What’s the story?
CageSideSeats reports that WWE Champion John Cena is likely to lose the title at the Elimination Chamber PPV in two weeks on February 12th, 2017.
The main reason this is being theorised is due to the downplaying of the fact that Cena tied WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair’s record of winning 16 world championships. The alleged reason the history-making moment was downplayed was because they didn’t want to hype up a short reign.
A report from PWInsider said that Flair was originally supposed to come to the ring at the Royal Rumble to congratulate Cena for matching his record, but the plans were changed and the two men would have their interactions on social media as opposed to television.
In case you didn’t know...
Cena not only matched Flair’s record of winning 16 world championships, but he also extended his record for holding the WWE Championship the most times to 13 championship reigns.
The last time Cena was the WWE Champion was in 2014 when he won the vacated championship at the 2014 edition of the Money in the Bank pay-per-view; known at the time as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Cena’s other 3 world championships came from his reign as the World Heavyweight Champion.
He won the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time at Survivor Series 2008 against Chris Jericho, regained the title after defeating Edge and Big Show at WrestleMania 25, and would become the last World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history when the belts were unified to form the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the TLC pay-per-view in 2013.
The current challenger at WrestleMania seems to be Randy Orton; who won the 2017 Royal Rumble and has yet to announce which belt he intends to fight for.
The heart of the matter
The WWE wanted Cena to break the record at the Royal Rumble, but that seems pointless now if he ends up losing the championship almost as soon as he had won it.
If Cena does lose the WWE Championship, this will mark his second title loss in an elimination chamber match. The first occurred against Edge at No Way Out 2009 when Edge went into the pay-per-view as the WWE Champion and left the World Heavyweight Champion.
What’s next?
There are two weeks until the Elimination Chamber so a lot could happen until then. The Elimination Chamber pay-per-view will be an interesting show, so fans have to simply wait for the event to unfold.
Sportskeeda’s take
This alleged plan could backfire if the WWE Championship changes hands so quickly and the fans don’t accept it. While some fans will be happy that they won’t have to watch Cena and Orton’s 70th match, it will look bad for the former WWE Champion AJ Styles.
If the end-game was to get to the rumoured match between Orton and Bray Wyatt, then why couldn’t Styles hang on to the championship for two more weeks? A victory at the Royal Rumble would’ve made Styles look like an even bigger star and would’ve been a great narrative.
It was an interesting fact that Styles debuted in the 2016 Royal Rumble match and went into the 2017 Royal Rumble Match the WWE Champion, but imagine how much better it could’ve been to say that he left as the WWE Champion instead.
Two weeks worth of waiting wouldn’t have hurt their rumoured plans unless they wanted Styles to regain the championship at the Elimination Chamber; which is highly unlikely.
Whoever wins the WWE Championship at the Elimination Chamber is likely headed on a collision course with The Apex Predator and the WWE have a choice to make; have Cena retain and subject fans to another Cena-Orton match or play hot potato with the WWE Championship and downplay Cena’s accomplishment?
Only time will tell what path they choose to take.
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