Best Championship Matches of John Cena Ahead Of His Retirement

As we are familiar with the buzzing topic of the industry, John Cena has announced his official retirement from professional wrestling by the end of 2025. We’re still unaware of the journey, his possible opponents, or even championship pursuits. It’s an open book left by the legend himself and in this article, we’re bound to discuss the best matches that Cena had with every championship he has held in WWE. Now, this is completely my opinion and it is subjective to every viewer. Hence, a healthy discussion towards the end is most welcome.

Throughout his lustrous career, Cena has held almost every championship in WWE except the Intercontinental Championship. The following table illustrates the titles and the number of reigns under Cena’s resumé:

World Tag Team Championships: w/ Shawn Michaels vs. Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) – Monday Night Raw, 26/02/2007

Cena has held both the WWE and World Tag Team titles on four different occasions, and this reign was the most memorable despite falling under the “can opponents co-exist” storyline. The same happened in two of the reigns with Batista in 2008 and The Miz in 2011. The remaining was a story-driven hotshot with David Otunga as part of the Nexus storyline in 2010. Tracing back to this match, Michaels became the new #1 Contender for the WWE Championship after coming up short in the 2007 Royal Rumble by defeating Edge and Orton on the February 5th episode of Raw. Even though Rated-RKO were hungry to challenge for Monday night’s mainstream championship, Michaels saved Cena from their antics and ended up in an unusual alliance formed between them.

This was a very standard main event with all the top stars pitched in for an entertaining affair. Unlike nowadays, the tag titles were either held by teams with limited defenses or became placeholders for bigger storylines. In this match, the second case was suited but in a great way. Rated-RKO’s work was fairly good as heels while the major tease of Michaels almost misfiring the Sweet Chin Music towards Cena was buzzworthy. In the final stretch, Michaels played a smart move and made Edge fall into his trap of Orton firing his shot of betrayal, leading to the dissension of their alliance.

World Heavyweight Championship: vs. Edge – Last Man Standing Match – WWE Backlash 2009

Combining all of his reigns, the most memorable period was the build to WrestleMania 25 where Edge assaulted Kingston to win the title at No Way Out just to lose the title to Cena on WWE’s magnum opus. This was a contractual rematch by Edge and considering the hostile tension between them and the romantic angle between Edge and Vickie Guerrero, the last man standing stipulation was tied in.

This was a fantastic brawl that highlighted the great chemistry developed by them for so many years. It had the traditional first phase of a usual Last Man Standing match where every move was considered a threat to wrap it up, but once the steel steps got involved, that’s when the speed kicked in. From the moment Cena launched Edge onto a moshpit of fans with an AA, the exhilaration was wild. The finish wasn’t the best way to conclude this exceptional rivalry, but it doesn’t take anything away from the execution of such an uber-cool finish. To conclude, this would’ve been my pick for the best match of this rivalry hadn’t their classic at Unforgiven ’06 happened.

United States Championship: vs. Cesaro – Monday Night Raw, 06/07/2015

One of the finest years in Cena’s career was the period when he was the United States Champion and issued an open challenge every Monday on Raw. Some of the best moments happened during this tenure, including the main roster debuts of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. The latter’s debut became more memorable because of Owens’ demeanor as a young, brash upstart trying to kick up a notch against the veteran. Ahead of their trilogy at Battleground, this match was close to being snatched from the Swiss sensation by Owens again. But, the short yet impactful pre-match promo from Cesaro made the most sense and resulted in this exceptional battle.

This is one of the prime examples of why Cesaro was underutilized during his run in WWE. As a character, he was getting better but the in-ring performance wasn’t left in doubt on any occasion. The fact that he pushed Cena to exercise a variation in his offense proved the deepest that Cesaro must’ve had a secondary title run at least, but there’s nothing in power to change the past. Nonetheless, it was an exciting rematch from the week before because of a more focused build to the exhilarating, clean finish.

WWE Championship: vs. AJ Styles – WWE Royal Rumble 2017

After successfully defending the WWE Championship against Dean Ambrose in TLC, the new contender’s hunt was fresh and racy leading to Ziggler and Corbin quarreling for that spot. Styles’ overconfidence resulted in a three-way to cap off 2016 in style. Before that match, Cena returned after almost three months to challenge the champion at Royal Rumble. It was Styles who came out the victor of that triple threat and the stars were aligned to complete one of the most beautiful rivalries with a compelling trilogy.

There are numerous matches where Cena won the WWE Title and defended the same against some of the best, but most of them were either at his ‘rising star’ phase or as the face of the brand. In this match, he didn’t necessarily need to take the steering wheel again considering how rich the roster was, but this man stepped up and delivered another hallmark performance against one of his best rivals, AJ Styles. Again, their rivalry was all about proving who’s the better of both. In their previous encounters, Styles was cocky since he was the new shining toy, but the championship pushed both men to their limits. Honestly, I haven’t witnessed Cena that hungry and focused since 2005-09. Hence, this match and the humongous reasons behind it made it extremely special, especially when the final bell rang in favor of Cena for his 16th World Championship victory. Truly, an iconic moment in wrestling history!

What do you think of this list of matches? Do you agree that these are Cena’s best championship battles or is there a different list in your mind? Let us know in the comments section below.

Until next time, enjoy wrestling and life!