A Look Back: John Cena's 1st WWE Championship Reign

April 3, 2005. On that evening, I watched my very first WrestleMania, and I'll never forget it. The hype for WrestleMania 21 was quite big, and part of that hype included John Cena, as he entered the grand stage as the #1 Contender for the WWE Championship, a title he would win at the event and would hold for quite a long time. I knew Cena would win at the event, it was one of the many reasons why I watched WrestleMania 21, and it was as awesome as advertised. Cena's inaugural run as champion was also quite entertaining, and here's how it started.

Royal Rumble: John Cena was in his third reign as United States Champion, having won the title for the first time at WrestleMania XX. After a pretty good 2004, Cena participated in his third Royal Rumble Match in 2005, entering at #25. He would become one of the Final Four, and it eventually came down to Cena and Batista, which was an interpromotional battle, as Cena was part of SmackDown, while Batista was part of Raw. After the two fought, both of them ended up going over the top together, leading to controversy. An angry Vince McMahon appeared, and it was decided that the two men would start over, with the end result seeing Cena eliminated by Batista.

No Way Out: Despite losing the Royal Rumble Match, Cena was given another opportunity to main event WrestleMania 21. SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long put together an eight-man tournament to crown a #1 Contender for the WWE Championship, which had been held by John "Bradshaw" Layfield since the 2004 Great American Bash. One of the eight men involved was Cena, who defeated Orlando Jordan and Booker T to reach the finals, which took place at No Way Out. Cena's final obstacle in his road to WrestleMania 21: Kurt Angle.

I watched this event, and one moment I remember very well was the sage advice given to Cena by none other than Eddie Guerrero (who captured the WWE Tag Team Championship with Rey Mysterio at the event). He basically told Cena not to give up and not to give in to that Ankle Lock of Angle's, because if he doesn't, Angle will be frustrated, and he'll mess up. What I loved about the segment is that it was Eddie speaking as himself, not in character, and it was quite an emotional moment between the pair. Eddie's advice worked, Cena never gave in to Angle's submission, and he would defeat Angle and become #1 Contender.

The Buildup: After JBL's successful defense against Big Show in a Barbed Wire Steel Cage Match, he was not only beaten down by Cena, but by Batista as well, as he appeared as part of the "Which title will he choose?" tease. Batista ended up remaining on Raw (that's another story), leaving Cena to go after JBL on his own. March 3 saw Cena lose the US Title to Jordan thanks to JBL's interference, and it was a week later that JBL destroyed the "spinner" US belt that Cena had been carrying. Cena's attempt to look for JBL for violent reasons saw him stopped by Theodore Long, who ended up on the receiving end of the FU.

Then came the debate on March 24. Cena was ordered not to put his hands on JBL, but if he was physically provoked, all bets were off. Cena never touched JBL; he didn't have to. He humiliated his WrestleMania opponent in grand fashion, which included spray-painting a yellow streak on his back (to show that JBL was a coward), filling JBL's hat with water, and spray-painting JBL's limo (an act he would repeat three years later). However, the following week (the final SmackDown before WrestleMania) would see JBL get the last word, as he ordered Cena to be arrested, and assaulted him while he was handcuffed. JBL vowed that Cena would worship at his feet at WrestleMania 21.

Yeah, about that.

WrestleMania 21: WrestleMania 21 took place on the aforementioned date, April 3, 2005, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. It was the first WrestleMania to take place in April since WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001, and the first to emanate from Southern California since WrestleMania 2000 (from Anaheim). I had my many reasons for watching this big event, and one of them was Cena, because I knew he would walk out as WWE Champion. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened, and that final moment plays in my head even now: Cena ducks JBL's Clothesline From Hell and delivers his signature moves, the last one being the FU. A three-count later, and Cena is WWE Champion for the very first time. That match remains the very reason why I fondly remember WM21, and the reason why I am a huge John Cena fan.

New Champion, New Title: The first SmackDown after WrestleMania 21 saw John Cena talk about his big win, and he also promised that he would do the same thing to the WWE Championship that he did with the US Title. However, that following week, April 14, 2005, saw JBL attempt to intercept Cena's package, as he had known about Cena's plan to debut a new title belt, and the segment saw the former champion tell Cena that he was not going to "disgrace" the WWE Championship and would prevent Cena's plan before it began. Cena ultimately revealed that the package that JBL intercepted didn't have the belt, instead, it had something JBL didn't have: guts. Yeah, literal guts from a Chicago slaughterhouse. Cena debuted his new belt in the ring, as it was lowered into the ring and placed around Cena's waist by referee Jimmy Korderas.

Now, I have to talk about the "spinner" WWE Championship. I loved it when I first saw it, and I still love it. It remains an acquired taste among WWE fans, even now, eight years after the belt was replaced. I myself thought it was a fitting way to take WWE in to a different direction, and I think that those who carried and donned the "Cena belt" in the years that passed, really pulled it off.

Judgment Day: Prior to all of that, JBL was angered over the reminder that there was no rematch clause in the WrestleMania contract, meaning that if he wanted another chance at Cena, he'd have to start from scratch. Three singles matches took place, with the three winners facing each other in a #1 Contender's Match. While JBL and Kurt Angle won their matches, the bout between Booker T and Big Show ended in a double disqualification, resulting in a Fatal Four Way Match to determine Cena's challenger. JBL ended up winning, and got his rematch, which was set for Judgment Day, and even in the final weeks prior to the event, JBL continued to carry the old "Undisputed" version of the WWE Championship, claiming that he was doing so for his fans.

JBL referred to the crowd as quitters, while claiming that he was everything but that, with Cena agreeing...but also saying that he wasn't a quitter either. This led to Cena making their rematch an "I Quit" match, and it's a match that I saw on PPV that night, and it's also a match I've seen repeatedly, because it was wild and crazy. It was one of the more brutal bouts I had ever seen, which is no surprise; back in that era, JBL's matches were entertainingly violent. It was all over the place, but despite this, Cena refused to quit. JBL, however, was willing to do so before Cena could really give it to him. Just an amazing bout overall.

Move to Raw: The 2005 WWE Draft took place a few weeks later, and in a huge shocker, the June 6, 2005 episode of Raw saw its first draft pick revealed as none other than John Cena himself--WWE Championship and all! I remember this well and I was so shocked at this change; seeing Cena appear on Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel, where he was confronted by Christian--who had been hurling verbal shots at Cena for weeks. A week later, General Manager Eric Bischoff announced that Christian would be the challenger for the WWE Championship, which dismayed Jericho, who was asked to prove that he was worthy of being in the picture. Cena and Jericho successfully defeated Christian and Tyson Tomko in tag team action, only for Jericho to attack Cena from behind afterwards.

Cena vs Jericho: Jericho was added to the match, which took place at Vengeance, which saw Cena defeat both Jericho and Christian. After Christian was drafted to SmackDown, Cena would continue to be hounded by Jericho, who had the backing of Eric Bischoff. Why was Bischoff involved? Simple. The moment Cena arrived on Raw, Bischoff attempted to convince Cena to be his puppet champion, which included coercing him to take part in Bischoff's anti-ECW group for One Night Stand, but Cena refused, stating that he didn't play politics. This led to Bischoff using Jericho as his hand-picked challenger, and the plan was to dethrone Cena. Carlito (who was also drafted to Raw) was even involved, as he was put in WWE Championship matches in an attempt to knock off Cena, which failed.

The one-on-one encounter took place at SummerSlam, which I watched. The whole event was amazing, but there was one thing I still remember noticing when I watched Cena vs Jericho: the split crowd. Half were pulling for Cena, half were pulling for Jericho, and at that time, I had no idea that it would be the beginning of something that would follow Cena for many, many years. Cena went on to win at SummerSlam, but Bischoff and Jericho were not done, as the following night saw a rematch made, with the loser being fired afterwards. Despite Bischoff's attempts to interfere on Jericho's behalf, Cena won, and afterwards, Jericho was canned.

Cena vs Angle: After Jericho's firing, Bischoff revealed his Plan B...in the form of a familiar foe in Kurt Angle. Angle was drafted to Raw two months prior, and after dealing with Shawn Michaels (in a WM21 rematch at Vengeance) and Eugene, Angle was handpicked by Bischoff as Cena's next challenger. This was a feud that went on for a good bit, beginning with Unforgiven, which ended strangely: a DQ finish on Angle's behalf, followed by Cena taking down Bischoff, who (on the following night) attempted to strip Cena of the WWE Championship and award it to Angle, only for Vince McMahon to prevent that from happening. Cena's run also happen to include actually defending the title against the Raw GM on October 3 (the Raw Homecoming special); of course, Cena was successful.

Cena survived Taboo Tuesday, which saw him defeat both Angle and Shawn Michaels, but the rivalry got turned up by Survivor Series, when Angle had Daivari as his personal referee. The bout at Survivor Series began as expected, with Daivari's blatant favoritism towards Angle. After Daivari was inadvertently taken out, we would see a wave of different referees from the Raw side (one of them being the recently late Mickie Henson), but Angle took down all of them and wanted Daivari. Finally, Charles Robinson, a SmackDown referee, had to officiate after Cena took down Daivari again, and with fair and unbiased officiating, Cena retained.

Cena would have yet another curveball thrown at him by Bischoff: in the form of a Triple Threat Submission Match for the title. He not only had Angle to deal with, but he would have Chris Masters as well, but again, Cena survived, as that night's Raw saw him debut his submission move, the STFU.

New Year's Revolution 2006: Bischoff was fired as GM a week later, but Cena would have to deal with one piece of Bischoff's legacy: the Elimination Chamber. The main event for New Year's Revolution was set, with Cena defending the WWE Championship inside the aforementioned structure. His opponents: Shawn Michaels (who was entering his third Chamber as a competitor; he was the referee in the 2005 Chamber), Kane (who was in the first Chamber), Kurt Angle, Chris Masters, and Carlito. Not only was Cena (as well as Angle, Masters, and Carlito) in his first Chamber, he had to start the match with Shawn Michaels, but in spite of all of that, Cena won and retained.

In 40 weeks as WWE Champion, John Cena survived JBL's brutality in an I Quit match, corruption from Eric Bischoff, biased officiating, a plethora of Hall of Famers, and the Elimination Chamber. One thing he couldn't survive on that evening of January 8, 2006: an opportunist with a briefcase. Edge appeared, cashed in his Money in the Bank contract, and captured the WWE Championship with two Spears.

Epilogue: I loved John Cena's road to WrestleMania 21 and his first WWE Championship, which was his first of 16 World Titles. I really enjoyed his first run with the title, because it was immensely memorable and captivating. Fans, nowadays, complain about long title runs, but if done right, they don't seem long. John Cena's inaugural WWE Championship run seemed more like a sprint than a marathon. What I really loved was the move to Raw, as it was clear that it was a big test for Cena in his first run, and to this fan, he passed with flying colors. Regarding the aftermath, Cena wouldn't be away from the title that long, he would get it back three weeks later at the Royal Rumble.

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