The Champ is Here... for the 17th Time!

What a calendar year, right? First, Wayne Gretzky's record gets broken, and just weeks later, more history made elsewhere. On April 20, 2025, at Night 2 of WrestleMania 41, John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes to capture the Undisputed WWE Championship. He did it, folks. Cena surpassed the number. He is a seventeen-time World Champion, and as we know, the road he took was not a virtuous one.

So this was Cena's retirement tour, and we saw him in the Royal Rumble this year, only to come up second behind Jey Uso. Cena stated that he's entering himself in the Elimination Chamber because he's earned that right. Honestly, I knew then Cena'd be turning, but that idea didn't stick with me. Then the event happens. Cena wins the Chamber match and is congratulated by Cody before Rock appears and makes his Faustian offer. Cody says "Go fuck yourself!," Cena says to Cody, "Fuck you right back!"

So yeah, Cena beats down Cody, sides with Rock, and turns heel for the first time since the Boston Red Sox were still cursed. We see three straight weeks of Cena laying into the fans and Cody, all during WWE's European tour a few weeks later. Week 1 sees Cena accuse the fans of being abusive to him for a quarter-century (which they have), and state that he doesn't need them anymore. In Week 2, Cena mocked the fans' reactions and even mentioned that when he brought in the spinner title (on April 14, 2005), he was mercilessly buried for doing so, so he vowed to "ruin" wrestling by not only winning the title, but retiring with it and leaving WWE to create a "toy belt" to replace the real one, while referring to himself as the last real champion in WWE.

Week 3 saw Cena and Cody face to face in a proper battle, which saw Cena refer to Cody as an "errand boy who got lucky," while Cody mentioned that Cena sold out to Rock. Cody fought off a Cena attack on that night, and on the SmackDown before WM on Friday, but that was a sign of things to come.

The two night event was amazing, and I had the fun of watching this along with the opening days of the Stanley Cup and NBA Playoffs (which included the Colorado Avalanche winning Game One in Dallas on Saturday). Night 1 started with Jey Uso winning the World Heavyweight Championship; a moment that was heavily expected yet still long overdue. We saw Tiffany Stratton retain against Charlotte Flair in a match that ended up being quite good despite my immense dread due to how unprofessional both of them were in the build. And the big moment, Paul Heyman fulfilled CM Punk's favor and was in his corner, but turned on Punk and later turned on Roman Reigns to help Seth Rollins defeat both of them in the main event of Night 1.

Night 2 featured Iyo Sky successfully defending the Women's World Championship against Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley (seriously, they need to turn Bianca already; why the hell won't they?). Speaking of titles, Becky Lynch returned and replaced the attacked Bayley as Lyra Valkyria's partner, and the duo won the Women's Tag Team Championship from Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez. Elsewhere, TNA World Champion Joe Hendry appeared as Randy Orton's surprise opponent, and Dominik Mysterio actually won the Intercontinental Championship.

As for the main event, Cena came out to exactly what he promised the fans: nothing. Just his theme and a black tron that only had his name. Cena really did the heel thing well, and it's crazy that someone who hasn't been a heel since Evolution was around is actually better at it than talent who have been heels for a long time. So the match was back and forth, then the ref was taken out. Enter Travis Scott. Oh boy. Cody delivers a well earned receipt to Travis, and Cena attempted to attack Cody with the belt, only for Cody to take it from him. Cena begs for mercy, Cody drops the facade, and gets kicked between the uprights for it. Cena strikes Cody with the title, makes the cover, and history is made.

It's done. John Cena won #17. I predicted this; a lot us did. I loved how it turned out, but too many people seem to have a few complaints. Some fans didn't like that Rock wasn't on at all, considering that he was the catalyst of this whole thing. I can understand that. A lot are saying that Travis Scott caused the victory, that's not true. Travis was taken care of. Whatever happened after that, happened. This needed to happen. The previous holder of that record is immensely problematic. One of two things Cena was owed was either #17, or joining the Grand Slam club and finally winning the title that Dominik just won. We couldn't have both, so this was the better option.

Seventeen world titles. Only four pro sports teams have more than that: MLB's New York Yankees (27 World Championships, about to be 28), the NHL's Montréal Canadiens (24 Stanley Cups), the CFL's Toronto Argonauts (19 Grey Cups, about to be 20), and the NBA's Boston Celtics (18 NBA Championships). I'm amped for what's next. I'm amped for Raw and SmackDown after WrestleMania. I have a feeling that this whole week following WrestleMania 41 will be absolutely insane!