The 2017 Royal Rumble was a show of firsts: Neville winning the Cruiserweight title, The Club winning their first tag team titles since joining WWE and John Cena tying Ric Flair's 16 world title reigns.
Flair was asked moments after Cena defeated Styles at the Royal Rumble what his thoughts were on Cena tying his record and "Nature Boy" said he couldn't be happier.
"It's fabulous," Flair said. "I mean, I'm one of John's biggest fans, not only as a person, a human being, but as a wrestler. He's a great guy. He works incredibly hard. He's had an amazing career. He's been the flagship for this company for a long time. If someone is going to break that record, or tie it and ultimately break that record, I couldn't be happier for John Cena. He's a lovely guy. He's a great guy. He's worked hard to get that. It takes a lot of work to get that and time to win 16 world titles. I'm happy for him."
Flair tweeted out this photo of him and Cena after the victory:
Cena's win over Styles marks his 13th reign as WWE Champion while he has also held the World Heavyweight Championship on three separate occasions. Flair's 16 recognized reigns by WWE came from various promotions throughout his career: eight-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, six-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion, and two-time WWE Champion.
But Cena's 16 world titles occurred at a significantly faster pace than Flair. Cena had only been wrestling in WWE since 2002 and won his first world title in 2005 while Flair's in-ring career began in the 1970s and reached all the way to the early 2010s.
