The fourth most successful WWE Champion of all time and still very much active in the title scene. However, Cena haters take comfort, he'd need another 898 days as Champion to break our top three. Even by Cena standards, another couple of years with the belt around his waist seems unlikely. There'll undoubtedly be more reigns, but nothing in the way of long term runs. Cena's success as a champion is down to his mass market appeal. Casual audiences, women and children identify with him. He's the family friendly face of the WWE franchise, hence he's regularly placed in the championship positions. TV ratings and merchandise sales also follow him around. Credit where it is due as well, he's got a portfolio of great matches to his name, particularly his efforts with CM Punk and Edge. As a commercial enterprise he's an absolute beat, headlining the biggest PPV box office of all time at WrestleMania 28 with The Rock. His championship career started in April 2005 with a victory over JBL at WrestleMania 21. He remained Champion until Edge cashed MITB in at January 2006's New Year's Revolution. He then won the belt back just a few weeks later, remaining Champ until Rob Van Dam beat him at ECW One Night Stand. Then came the mega reign. Cena beat Edge for the belt at Unforgiven 2006 in a stellar TLC match. He never actually lost that belt. A year and a month later he had to vacate it due to injury, otherwise who knows, maybe that reign would still be going on today! Cena's longevity has been a force of nature. Several more reigns came, both long and short. He's currently on 12 titles overall, with a combined days of 1,240. Bear in mind as well that he had 3 World Title reigns for 154 days. The last decade has well and truly been John Cena's yard.
