John Cena surpassed Ric Flair’s world title record on his retirement tour in WWE, and Flair has now reacted to how he felt about the moment.

Flair’s 16 world titles was broken by Cena at WrestleMania 41 in 2025, which Cena was apprehensive about breaking due to his love and admiration for the legendary star. Flair recently spoke to “Yahoo! Sports,” where he expressed happiness at Cena breaking the long-standing record. 

“I was happy for John. I love John Cena. Nobody’s ever represented the company any better than John. Hard worker. Came up, you know, through Louisville and all that with Jim Cornette, and you know, he put in his dues, but man, John works his butt his butt off. He’s still part of the show, which I — John will always be part of the WWE,” he said.

Flair also pointed out Cena’s success in Hollywood and said he’s happy to see the likes of Cena, The Rock, and Dave Bautista — all of whom made a mark in WWE — thrive in the film industry. While he may be dedicated to Hollywood, “The Nature Boy” thinks that Cena will always be connected to WWE in some way.

“I mean, he’s having tremendous success in Hollywood right now. As is Dave Bautista, as is The Rock. I mean, I’m glad that they’ve all had an opportunity to, you know, have that for them. But those guys will always be part of the wrestling program, especially The Rock and John,” he added.

For a long time, there was speculation about who would break Flair’s record, with names ranging from his daughter, WWE star Charlotte Flair, to his Evolution stablemate Randy Orton, as well as Cena, being among the frontrunners. However, Cena was ultimately the one to break it, having come close in 2021 before a change of plans prevented him from making history.