16 times John Cena failed to win the WWE Championship

#6 Cena vs. Randy Orton - WWE World Heavyweight Championship, TLC 2013 (TLC Match, Title Unification)

WWE chose to have these rivals face off again to unify the belts for the first time in over a decade

For some reason, WWE decided that John Cena vs. Randy Orton was the new version of The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin. These two wrestled almost non-stop for years upon years, often trading the WWE Title back and forth.

When Cena defeated The Rock for the WWE Title and his 13th overall World Championship, he held it before graciously handing Daniel Bryan a shot at SummerSlam.

Bryan would defeat Cena, but Randy Orton, holder of the Money in the Bank contract, had different plans. Orton would take the WWE Championship from Daniel Bryan and ‘The Authority’ made sure to keep it from Bryan’s grasp, ensuring that Randy Orton would be able to attempt to make history in December.

WWE finally merged the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship as 2013 came to a close (which lasted all of 3 and a half years) and needed that “era-defining” match. That meant John Cena would become World Heavyweight Champion for the 3rd time solely for the purpose of being fed to Randy Orton in this match.

Cena was now overall a 14-time World Champion.