John Cena walked into WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas with the polite shuffle of a man reporting for overtime. He walked out with the belt, the boos, and a line in the record book no future star will touch: 17 recognized world championships, all in World Wrestling Entertainment, one more than Ric Flair ever claimed even on his grandest barstool nights when he was counting his territorial titles. The pyrotechnics boomed, the arena filled with half-hearted “you still got it” chants, and Cody Rhodes slipped into yesterday’s gear bag. Cena’s smile, practiced over two decades of Make-A-Wish photos, never left his face. Yet even the smile felt like heavy lifting.

The math is simple: Cena is nearly 50. He has not worked a true full-time schedule since former President Barack Obama’s second term, and the joints complain even during the Peacemaker press junkets. Yet the company rolled him straight from the WrestleMania stage into Backlash and a main-event grudge with 45-year-old Randy Orton, the only rival old enough to remember chain-wrestling him in the Ohio Valley. Orton looks fresher now, broader than Brock Lesnar in the shoulders, easier in the hips. Orton lost anyway, and the crowd told the champion he could not wrestle while the commentary team nodded along.