John Cena is set to retire at the end of 2025, and his final year as an active competitor has brought many swerves to the WWE Universe. Cena turned heel on Cody Rhodes, then captured the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41 to finally break Ric Flair’s record of 16 World Titles. Charlotte Flair just revealed her surprising take on the matter.
Big Match John became a 17-time World Champion at WrestleMania 41, finally snapping The Nature Boy’s coveted record. Interestingly, The Queen said she respects the accolade as she recently began a journey to break the record herself. The 14-time World Champion was on the losing end at this year’s Show of Shows when she failed to dethrone Tiffany Stratton of the WWE Women’s Championship.
The Queen believes Cena was the right man to break her father’s record. Charlotte recently spoke with The Takedown on Sports Illustrated and reiterated how Ric Flair was proud of John Cena.
Records are meant to be broken. I don’t wanna speak for my dad, but I think in this case I can, John was the guy to do it. And I think he couldn’t be more proud of John. Even me seeing John Cena and what he means to the industry and what he means to me as a performer, I don’t think it was sad. The record stood the test of time for a very long time and it was finally broken,” Charlotte Flair said.
John Cena and Charlotte Flair Set For Upcoming WWE SmackDown
WWE SmackDown will air live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN, next Friday after a taped episode this past week. John Cena is not currently booked for the show, while Charlotte Flair is not listed by WWE as of this writing, but is listed on the venue website.
The Undisputed WWE Champion and The Queen are both featured front and center on promotional material for the July 18 SmackDown episode from Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, TX.
Happy Birthday Cena! @JohnCena
Hustle. Loyalty. Respect. pic.twitter.com/SGQfJbjecD— Charlotte Flair (@MsCharlotteWWE) April 23, 2024
Next week’s SmackDown in Nashville will feature two big matches. R-Truth will face Aleister Black, and The Wyatt Sicks will challenge the Street Profits for the WWE Tag Team Championship.