John Cena Reveals Original Plan for Record No. 17 WWE Championship Win and Why It DIdn't Happen

John Cena divulged Wednesday that his record-setting 17th WWE world title win nearly took place almost four years earlier than it actually did.

During an appearance on the No-Contest Wrestling podcast (beginning at the 1:58:41 mark), Cena said that he was originally supposed to beat Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship in the main event of SummerSlam 2021.

Cena noted that the initial idea was for him to beat Reigns for the title, only for Reigns to win it back from him immediately after due to the match being restarted (h/t WrestlePurists).

"I was going to win 17," Cena said. "We were going to have someone come out and restart the match and Roman was going to take it back. The way we put together the match was we were going to give them a hell of a match, everything out the door, no rules, no nothing, tons of finishers, all this stuff because I was going to win and then Roman was going to take it back. So you have this hard-fought battle and then through a nefarious set of rules, match is restarted."

However, Cena said everything changed at 5 p.m. on the day of the show when WWE struck a deal with Brock Lesnar to return for the first time in over a year.

"Then we secure Brock and TR comes and said, 'I need to see you. We're switching the finish.' 'To what?' Roman over.' 'Yep.' 'Clean.' Yep,'" Cena said. "'Okay, what do you want to do?' 'Let me just talk to Roman and Paul [Heyman].' I go in, they're like, 'You got the news?' I said, 'I got the news.' 'What do we do?' I said, 'One Spear, that's it. Whatever match you want to have, that's fine. You beat me with your finish once.'"

Reigns did indeed beat Cena in a fairly straightforward manner, leading to Lesnar's return. After a stare-down with Reigns, Lesnar hit Cena with multiple suplexes and an F-5 once SummerSlam went off the air.

Cena did not wrestle another televised match until the end of 2022, and he didn't have another premium live event match until WrestleMania 39 in April 2023.

As for Lesnar, he went on to win the WWE Championship, and he put it on the line against Reigns in a title vs. title match in the main event of WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, which Reigns won.

Although SummerSlam 2021 did not go the way Cena expected, he still ultimately broke his tie with Ric Flair for the most world title reigns in history.

The record-breaking moment occurred last year in the main event of WrestleMania 41 when Cena beat Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship with help from rapper Travis Scott.

Cena shockingly turned heel less than two months earlier by attacking Rhodes at Elimination Chamber, and he parlayed it into world title win No. 17.

The final world title reign of Cena's illustrious career came as a heel, but upon dropping it back to Rhodes at SummerSlam 2025, Cena returned to his babyface roots and finished his in-ring career in a role most fans had grown accustomed to.

Cena had his final match this past December, losing to Gunther by submission at Saturday Night's Main Event.

In the end, Cena still got the 17th world title reign that so many fans wanted to see, but his SummerSlam 2021 anecdote is proof that even pro wrestling's biggest stars are not immune to a late change of plans.