History is upon us and I’m talking about the inevitable here. John Cena is back, and he has business to take care of. Of course, his hands are full with AJ Styles and The Club for the time being. But after that, it won’t be before long he sets his sights on the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
He will look to tie Ric Flair’s historic record of sixteen World Championship wins.
It could very well happen sooner rather than later. Until his shoulder injury last year, Cena has been out of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship picture. It won’t be much longer before he finds his way back to that Championship, and best believe WWE will do its best to constantly remind you of the impending accomplishment.
For this journey, WWE must book this to make the win really count. Shall we count the ways in which this can happen?
#5 The number one contender process
In order to get back in the title picture, Cena will need to prove that he is a worthy contender now he is surrounded by much younger, more talented and hungrier competitors. Whether this will be determined by a tournament or his declaration of chasing the Championship, it’s too early to tell.
However if this is going to be successful, the booking must put Cena through the ringer. Again, he will need a storyline to prove that he still has what it takes in a new WWE. The best way is through a series of matches and hard fought battles to get there.
#4 Revisit past feuds once he’s captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Sixteen Championship wins is a huge feat – and that will leave some of the Superstars feeling some kind of way via storyline terms. More particularly the newer talent – such as Kevin Owens, Bray Wyatt and Rusev come to mind for me.
In this new era, it would make sense for those guys to come after Cena versus someone such as The Miz or Randy Orton. WWE is obviously going in a new direction, they should focus on the more recent feuds Cena has had. Feuding with Seth Rollins and Styles again isn’t a bad idea, either.
#3 Opportunity to create new feuds via Open Challenge
Of course, on the flipside there will be others who will want to challenge Cena to cut his accomplishment short. For guys like Dean Ambrose and Sami Zayn, I wouldn’t mind seeing Cena implement an open challenge like he did for the United States Championship.
This serves two purposes – to save face for the good guys and this gives Cena the chance to prove he deserved that win. Cena did fairly well with the open challenge and produced some of his best work. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
#2 Selling WrestleMania
With WrestleMania 32 being a profitable success, WWE will want to follow through on big names that will fill the stadiums in the coming years.
The surefire way to fill stadium seats, whether we like it or not, is to have Cena headline WrestleMania to defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and also defend the historic reign.
The hardest part here is to make sure the opponent is worthy. Whether it’s a blast from the past or a new face, the opponent is crucial. Which leads to the biggest possibility…
#1 Passing the torch to Roman Reigns
I can hear the complaining from all directions on this one, but it will eventually happen.
WWE has seemingly chosen its next top guy and it is the former Shield member. It is not that bad – Reigns has demonstrated that he can hang with some of WWE’s elite and consistently gets better.
While we can argue Reigns could use some character tweaks, one can’t deny that he has put in some overtime to polish his mat game. This would be a WrestleMania main event for sure, and don’t expect WWE to put light work in this feud when it does come to fruition.
