10 Wrestlers Who DOUBLED DOWN On Legendary Title Reigns
7. John Cena
The merchandise was repugnant and the spinner WWE Championship was a sordid thing, but John Cena's third WWE and fourth United States Championship reigns were the stuff of legend.
Cena is renowned the world over as a prototypical WWE Champion, putting the belt above himself to elevate its prestige, not his own. Lifting the gold from Edge at 2006's Unforgiven in TLC's best one-on-one illustration to begin his third run, Cena embarked on an iconic 380-day jaunt as WWE's right-hand man, bringing Umaga, The Great Khali, Bobby Lashley, and others to their greatest WWE matches.
In 2015, meanwhile, amidst a rare step back into the mid-card, it was the United States Championship that was elevated by Cena's relationship with the star-spangled title as, after toppling the undefeated Rusev at WrestleMania 31, John Cena's weekly Raw open challenges became the reason to tune into WWE's red brand. Highlights included bouts vs. Zack Ryder and Cesaro, each of which brought out a different strand of John Cena, while he also handed NXT hero Sami Zayn one of the brand's best main roster call-ups.
It was the United States Championship that put John Cena back in the Best In The World conversation. The subsequent AJ Styles rivalry, though not originally for a title, solidified that sentiment.