Impact
Let’s be blunt here. Wrestling fans know who Ric Flair is, but with movie roles, Make-A-Wish outreach, television guest spots, everybody knows who John Cena is. Much in the same way Hulk Hogan was known to even non-fans.
John Cena has been the face of the industry from the moment he first pinned JBL’s shoulders to the mat at WrestleMania 21 and since then he has made sure that face is seen. John Cena’s face is seen in every big box store in the world and people of all ages around the world wear his T-shirts every day.
John Cena is the face of professional wrestling. Even at his apex Flair only had a fraction of the reach and impact Cena has enjoyed. While it can be argued that this is due to wrestling being treated differently in mainstream media in the two eras, it can’t be argued that your average person is more likely to know who John Cena is, as opposed to Flair.
Ask your girlfriend.
The actual reigns
This is perhaps the most subjective criteria base. Both men are lauded as fighting Champions, defending the Championship night in and night out across the globe, in Flair’s case for years at a time. But Flair didn’t do so consistently throughout all 16 reigns.
His later title runs in WCW saw him defend the Championship far less regularly than he had previously and some of those reigns ended without title defences or very few. Flair’s 15th and 16th reigns with the title saw no successful defences, holding the belt for less than three hours his final time losing the title to Jeff Jarrett after the Championship was given to Flair by Kevin Nash.
While Cena has had several short reigns as well, he was never given a Championship. Thus far, each of Cena’s title wins, even his Elimination Chamber victory in 2010, have had significance or direction and were going somewhere.
Ric Flair’s final two reigns are complete afterthoughts and many people forget he even held the Championship after losing it to The Giant in 1996. While the championship may be a prop, the prop was always used properly with Cena. That can’t be said for Flair.
Final Count: Flair – 2, Cena – 1, (1 Draw)
Using this highly informal grading scale and eyeball test, Ric Flair is still the greatest Champion of all time, though the conversation will probably become moot in the very near future. Because if anybody thinks that John Cena is done winning world championships at this point, they’re going to be disappointed here.
Championship number 17 for John Cena is just a matter of time.
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