John Cena is determined to ruin wrestling, and the newly-crowned WWE Undisputed Champion may actually achieve that. He said so himself in the weeks leading to WrestleMania 41, declaring that upon winning the WWE Championship, he was "going to ruin wrestling for every fan. For every wrestler. For everyone." This made some critics and even Ric Flair question what Cena meant in his statement, and for many, after he's won the title, those questions remained unanswered.

In an interview on The Pat McAfee Show, the new WWE Champion offered some clarity regarding what he meant by "ruin wrestling" in his original statement. John Cena explained that he plans to ruin wrestling by retiring the lineage of the current WWE Championship, so that whoever comes next will have to start over from zero. Cena's new heel persona effectively wants to erase the legends from history.

WWE wouldn't be the first company to completely phase out the historical significance of its main World Championship. Now that Cena has been clearer about the meaning of his words, there's a chance this could be something the company genuinely wants.

John Cena Could Ruin Wrestling by Removing Its Legacy

What Does This Mean in the Bigger Scope of WWE History?

The history of the WWE Championship begins on April 25, 1963, almost exactly 62 years to the day that John Cena won his 17th title on April 20, 2025. Long before Ric Flair became a 16-time World Champion, "The Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers was the first man to ever win the WWE Championship. In the time since, 55 men have held the title across 148 different reigns. Legends of the industry went on to win the belt, like Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, and the list goes on, all the way to Roman Reigns' recent record-breaking reign.

What John Cena is proposing is that when his retirement tour ends and he walks away from the wrestling business, the WWE Championship will walk away with him. He'll retire with the original iteration of the WWE Championship, hence why he's been referring to himself as "The Last Real Champion." He's not ignorant of the fact that WWE would vacate the title in his absence, but he claims that leaving with the original title would force WWE to start from scratch. To be without that original title is to be without its legacy.

Beyond denying WWE and its fans the legacy of its main championship, it denies WWE fans the chance to and discover the legends of yesteryear. The memory of older Superstars like Sammartino and Backlund is kept alive largely because of the WWE Championship's lineage. Talking about the legacy of the title simultaneously talks about the men who made that title prestigious. The same can be said even for modern legends like Stone Cold and Bret Hart, allowing for younger fans to learn about the pillars of professional wrestling. And John Cena wants to deprive them of their history.

New Japan Pro Wrestling Has Already Erased Its World Championship Lineage

How Did Wrestling Fans React?

Before John Cena ever conceived of this idea for the WWE Championship, it had been enforced in New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW is perceived as the biggest pro wrestling company in Japan and among the biggest on the planet. For a time, their primary title - the IWGP Heavyweight Championship - was considered one of the most important titles in wrestling history, right up there with the WWE and NWA Titles. Beginning on June 12, 1987, the title has had some of wrestling's biggest names attached as champions, including Vader, The Great Muta (one of the best WCW stars to never wrestle for WWE), Brock Lesnar, Shinsuke Nakamura, and AJ Styles.

The title was unified with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship on March 4, 2021, and in that moment, NJPW decided to erase its lineage entirely, making then-World champion Kota Ibushi its inaugural champion for this iteration of the belt. Fans were greatly displeased with the decision for the fact that it removes pivotal legends from the title's conversation after 34 years. It's one of the reasons why so many fans fell out of favor with NJPW and why so many fans are suggesting the company has been on the decline in the 2020s, especially in Western markets.

Does WWE Want to Retire Its Own Lineage?

WWE Could Use John Cena to Usher in a New Era

It's worth noting that before Kota Ibushi unified the titles and rekindled the World Title's lineage, he stated that as a mission statement in promos and interviews, similar to what John Cena has done by declaring his goals to retire the WWE Championship in promos and interviews. It's safe to assume that NJPW fully intended to retire its original title, and Ibushi's mission statement gave them an in-storyline reason to justify it. WWE could be planning to do something similar with the WWE Championship through John Cena.

Some would be perplexed as to why WWE would want to retire the legacy of arguably the biggest title in sports entertainment. It starts to make sense when readers that WWE has leaned heavily into embarking on a new era of professional wrestling ever since moving Monday Night Raw to Netflix. If WWE is truly dedicated to crafting an entirely new, revolutionary era, then there's a chance that they may want to commit to erasing the past. This could be motivated by a desire to bring in new fans with a fresh product, unburdened by decades of complex history. Unfortunately, outside of the wrestling bubble, there is little chance that a young person who tunes in to WWE knows who Bruno Sammartino is.

Of course, the majority of the fans in the WWE Universe would disagree with this possible outcome, but massive "retcons" are nothing new in the entertainment business. If this is really WWE's plan for the future, then there is a chance that John Cena's shocking plan of "ruining wrestling" by retiring the lineage of the WWE Championship may actually come to fruition.

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