Why mess with the inevitable?
Although the 16-time world champion has eased into a part-time role with the company, there is no denying that Cena can still go with anyone on the active roster. Although motivation may be questionable at this point due to the large volume of better opportunities in Hollywood coming his way, another world title reign might just bring back the Cena that we see and love (while others secretly hate) whenever he holds a belt.
With it not being a good decision to fast track AJ Styles' title reigns, The Miz being a fixture making the Intercontinental Title look like the world title and Roman Reigns still having a long way to go, the only reasonable and maybe deserving person to accomplish such a feat aside from the aforementioned names is John Cena.
The monumental 17th world title reign for Cena has been teased for a while already, and the time must be now before his time is up.
Mr. WrestleMania Moment
If Shawn Michaels is Mr. WrestleMania, John Cena might be Mr. WrestleMania moment due to the number of crowning triumphs he has accumulated through the years. John Cena cut a promo on Raw last Monday suggesting that if AJ loses the title, he can simply invoke his rematch clause and make it a Triple Threat Match for the title in the main event of WrestleMania.
They may have found a way to book Cena to appear on every WrestleMania despite him not having a match on his very first and being injured on the one he made two years ago. This year is a different story though as there is no way they could write him into appearing without the title on his waist.
Having John Cena added to what was supposed to be a dream match between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura is a good idea right now as the WWE needs more time to rebuild the King of Strong Style as the best of him indeed got left behind in NXT. The so called "dream match" can still happen in a year or two.
It wouldn't harm their credibility to have the match get delayed for a year. The important thing is that the match is already billed to be big. It's just going to be bigger with John Cena in there shall he go into WrestleMania holding the title.
Each generation must have a "great one"
In respect to your Lou Theszs and George Hackenschmidts of the sport's humble beginnings, Ric Flair pretty much is the old school era with that larger than life persona accompanied by those world title reigns. This generation, however, undeniably has a star not only as big but also more controversial in John Cena.
In the early days, it was about physical strength. A generation later, it became about larger than life personalities. A generation later, it became about edginess, but this commencing generation is all about work ethic.
Before we eventually transition into a generation of flip competitions and broken kayfabes, Cena must have one last world title run to validate his contributions to his generation which is right now still overshadowed by the fact that he only tied Ric Flair's record and hasn't broken it.
Chance passenger
The other scary fact is that this title match at Fastlane is that John Cena is now in a chance passenger position that he has to win the title to even be seen in WrestleMania this year. Not having the WWE's biggest star on the grandest stage of them all while he still can go will definitely hurt his credibility as he has been to every one of them since 2003 regardless of the circumstance.
I might be thinking ahead too much, but this all explains why Cena must walk out of Fastlane the WWE Champion. It's time for Flair's record to be broken, and John Cena to cement his legacy once more before it's too late.
Do you think John Cena needs to win at Fastlane? Let us know in the comments below!