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John Cena’s 16th WWE World Title Reign was Useless

By Alexander Podgorski

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John Cena tied Ric Flair’s legendary record, but it was all for nothing.

In case you might’ve forgotten (although that might be the case since most of the world has been overjoyed over Bray Wyatt’s win), John Cena won his 16th world title at the 2017 Royal Rumble PPV. He defeated then-champion A.J. Styles in a spectacular match that’s deservedly a Match of the Year contender. Unfortunately, the long-term consequences of this match won’t be felt, nor is there really any reason to celebrate this achievement.

John Cena held the championship for 14 days, or two full weeks. In that time, he didn’t defend it once outside of the Elimination Chamber. There was no story surrounding this particular championship reign. A.J. Styles didn’t even get his singles rematch, because WWE are apparently putting together a storyline centered on Styles being screwed out of the championship by Shane McMahon (gee, a popular, technical wrestler getting screwed by a McMahon in power – now where have we seen that before?).

Simply put, WWE booked Cena to win the WWE Championship when they did…just to do it. There was no concern for long-term planning, or even short-term planning, as Cena appears to be on his way to an inter-gender match with Nikki Bella against the Miz and Maryse at WrestleMania. If that’s the plan, what was the point of ending Styles’ exciting and entertaining WWE Championship run when they did? Why would you cut something short like that, fully aware Cena won’t be in the title picture come WrestleMania?

This whole thing just screams of Vince McMahon not planning things out carefully. He chose an arbitrary date on which Cena would win so that he could tie Ric Flair’s record. This was not the right moment to do so in any way for many reasons.

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First, it perpetuated the idea that Cena, a part-timer, was a bigger and more important star than Styles. As much as we all like to pretend that the champion is actually the biggest and best star, most of us know the reality: Vince has his inner circle of preferred talent, and no matter how over someone else gets, his hand-picked favorites will always get to the top in a different (and sometimes easier) way.

It was never explained why Cena earned his title shot; he was simply shoehorned into the Championship picture because… well, because he’s John Cena. Whereas Styles earned his spot and fought tooth and nail to win and retain his title, Cena was elevated to the top because of how big a star he has been over the past fifteen years.

So, once again, Cena proved that, no matter how good one of the new guys was, he, the part-timer, was still better (and therefore more important).

Secondly, Styles could’ve had some great matches with other wrestlers on the roster. Now, Cena has matured into a great wrestler in the past few years, don’t get me wrong. But we have seen Cena face and defeat virtually every single wrestler on both rosters.

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The only wrestlers that fans want to see John Cena face are Roman Reigns (ostensibly in some kind of face vs. heel matchup, which isn’t likely anytime soon) or the Undertaker (whose plans for WrestleMania still remain unclear). Styles, as a miracle worker in the ring, would’ve made anyone look good in the ring, from Baron Corbin, to Bray Wyatt, to the Miz. Any one of the top wrestlers on SmackDown other than Cena would’ve been a great opponent for Styles at the Royal Rumble.

Had Styles won, he could’ve gone on to defend his championship in the Elimination Chamber, or even better, he could’ve defended the belt at WrestleMania. This would’ve vindicated him for his questionable loss at last year’s WrestleMania, which was a ridiculous and nonsensical booking decision in itself.

Third, Cena would’ve had a much bigger moment if he won his 16th belt at WrestleMania or sometime further down the road. With this being such an important career milestone, it would’ve made much more sense (and also much more money for WWE) if they held off the 16th title win for Cena for another, more important date.

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As mentioned above, his entire mini-feud for the championship with Styles felt shoehorned and artificial, despite the great promos between them. Had this been built into a WrestleMania-level feud, it could’ve led to both a better match with higher stakes and a much bigger payday.

So in the end, John Cena’s 16th reign didn’t even matter. It was the very definition of a ‘transitional’ reign, where the champion held their title without even defending it once. It really comes down to an unusual philosophy in WWE. To them, a wrestler’s number of title reigns is more important than the length of each reign and the number of successful defenses.

If a wrestler keeps winning and losing a championship, it devalues the belt in terms of prestige and weakens the payoff for the wrestlers feuding over it. Conversely, when title exchanges are few and far between, it shows that the belt is worth fighting tooth and nail over, and give greater importance to those title matches.

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This second mentality is why New Japan Pro Wrestling’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship is the most prestigious belt in the world, and why Kenny Omega won’t sign with WWE. He considers the WWE Championship a glorified prop, and given how Cena’s 16th title reign was completely useless and ended up as nothing more than a footnote in history and a checkmark on Cena’s wrestling biography, he’s right to think that way.

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