The stars are aligning on Monday for John Cena to do the one thing he’s never done in his career: win the Intercontinental Championship.
John Cena is less than a handful of dates away from wrapping up one of the greatest WWE careers of all-time. Since debuting on the WWE roster in 2002 (23 years ago), Cena has carved out a fantastic career. He is a 17-time world champion, the most of all-time. He’s won the United States Champion five times, notably establishing the United States Championship Open Challenge elevating no shortage of rising talents. He’s a four-time tag team champion with partners the Miz, Shawn Michaels, Batista, and David Otunga. He’s a three-time Royal Rumble winner, tied for the most of all-time with Stone Cold Steve Austin. His resume is almost perfect…almost.
According to Cagematch, John Cena has wrestled 2,313 matches in his career and only seven of those, non of which came on television or PPV/PLE, saw him challenge for the Intercontinental Championship, the one title he’s never won. Guys like The Miz, Dean Ambrose, Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Kofi Kingston, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, etc., are among 22 wrestlers who have achieved the career grand slam, which under its current format involves a wrestler winning at least one world title, one tag team title, and one reign with both the Intercontinental and United States championships. It is an exclusive list and perhaps the biggest surprise is that Cena’s name isn’t on it.
Time is running out for Cena to add this final accolade to his trophy case but lucky for him, everything is falling into place for that to change. Could Cena’s appearance on Raw on Monday, his final in his hometown of Boston, result in a celebration of epic proportions? Let’s look at what we know.
Dominik Mysterio to John Cena on the Intercontinental Championship: “You Want Some, Come Get Some”
Credit: WWE
With each passing title defense Dominik Mysterio successfully completes, the question has grown louder. Will Cena face Mysterio in one of his final appearances to claim the title he’s never won?
By hook or by crook, Mysterio has retained his title, proving to be not the greatest Intercontinental champion of all-time like he says, but certainly one of the craftiest. At Saturday Night’s Main Event, Mysterio turned his champion’s disadvantage of a triple threat into a winning moment when he used the timekeeper’s bell to make Rusev think he had tapped out Penta. Rusev released the Accolade, ultimately allowing Mysterio to come in a steal the win yet again. That has been Mysterio’s MO this entire run. Whether it was Liv Morgan or the Judgment Day helping him out or Mysterio’s own Eddie Guerrero-inspired brilliance, Dirty Dom has held his championship for over 200 days.
It would only be fitting for arguably WWE’s top babyface of all-time to put an end to Mysterio’s reign and his heel ways. And in a lot of ways the rumors about Cena’s final opponent support that. Cena is being rumored to be facing Gunther in his final match even if a recently announced Last Time is Now tournament is meant to perhaps make fans think otherwise. Should that rumor in fact be true however, the moment would be all-so poetic for Cena, the Intercontinental Champion, to drop the title back to Gunther, the longest-reigning IC champion of all-time.
Mysterio is all-in on the match, recently reiterating his thoughts on facing Cena telling Beyond the Match Wrestling, “If he comes a knocking, I mean, I’m here. Dirty Dom is here. Judgment Day is here. John Cena already knows. I’ve said it multiple times. If you want some, come get some. Double Champ is here.”
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