10 Saddest World Title Reigns In Wrestling History

8. Rey Mysterio

Daniel Bryan WWE Champion
WWE.com

Rey Mysterio has only one WWE Championship reign to his name, an epic run that lasted from 25 July 2011 to, uh, later in the evening of 25 July 2011. CM Punk had captured the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank, and taken the title with him as he fled into the Chicago crowd. With former champ John Cena fired for losing to Punk, a tournament was organized to crown a new champion.

Over the course of two weeks, Rey Mysterio defeated Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, and The Miz -- the latter two in the same night -- to make it to the top of the mountain. Triumphant but exhausted, the new champion was then informed that he would have to defend his newly-won title against... John Cena!

Yes, newly-rehired, fresh-as-a-daisy John Cena, who lost the championship clean to CM Punk in the first place, got to exercise his rematch clause against an exhausted 5'2" man who had just defeated two former world champions in one night. Because hustle, loyalty, and entitlement?

Cena would go on to have a legendary rivalry with Punk, while Mysterio went on to form a tag team with the original Sin Cara, which is the opposite of doing anything legendary.

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Long-time fan (scholar?) of professional wrestling, kaiju films and comparative mythology. Aspiring two-fisted adventurer.