10 Great WWE Championship Reigns (That Ended In The Worst Way Possible)

10. John Cena - WWE Championship

People forget how protected John Cena was at the height of his powers. Cena was relentless, overcoming all the odds and beating everyone in his path with depressing predictability. Every now and then, fans would allow themselves to dream that his dominance might end, but those hopes soon crumbled in the face of meat and potatoes wrestling and a flurry of colourful shirts.

On September 17, 2006, John Cena defeated Edge in a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match, a bout with a most famous finish. The result of the championship match was a foregone conclusion, but the spectacular nature of the finish meant fans weren’t too annoyed at Cena beginning his third world title run.

Cena’s third reign was immeasurably better than his first two. Sure, the dominance remained, but the quality of matches was noticeably better. Cena had classic defences against a variety of opponents, from Umaga to Shawn Michaels to The Great Khali, giving the latter the best match of his career in the process. Cena also gave Lashley his best WWE match, so far at least. The reign lasted 380 days and opened the eyes of many to the qualities of John Cena as a real top guy.

And then he tore his pectoral. Any plans WWE had of building to a big match and crowning a new champion were thrown out the window. Cena was scheduled to defend the WWE Championship against Randy Orton and may well have lost, giving Orton his first world title in three years in the process. Instead, Orton was handed the title by Vince McMahon.

It was a depressing end to what had been a genuinely great WWE Championship reign.