10 WWE Storylines We'd Like To See In 2018
3. The Waiting Game
At some point, John Cena will break Ric Flair's Fake News record of World Title wins. It is as inevitable as his heel turn was not.
There is no need to rush it in a hasty publicity grab - á la the equalling of said record - especially given Cena's status as a part-time star. One of the foundations of storytelling is build and release, deployed superbly by David Lynch and Mark Frost in this year's spellbinding Twin Peaks revival. Series protagonist Special Agent Dale Cooper, his conscious mind scorched after a quarter of a century trapped in the Black Lodge netherworld, unwittingly reentered the mortal plane in the guise of his dimwitted tulpa Dougie Jones. After hours of slowly restoring his identity, and positively affecting the lives of those around him with his inherent, transferable goodness, Cooper woke up in a hospital bed.
"I am the FBI," he said after regaining his faculties. This heroic line melted fans because they had waited so long for Cooper to utter it.
That is possibly the loftiest comparison imaginable, but the crux is achievable: in transferring his own star power to opponents in protective, narrow losses in big matches, prospective winners of which are legion, Cena might yet recover his brilliantly selfless 2015 form.
Moreover, we might actually receive that inevitable 17th Cena win - following a confidence crisis teasing a heel turn no longer that unlikely, in this Roman 'Big Dog' Reigns era - with pathos, not eye-rolling cynicism.