John Cena winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship for an unprecedented twelfth time at Money in the Bank was an absurd accomplishment. The fact that it hasn’t been celebrated speaks more to The Champ’s standing as a polarizing figure than anything else, but let’s not let a vocal minority stand in the way of interesting data.
Cena’s victory put him ridiculously far ahead of the pack when it comes to WWE Title reigns — and, when considering his World Heavyweight Title runs, places him within an eyelash of Ric Flair’s defining 16 — but where does The Champ stand when it comes to days as champion? WWE.com crunched some numbers and figured out where Cena stands in the grand pantheon of defending titleholders — and how much longer he needs to go to become the defining WWE Champion. Spoiler alert: He's a long ways away.
#4 John Cena — 1,197 days and counting as champion
Number of reigns: 12 | Longest individual reign: 380 days
Thanks to his record 12 WWE World Heavyweight Championship wins, John Cena is the only Superstar of his generation to have carried the title for more than 1,000 days total. The Champ got there by hook or by crook with some of his runs lasting more than a year (him and CM Punk are the only two Superstars of the new century who can make this claim) while others came and went in mere minutes.
Regardless, Cena has already cemented his spot as a defining World Champion — should he win the title one more time, he’ll be tied for Ric Flair with 16 total reigns. (This is a distinct possibility. Flair was still winning World Titles in his fifties.) Still, if The Champ wants to stake his claim as the longest reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion of all time, he’s got a long road ahead of him.
