Top 20 worst world title changes in wrestling history

11. John Cena def. Rey Mysterio: Monday Night RAW – July 25, 2011

Remember when I was talking earlier about the summer of 2011 and how I’d get back to it? Well, we’re here. As I mentioned, after CM Punk “left” WWE after beating John Cena for the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank, a little tournament was held to crown a new champion. Eight men were entered into the tourney and eight days after Punk left, Rey Mysterio defeated The Miz in the finals to win the WWE Championship for the very first time. This was nothing like putting the Big Gold Belt on him after Eddie Guerrero’s unfortunate passing; this was a guy who had worked hard and properly earned a shot at the title.

However, things weren’t going to be that simple. Less than an hour after winning the title, Mysterio put it on the line against John Cena, who for some reason hadn’t even been included in the tournament. But at least Alex Riley and R-Truth were included to make it legitimate. So Cena challenges Mysterio and since Rey is such a fighting champion, he fights valiantly but just can’t get past Super Cena and loses cleanly. I know there are transitional champions, but seriously, this is pretty bad. Why not just put Cena in the tournament if you’re going to put the title on him? Was it to create an aura of mystery? Because that really didn’t work. And then we get to where we were earlier on the list. Punk comes out, he and Cena get it on at SummerSlam, Del Rio cashes in after a pointless run-in from Kevin Nash and Cena ends up taking the title from Del Rio at Night of Champions. Del Rio would win it back from Cena two weeks later, Punk would take it back and hold it for 434 days.

And since we’re on that subject, let’s go ahead and talk about how that historic reign ended.