wrestling / Columns
Looking at Cena’s 16 Championship Reigns
Image Credit: WWE
Hello wrestling fans.
As we all know by now, John Cena tied Ric Flair’s historic 16th World Championship reign this past Sunday at the Royal Rumble. With 52,000 in attendance for one of the biggest wrestling events of the year, it was an appropriate setting for such an awesome occasion. The match itself was an instant classic, with two of the very best in the industry going at it for the third time in what will easily top many “Match of the Year” awards by year’s end.
16 World Championships, whether in a competitive sport or sports entertainment, is an incredible feat. For that reason, I felt it necessary to journey back to 2005 when John Cena won his very first WWE Championship, and work my way through each and every reign. One by one I’ll break down the events leading to and surrounding each reign, along with some stats and personal commentary. Alright, enough with the intro, let’s dive right in.
April 3, 2005
Wrestlemania 21 vs. JBL
280 day reign
Lost to Edge at New Year’s Revolution 2006
The historic first championship reign for John Cena. I remember it vividly as I had just gotten back into wrestling again after a couple year hiatus. Cena managed to successfully transition his “Doctor of Thuganomics” heel character into a strong babyface who helped carry the Smackdown mid-card for a good year and a half. I emphasize “mid-card” because this is why the Cena experiment originally worked. They didn’t rocket him into the main event as soon as he started getting cheers from the crowd. They gave him a chance to “earn his stripes” and build a fanbase without shoving him down our throats. They left that part to John Bradshaw Layfield, the longest reigning WWE Champion in Smackdown history. Fans had grown tired of the loud-mouthed Texan, and were eagerly anticipating a new champion. Enter John Cena. Some may argue that he wasn’t ready to be WWE Champion, but I’d argue that the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Old-school hated villain vs. young up-and-coming hero on the grandest stage of them all. It’s a star-making opportunity if there ever was one, and they capitalized on it. What followed was what is now his second-longest reign ever, and with it came resentment from the fans that once supported him.
January 29, 2006
Royal Rumble 2006 vs. Edge
133 day reign
Lost to Rob Van Dam at One Night Stand 2006
John Cena vs. Edge would end up going down as one of each man’s best rivalries, and this was the WWE testing the waters. The chemistry wasn’t instant between the two, as I remember their Rumble 2006 clash being quite the letdown, but it would eventually grow with time. I specifically remember being pretty bummed out that Edge’s first reign ended so soon, but you could tell that they had bigger plans for each (huge long-awaited match vs. Triple H for Cena, and a star-making singles feud with Mick Foley for Edge). I’d say it worked out in the long run. Edge became a megastar and Cena was able to finally help catapult Rob Van Dam as a main eventer (albeit briefly).
September 17, 2006
Unforgiven 2006 vs. Edge
380 day regin
Title vacated due to injury on October 2, 2007
This, in my opinion, was the reign that ultimately cemented John Cena as the most divisive WWE superstar of all time. Sure, he was already getting booed for months before he beat Edge to regain his championship in a stellar TLC match at Unforgiven 2006 (a fantastic PPV all-around if you’ve never seen it), but the WWE still had a chance to steer the ship in a different direction. They had no intention to do so however (and in hindsight, this was probably for good reason as Cena is still the biggest merchandise mover in the company by far), and they stuck to their guns, turning Cena into Super Cena. It was as if Vince McMahon wasn’t fulfilled by the initial huge push, and decided to add a second and third rocket to ass and blasted him into a different galaxy. He wanted his new-age Hulk Hogan, and by God, he was going to get him.
November 23, 2008
Survivor Series 2008 vs. Chris Jericho
84 day reign
Lost to Edge at No Way Out 2009
November 2008, and we’re still solidly in the SuperCena phase of John Cena’s career. A herniated disk suffered at SummerSlam that year wasn’t going to keep him down, and we could all see it coming. It really boils down to this: hardcore wrestling fans HATED Cena and kids loved him, for the same reason hardcore comic book fans tend to be bored by Superman and young comic book fans look up to him. At the end of the day, Cena was being marketed towards kids, so as long as they were on board, that’s all that mattered. It’s really the main reason they still haven’t turned Cena heel. Bright-colored gear marketed to children and bought by parents and women outsells heel Cena gear marketed to teen and middle-aged guys every day of the week, I guarantee it. I make the point here because it was something a lot of fans around this time failed to see. There is always a bigger picture. That said, I do remember that his comeback match and 4th championship victory was the first time I was ever “bored” by a Cena match. Up until that point, I was always at least mildly interested in the in-ring action and opponent. But for some reason, Cena and Chris Jericho never really connected in that way.
April 5, 2009
Wrestlemania 25 vs. Edge and Big Show
21 day reign
Lost to Edge at Backlash 2009
2009 was a bit of a strange and stagnant year for John Cena and the WWE as a whole. It was just the same cast of characters that had been at the top of the card for years, and no one was really moving up or down. You had your mainstays in Cena, Edge, Orton, Michaels, Triple H, and Batista, but no one new was breaking through and making a name for themselves, which is part of the reason why they reverted back and re-ignited the tried-and-true Cena vs. Edge program. It was fun as always, but it did feel like we had already been there and done that. At least we were treated to a fantastic Last Man Standing match between the two which proved to be the end of Cena’s 5th championship reign. It’s surprising, but a legitimate argument can be made that Edge is one of the few superstars to end up on the winning end of a long-term feud with John Cena.
September 13, 2009
Breaking Point 2009 vs. Randy Orton
21 day reign
Lost to Randy Orton at Hell in a Cell 2009
Speaking of reverting back and re-igniting previous beefs, it was around this time that we were treated to yet another round of John Cena vs. Randy Orton matches. Not that they weren’t good, because for the most part they were. And how could they not be; these two have wrestled each other so many times that they can put on a good match blindfolded and with their arms tied behind their back. Well, probably not, but you get my point (let’s not give Vince any ideas). In fact, I distinctly remember going to two different house shows here in Miami spaced about 5 years apart, and the main event of both was Cena vs. Orton. This particular championship win took place at the experimental Breaking Point PPV, where all title matches had some kind of submission stipulation. The “I Quit” match that night between Cena and Orton was probably the match of the night, and it left us with what it one of my favorite sequences of the last 10 years: Cena coming alive and going absolutely ape-shit ballistic on Orton after being slowly tortured by the Viper for the majority of the match. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth seeking out.
October 25, 2009
Bragging Rights 2009 vs. Randy Orton
49 day reign
Lost to Sheamus at TLC 2009
Fast forward one month, and we have Cena and Orton continuing to hot potato the title back and forth, finally ending their feud with a decent but disappointing IronMan match at Bragging Rights 2009. I’d say this is probably the weakest match of their rivalry, mostly due to the unnecessarily long length, but it does feature Orton almost committing manslaughter on live television by trying to blow up Cena with pyro. Good times. Looking back though, this ended up being just another uneventful and short title reign for Cena, following a long series of similarly uneventful and short reigns. In fact, Cena’s fourth through seventh championship reigns spanned just 175 days total, which is less than half his entire third reign. It really does magnify a problem that the Raw brand in general was going through at the time. Hardly any new stars, same old feuds, and a bunch of short meaningless championship reigns. It literally took a match branded the “Breakthrough Battle Royal” to finally breathe some fresh life into the main event picture.
February 21, 2010
Elimination Chamber 2010 vs. Sheamus/Triple H/Randy Orton/Ted DiBiase/Kofi Kingston
Less than 1 day reign
Lost to Batista at Elimination Chamber 2010
Heading into 2010 John Cena was pretty much in a holding pattern. It was simply business as usual and to the dedicated viewer it seemed the WWE was content with maintaining the status quo. And then we were finally treated to the beginnings of what would end up being a fitting end to the Cena vs. Batista program. We had a brush with it originally back in the Summer of 2008, but Cena got hurt and we never got a proper conclusion. The landscape was different this time around however, as we now had a full-blown heel Batista taking on Cena. This made for a much more interesting dynamic, and produced the best work of Batista’s career. It also brought some newfound fire and motivation to Cena as you could tell he welcomed the change of pace after plodding through a whole lot of rehash in 2009. This program along with the incredible work Shawn Michaels and Undertaker were doing at the time kept me invested as a fan.
March 28, 2010
Wrestlemania 26 vs. Batista
84 day reign
Lost to Sheamus at Fatal 4-Way 2010
John Cena vs. Batista is the kind of feud that is deserving of a marquee match at Wrestlemania, and for a while, it seemed like we would never get it. Fortunately we did, and it was the site of Cena’s ninth championship win. This reign would go on to feature two additional matches against Batista (a Last Man Standing match at Extreme Rules and an “I Quit” match at Over the Limit to be exact), both of which would see Cena come out on top. The record books might highlight the feud as a one-sided affair, but Batista was on his way out of the company, and history has shown us that he was a true company-man who was never too proud to do the honors. The dominating reign would come to an end at the hands of Sheamus, who seemed to have Cena’s number having already dethroned him twice in the span of six months.
May 1, 2011
Extreme Rules 2011 vs. The Miz and John Morrison
77 day reign
Lost to CM Punk at Money in the Bank 2011
After a good year away from the WWE Championship, John Cena was able to regain his coveted prize once again after coming up short the month prior in the convoluted main event of Wrestlemania 27. I have great respect for The Miz, but between late 2010 and the Summer of 2011, I was beginning to lose some steam as a wrestling fan honestly. Cena’s 10th championship reign offered more of the same, and featured one of the worst WWE Championship matches I’ve ever seen in Cena vs. Miz in an “I Quit” match at Over the Limit 2011. It’s interesting that these two never clicked in a main event scenario, because just a couple years prior to this they had a super fun upper-midcard feud during a time when Miz was in a bit of a transitional phase. This 10th championship reign also gifted us with R-Truth’s only singles main event program in the WWE , and while it was definitely entertaining, I just didn’t see any progress or any real reason to continue watching. That was of course, until the Summer of Punk Part II.
July 25, 2011
Monday Night Raw vs. Rey Mysterio
20 day reign
Lost to CM Punk at SummerSlam 2011
It’s insane how a wrestling product can go from consistently below average and dull to captivating and must-see TV literally overnight. We transitioned from the brief R-Truth program into Punk’s infamous pipebomb promo seamlessly. By that I mean R-Truth and John Cena were still in the ring after their rematch as CM Punk perched himself on top of the entrance ramp, set to make a name for himself. Unfortunately, there are always casualties in the midst of epic programming, and in this case poor Rey Mysterio felt the brunt of it, dropping his newly-won WWE Championship back to Cena in the same night. After all, they needed to crown a new champion after Punk hit the bricks, and for some reason they were dead-set on having the storyline culminate at SummerSlam, so the only logical thing to do was to get the interm championship back on Cena to setup the money match. I’d argue that they could have extended this beyond the Summer and possibly have it conclude at Survivor Series, but it wasn’t meant to be. It still remains one of the greatest storylines of the 21st Century.
September 18, 2011
Night of Champions 2011 vs. Alberto Del Rio
14 day reign
Lost to Alberto Del Rio at Hell in a Cell 2011
While I wholeheartedly assert that the Summer of Punk was indeed one of the greatest storyline arcs of the 21st Century, that unfortunately didn’t extend beyond the Summer season. It pretty much fell apart right when Alberto Del Rio cashed in at the end of SummerSlam. I’m still scratching my head at that one. And then we get this meaningless and shoehorned 12th championship reign from Cena that lasted all of two weeks. I’ve never been a fan of Cena vs. Del Rio programs, and it felt so out of touch here when they had a white-hot Punk wasting away in a weird power struggle with Triple H and Kevin Nash. Cena would then go on to lose the championship back to Del Rio in a triple threat Hell in a Cell match which thankfully did feature Punk, but it all just felt like a really ass-backwards, roundabout way of getting the championship back to Punk once he eventually won it back from Del Rio.
April 7, 2013
Wrestlemania 29 vs. The Rock
133 day reign
Lost to Daniel Bryan at SummerSlam 2013
John Cena was away from the championship picture for pretty much all of 2012 as CM Punk embarked on his historic 434 day reign, but as is always the case, found himself right back in the thick of it soon enough. While it was once advertised as “Once in a Lifetime,” we were now heading into Wrestlemania 29 primed for Rock vs. Cena Part II. Cena “got his win back” and I remember commentary describing this as a passing of the torch moment. In a way I kind of see it, as it was symbolic of The Rock’s generation passing the torch to John Cena’s generation, but come on, by that point Cena had a firm grip on that damn torch for eight years. It would prove to be his longest reign since 2006, but honestly I don’t remember much from it other than it ended with Daniel Bryan challenging for and eventually winning the title at SummerSlam later that year.
October 27, 2013
Hell in a Cell 2013 vs. Alberto Del Rio
49 day reign
Lost to Randy Orton at TLC 2013
Following the events of SummerSlam 2013, John Cena would take a couple months off to nurse an injury. When he returned, he had his sights set on the World Heavyweight Championship, which he would end up winning from Alberto Del Rio in his first match back. What followed was another dull program with Del Rio before moving into YET ANOTHER feud with Randy Orton, this time to unify the World Heavyweight and WWE Championships, which Cena failed to do. Part of me would’ve really liked to see the Daniel Bryan vs. Cena program continue beyond SummerSlam because it was fresh and new and produced an instant classic at said event (not to mention, Bryan’s matches with Orton that Fall left a lot to be desired), but hindsight being 20/20, it obviously turned out for the best with Bryan’s ultimate coronation at Wrestlemania 30.
June 29, 2014
Money in the Bank 2014 vs. Alberto Del Rio/Bray Wyatt/Cesaro/Kane/Randy Orton/Roman Reigns/Sheamus
50 day reign
Lost to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2014
This was the textbook definition of a transitional championship reign. Daniel Bryan had to vacate the championship due to injury so it was put up for grabs at Money in the Bank. The ultimate goal here was to setup a huge Brock Lesnar vs. Cena rematch at SummerSlam 2014 for said championship, so we obviously needed a way to get the championship onto Cena because Lesnar don’t work no stinkin’ B-PPVs. Some quick research reveals that between MITB and SummerSlam, we got a Fatal 4-Way for the title at Battleground 2014 between Cena, Roman Reigns, Kane, and Randy Orton which I had completely forgotten about (have to re-visit that one, sounds interesting). At the end of the day however, this reign will be remembered for how it ended, which was at the hands of The Beast Incarnate, The Conqueror, Mr. Suplex City, Brock Lesnar. And it wasn’t your standard championship victory either. It was a complete and utter annihilation; A totally one-sided affair even more embarrassing than Lesnar’s recent 1 minute 26 second defeat at the hands of Goldberg. This wasn’t a fluke win where the opponent was momentarily out of sorts. Cena was out of sorts from the start, and it continued for another 16 minutes.
January 29, 2017
Royal Rumble 2017 vs. AJ Styles
Currently reigning champion
Following John Cena’s brutal loss to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2014, we finally saw a hint of change in the Cena character. He wasn’t the same world-beater of old, but rather more of a calculated wily veteran looking to hold his own in a new generation of talent. He wouldn’t regain his WWE Championship for another two and a half years, but during those two and a half years, we witnessed some of the best work of Cena’s career. From an incredible and hard-hitting feud with Kevin Owens which legitimized Owens as a force to be reckoned with on the main roster, to his fantastic run as United States Champion, Cena was knocking it out of the park on a weekly basis. And then he met AJ Styles, the guy who had been knocking it out of the park for last 15 years. It was instant magic from the moment they got in the ring with each other and fans were chanting “Let’s Go Cena, A-J Styles.” Since then, we’ve been treated to Styles’ epic heel turn, two one-on-one classics at Money in the Bank and SummerSlam, and Styles’ rise to the WWE Championship, all of which set the field for their latest encounter: AJ Styles vs. John Cena in front of 52K+ in the Alamodome at the Royal Rumble. Would Styles go 3-0 against Cena? Would Cena win his historic 16th championship? We all know how it ended, and what a satisfying conclusion it was. What’s that famous line? “When wrestling is good, it fucking great.”
