10 Times WWE Tried To Force Historic Moments
3. John Cena's 16th World Title
The WWE Championship has suffered greatly since AJ Styles’ reign came to an end in January, and John Cena is at least partially complicit in this. While his victory at the Royal Rumble came through one of the year’s best matches, it needlessly curtailed AJ’s tremendous run as champion.
The belt’s credibility has been stuck in a downward spiral ever since.
WWE’s motivation for the title switch was blatantly obvious. Prior to the Rumble, John Cena was sitting on 15 career world titles. If he defeated AJ, he’d equal Ric Flair’s long-standing "record" of 16, and for no reason other than to place Cena’s name alongside ‘The Nature Boy’ in the history books, WWE pulled the trigger.
Cena lost the belt inside the Elimination Chamber just 15 days later, having not made a single successful defence. The cynicism surrounding his win over Styles was proven justified, and with Cena now out to make Flair’s record his own, we can probably look forward to another scenario like this in the future.
Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton, and Jinder Mahal have since dealt further damage to the belt, but its downfall started with this forced moment.