At the Royal Rumble, Orton successfully defended his WWE Championship against Jeff Hardy while Cena returned to win the Rumble match, making him number one contender for the belt at WrestleMania. Instead, Cena challenged Orton for a match at No Way Out where Orton got himself intentionally disqualified by slapping the referee. He retained the Championship. Triple H became the new number one contender for Orton's belt after winning an Elimination Chamber match at the same No Way Out event. The next night on Raw, Cena complained that he was deserved of another championship match due to Orton's disqualification. General Manager William Regal set up a match between Cena and Orton and if the leader of the Cenation won, he would be added to the Mania match. Cena won the match and was added to the main event. The trio's schedules would continue to intertwine right up until their Mania showdown. The Mania match was made a no disqualification bout with Orton coming out on top. Cena had Triple H on his shoulders for the FU, but this was countered into a Pedigree. As Triple H was pinning Cena, Orton ran across the ring and punted Triple H in the head, knocking him off the top of Cena. Orton capitalised and pinned Cena to win the match and retain the WWE Championship.
