{"id":133865,"date":"2025-04-20T22:41:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T02:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=133865"},"modified":"2025-04-20T22:48:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T02:48:44","slug":"wwe-wrestlemania-41-john-cena-wins-17th-record-title-controversial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/04\/20\/wwe-wrestlemania-41-john-cena-wins-17th-record-title-controversial\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE WrestleMania 41: John Cena Wins 17th Record-Breaking Title in Controversial Fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/04\/20\/wwe-wrestlemania-41-sunday-night-results-4-20-25\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">main event of WWE WrestleMania 41<\/a>, Sunday night, saw one of the most historic moments in WWE History. The 16-time world champion John Cena finally broke the record set by &#8220;The Nature Boy&#8221; Ric Flair in his last WrestleMania. As expected, the match between him and Cody Rhodes was a classic, but not in the technical sense.<\/p>\n<p>These two men battered each other from bell to bell, proving to everyone why they deserved the top billing and to conclude this year&#8217;s &#8220;Showcase of the Immortals.&#8221; Unfortunately for Cody Rhodes and his fairytale-like Undisputed WWE Championship run, John Cena was the villain who made sure that the story wouldn&#8217;t continue any further.<\/p>\n<p>As Cena mentioned a while back, he plans on being the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/03\/24\/john-cena-says-ruin-wrestling-wwe-raw\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">last real &#8220;WWE Champion&#8221;<\/a> the company has when he wins his record-setting 17th world title at WWE WrestleMania 41. John Cena did exactly what he said he would, utilizing every trick in the book and pulling out every stop to secure his record-breaking reign.<\/p>\n<p>John Cena got an assist from an exposed turnbuckle, a referee getting knocked out, and even Travis Scott himself. In the end, as Michael Cole said, John Cena has no problem being the bad guy, hitting Cody Rhodes with a low blow and using the Undisputed WWE Championship, striking Rhodes flush in the face and covering him for the win.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">CROSS RHODES to TRAVIS SCOTT! \ud83d\ude32<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WrestleMania?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WrestleMania<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sqdMmJYkpS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/sqdMmJYkpS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 WWE (@WWE) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1914146612596662326?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Now that he&#8217;s done all he has set out to do, what will WWE and its fans do without a world champion?<\/p>\n<p>For now, regardless of what you think of his decisions, John Cena is the &#8220;GOAT of WWE&#8221; after winning his historic 17th world championship.<\/p>\n<h2><em>What did you think of Sunday night&#8217;s WWE WrestleMania 41 main event? Where do you think John Cena and even Cody Rhodes go from here?<\/em><\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">THE 1\ufe0f\u20e37\ufe0f\u20e3 TIME CHAMP IS HERE!<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WrestleMania?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WrestleMania<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WCvyixE512\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/WCvyixE512<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 WWE (@WWE) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1914149074627858447?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\"><i>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0for more on WWE Evolve and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81788927\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Netflix<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>USA Network<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cwtv.com\/shows\/wwe-nxt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>The CW<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/tubitv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Tubi<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aetv.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>A&amp;E<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments) and\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Peacock<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0(WWE Main Event as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>YouTube<\/i><\/a><i>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/events\/1773457579022155776?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>WWE Speed<\/i><\/a><i>).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The main event of WWE WrestleMania 41, Sunday night, saw one of the most historic moments in WWE History. The 16-time world champion John Cena finally broke the record set by &#8220;The Nature Boy&#8221; Ric Flair in his last WrestleMania. As expected, the match between him and Cody Rhodes was a classic, but not in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":134212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2192,4,3],"tags":[98,165,396,8907,9016],"class_list":["post-133865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-cody-rhodes","tag-john-cena","tag-wrestlemania","tag-wrestlemania-41","tag-wwe-wrestlemania-41"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133865"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134218,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133865\/revisions\/134218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}