In an interview with NOLA.com, John Cena spoke about the status of the World Heavyweight title as a "second-tier" championship. Here are highlights:

On bringing prestige back to the World Heavyweight Championship: "This is not taken as a shot of disrespect to anyone who has held the title before me, but it's now viewed as a second-tier championship. [Defending the title at WrestleMania XXX] will truly put a stamp on making it the real deal. I want the WWE universe to realize that it's not a second-tier championship. It should be treated with as much respect as the WWE Title."

On coming up on passing Ric Flair's legendary 16-time title reign: "If I have two more, that means I'm going to lose it two more times. So I'd rather stay at 14. That record is held in pretty high esteem. Just to be in that conversation, that means I've done something right over the years. If it gets to the point of where it does happen, I'll enjoy hearing what our fans have to say."

On his critics: "I'm glad at least (the critics) are watching. So I'll keep accepting their criticism as far as my in-ring skill set and just keep moving on. I've won 14 championships with five moves, and if I could only get myself a sixth one, I'll be able to break that 16 mark. ... I truly take (the criticism) in jest."
Read more at http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/news/302576/John-Cena-Says-World-Heavyweight-Title-Is-Viewed-As-A-Second-Tier-Championship.htm#8f4L4OZ0QA0XBIrf.99

Five Moves of Doom won him 14 world titles and 21 titles overall. LIKE A BOSS!

I think they should just unify both titles at Wrestlemania.

They're not gonna merge the WCW belt with the WWE belt.

They did it before, at Vengeance 2001.

Yeah, that was then. This is now. Why would they do it again?

They stopped doing brand exclusive house shows. No reason to have two world champions in one promotion at all anymore.

Drake-u-la wrote:

Yeah, that was then. This is now. Why would they do it again?

There is no brand extension, which was the whole point of bringing in the World Heavyweight Championship.

Then they would have merged them by now. The reason why they're not merging them is to have people get set-up for a major title run/push IE Daniel Bryan winning the World Heavyweight title and then the WWE title. It makes sense that they have two different world titles because that way, the opportunity is there for more than one person to be a top star. You have to realize that this is mostly about entertainment now and not competition, so merging the titles would be pointless.

Uhh...no. There have been a bunch of guys that have won the WWE Championship first (Sheamus, Del Rio etc) before the World Heavyweight Championship. Also just because you're getting a push doesnt necessarily mean you're going to win the World Title first.

^ I think a better point is, without the WHC, the IC and US titles will fill that role again instead of being useless.

That being said, either way they go won't change much. The WHC being around or not doesn't have as big an impact on the product as you might think.

I mean do they really need two world titles

Remember Vince is convinced that every house show needs to end in a Title match, so i dont see merging since SD and Raw house shows run diff cities/same night deal

They need to just bring back the brand extension... two world titles is great.

CyanideHarvey wrote:

Remember Vince is convinced that every house show needs to end in a Title match, so i dont see merging since SD and Raw house shows run diff cities/same night deal

Even on house shows The World Heavyweight Championship was still middle of the card  

Well with Cena as champion I guess that's going to change.

Razor X-Scream wrote:

They need to just bring back the brand extension... two world titles is great.

Somebody slap this bitch.

They need to just unify it with the WWE Title and run with just the WWE Title. There is zero point to it as it's always just an after thought.

I always preferred SD! anyway.