Ranking Every WWE Championship Reign Of The 2020s So Far
14. John Cena (April-August 2025)
There is an alternative universe out there where John Cena's final WWE title reign was one of the best things ever. The idea of the ultimate good guy turning heel in his final year and then breaking wrestling by leaving with the belt was tantalising, but WWE messed it up almost immediately.
It didn't help that Cena won his record-breaking 17th world title in one of the worst WrestleMania main events of all time. His victory over Cody Rhodes was slow, boring, and featured far more Travis Scott than anybody was expecting.
Cena had a decent defence against Randy Orton at Backlash and then somehow got lost in the debacle surrounding R-Truth's release. His match with CM Punk at Night of Champions became more about apologising for Punk's old tweets about Saudi Arabia, and then came the bizarre circumstances of how John lost the belt.
Right before he was due to take on Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam, Cena just washed his hands of the heel thing entirely, and he then lost to Rhodes as a babyface. Cena's heel turn will go down as one of wrestling's great missed opportunities, as will this championship reign.