The previous night at SummerSlam, which is one of the WWE’s flagship pay-per-view events of the year, Stewart cost Cena the United States Championship when he ran to the ring and hit Cena with a steel chair, allowing World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins to win the match. This also gave Rollins — in the news earlier this year for his social media scandal — the United States Championship, as per the pre-match stipulation, thus making Rollins the first ever dual champion in WWE kayfabe.
The following night, on Raw, Stewart was given some airtime to explain his actions. Contrary to WWE fan speculation, he had not in fact turned heel, the wrestling term for becoming a bad guy. His actions were actually pretty noble, or so he claimed: He didn’t want Ric Flair’s record of being a 16-time world champion tied by Cena. Cena is currently a 15-time champion and would’ve tied Flair’s record if he pinned Rollins at SummerSlam.
In the middle of Stewart’s explanation, Flair himself appeared and made his way to the ring. Though Stewart’s a Ric-Flair-kinda-guy, the Nature Boy scolded Stewart and told him that it’d be inevitable that his record would be broken, and he’d like it done by somebody he actually respects, like Cena.
Of course, since this is WWE programming, Cena then predictably came out to join the party. What wasn’t so predictable was that Stewart apparently agreed to have the “Attitude Adjustment” performed on him after Cena completely disapproved of his excuses for his SummerSlam actions.
See Stewart taking the full brunt of Cena’s finishing move, below. The awesomeness starts at the video’s 4:50 mark.
Is this a good career move for Stewart? Going from partisan comic and TV host to … wrestler? In all seriousness, though, Stewart is a long-time WWE fan, so this is likely his way of celebrating his Daily Show retirement.
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