WWE: Ranking John Cena's 14 World Title Reigns - From Worst To Best

5. WWE Championship (11th WWE, 13th Overall) April 7, 2013 - August 18, 2013

Lucky number 13 for John Cena came on the heels of his second Royal Rumble victory setting a date for a rematch at WrestleMania 29 with The Rock who would beat CM Punk for the championship in the following match that night in Phoenix. Cena would redeem himself and secure his spot at top Superstar in WWE that cold April evening in New Jersey, avenging his loss to The People's Champ at the WrestleMania prior and hoisting a championship onto his shoulder for the first time since October 2011, ending a 553-day drought, still the longest of his career. Cena's reign was very much of the same old Cena, but quite possibly Cena at his most self-aware as he spent a majority of the time addressing the fans that despised him almost as much as he did his admirers and opponents. He made several jokes at the internet wrestling community's expense, including a particularly funny tease at a heel turn, which was coincidentally enough followed up by a reported Achilles' Tendon injury that Cena would work through most of his time with the championship. Cena would also work through a torn bicep that would leave a ghastly knot on Cena's arm while he suffered the injury. Cena would also have some of the highest regarded matches of his career, managing to thwart the challenges of Ryback at Extreme Rules and Payback in a Three Stages Of Hell Match that saw Cena put Ryback through the roof of an ambulance and The World's Strongest Man Mark Henry at Money In The Bank. Cena's losing effort to Daniel Bryan at SummerSlam in what was voted as the 2013 PWI Match Of The Year, a match that Cena and the fans more or less demanded on a prior Monday Night Raw, has become the start of what has been the biggest story of the last half of 2013 and the first part of 2014 with Daniel Bryan's struggles against The Authority starting with this match. Cena using himself to bring Bryan to the spotlight and being the kickoff point for the biggest story of the year, while closing out the biggest rivalry of the last two years by finally avenging his defeat to The Rock at WrestleMania 28.