The Complete History of the WWE Championship - Part 16

John Cena (May 1, 2011 - July 17, 2011)

John Cena: Won a joint record 8th WWE Championship at Extreme Rules 2011

John Cena won a joint record eighth WWE Championship (tying him with Triple H) at Extreme Rules on May 1, 2011 when he defeated The Miz and John Morrison in a Triple Threat Cage Match.

Cena had been denied the gold at WrestleMania thanks to a Rock Bottom from The Rock but had no such distractions at Extreme Rules.

Following his title win, Cena defended the strap versus The Miz in an "I Quit Match" which was actually a Handicap Match as Miz and his buddy Alex Riley took advantage of the No DQ rules to batter Cena at will. However, the champion managed to make a comeback and flattened his foes to retain the gold.

Cena surprisingly was next programmed into a title feud with mid-carder R-Truth who had (hilariously) lost his marbles by all accounts and began targeting the champion. Cena won, but his next challenger was a far stiffer test.

The champion got owned by CM Punk on the microphone, following Punk's infamous "Pipebomb" on the June 27, 2011 Raw. He was then defeated by Punk in a super heated battle at Money in the Bank on July 17.

The numbers for Cena's title bouts at Extreme Rules, Over The Limit, Capitol Punishment and Money in the Bank were all woeful, pulling 209,000, 140,000, 170,000 and 195,000 buys respectively, signalling the downturn in Cena's role as a headline drawing card.