year of his life. Cena says that 2012 was bad, but 2017 was a different animal altogether.
Cena reveals that he contemplated moving away and leaving everything behind but decided to return after two conversations - one with Daniel Bryan, and one with Ric Flair. He says that breaking the record and proving that he's still got what it takes to compete at the highest level means everything to him and he'll die before he gives up.
Over the next two weeks, Orton taunts Cena stating that he's always been that one step ahead of him, both in the ring and personally. He brings up Cena's numerous failures at WrestleMania in addition to his personal life, saying that he can't believe it took John 15 years to figure out that one needs to get his hands dirty in order to succeed.
After initially ignoring Orton in the first promo, Cena has had enough in the second, storming to the ring in order to attack Randy. Unfortunately for him, it's all a trap, with Shane coming out from behind as the two proceed to viciously beat him down.
Orton gets a chair from ringside and screams "remember this?" at his rival, referring to when John destroyed him with the object at SummerSlam.
However Jason Jordan comes out to make the save, and Daniel Bryan makes a match for Elimination Chamber: Shane McMahon & Randy Orton vs. John Cena & Jason Jordan. However, Shane says he still has the power and declares that the winning team will pick the stipulation for the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania.
After a long and entertaining match at the PPV, Cena pins Shane with an Attitude Adjustment. He celebrates with Jordan, as Orton looks on from the ramp grasping his WWE title as hard as he possibly can.
Two nights later on SmackDown, Cena calls Orton out to the ring for a man to man confrontation. He says they've both done everything they could possibly have dreamed of in this business, even referring to how the fans joke about how many matches they've had against one another.
Cena says he's never liked Randy and the champion nods along, with both men clearly wanting this to be the final showdown.
So John reveals that at WrestleMania 34, the loser of the match between the two will be forced to retire from professional wrestling. He walks away as Randy looks down the ramp in shock, with fans stunned that one of these legendary performers will see their career come to an end at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Over the next few weeks, sit-down interviews and promo packages of Cena & Orton's long tenures in the WWE are played, in addition to detailing Cena's quest for a 17th world title. Both men are put in singles matches against Superstars they've never faced before, as following April 8th they may never get another chance to do so.
On the go-home show, the two men have the contract signing for the match where things get extremely real. They discuss their time in OVW and how they came up together, as well as how their generation started with them and add that it would end the same way.
Orton says, "these words have never been more appropriate - your time is up, John". Meanwhile, Cena simply ends the exchange with, "see you in New Orleans".
At WrestleMania 34 in the main event, John Cena and Randy Orton have their greatest match to date. The two men hit each other with everything they've got, with both being bust open following brutal shots to the head. As the match wears on, Orton considers cheating to pick up the victory, but avoids the risk and instead chooses to fight fairly.
Cena begins to get the upper hand as Orton's knee is clearly distressing him. After kicking out of a finisher each, Cena nails Orton with two more consecutive Attitude Adjustments, as Randy barely manages to lift his shoulder up off of the mat.
Cena crawls into the corner and looks on at his long time rival, rolling around in pain as his knee has completely given up on him. Orton insists upon fighting on as Cena grabs him by the bad leg and puts him in STF submission move. Orton is in an agonising amount of pain as Cena pleads with him to give in, however, Orton refuses.
John wrenches the hold even tighter with blood pouring from the heads of both men, as he utters the words, "it's over Randy". The crowd are on their feet anticipating the tap, and after a gruelling amount of time in the hold, Orton finally submits and John Cena becomes the first ever 17-time World Champion.
Both men lie on the ground in utter exhaustion, with Cena slowly making it to his feet before looking at the title and dropping to his knees once again. He raises the belt up high as confetti falls down in New Orleans, before turning around to see a depleted and now retired Randy Orton.
The two men shake hands and Randy raises John's arm as the victor and new Champion, with the legends finally closing the book on their 15-year rivalry.
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