John Cena is one of the most decorated wrestlers in the WWE with accolades including being wrestler of the year, match of the year, a two-time Royal Rumble winner, high stats on WWE2K games, and the 2012 Money In The Bank winner. Whilst also being a record-breaking 16-time world champion, it is hard to believe that after an illustrious and recently celebrated 20-year career, Cena is yet to be a Grand Slam champion.Like The Rock before him, Cena has turned his attention in recent years toward movies and television. During his appearance on Monday Night Raw to celebrate his WWE anniversary, Cena said that he would return one day but is not sure when, and if Cena does return in the near future it's time to honor him with the titles he so very much deserves to grant him the name of Grand Slam champ.To become a Grand Slam champion, a wrestler has to have achieved both titles in the categories of world titles, tag team division, and the mid-card titles such as the United States and Intercontinental titles. John Cena may be a 16-time champ and a five-time United States champion, but he has never won the Intercontinental title. There are obvious reasons that relate to this including the brand that the title is associated with and how since 2005, John Cena has been involved in the top flight of WWE and the face of the company for over a decade. The WWE is a company that has only shown a wrestler to hold more than one title on rare occasions. However, now with Roman Reigns unifying the world titles, anything is possible. There have been wrestlers holding both a mid-card and tag-team title and Cena has held the WWE championship simultaneously with the World Tag-Team Championships and won both the World Heavyweight and WWE titles at Money In The Bank 2012.
Some wrestling companies have had wrestlers holding more than their weight in gold simultaneously such as AEW's Kenny Omega. The qualifications for a Grand Slam champion have moved along with the times in reference to a company's titles where many of the early Grand Slam champs such as Shawn Michaels and Triple H held the now-defunct European title and other Grand Slam champions such as Chris Jericho and controversial highflyer Jeff Hardy won the defunct Hardcore Title. The revised format from 2015 now includes the following WWE titles: WWE Championship, Universal Championship, Intercontinental, United States, and both sets of tag titles. Unlike the women's division, this excludes any of the NXT titles. Cena winning the Intercontinental Title would certainly qualify him from the original run of titles, but if current titles are anything to go by, it looks like he'll have to win the Universal Title as well.
The majority of Cena's career was spent on RAW which is still the flagship show for WWE, but it would be great to see Cena surprisingly drafted or simply sign with Smackdown to give the show some fresh attention and to enable him to work towards both titles and go back to his roots. For Cena to go after the Intercontinental Title, it would be great to see a decent rival to build the storyline to the gold like when he defeated Rusev for the United States Championship at Wrestlemania 31. Current champion, Gunther is early into his title reign so it's hard to say what kind of champion he will become. Whilst Cena looks to continue his Hollywood career, if the time comes that he returns to the company, it would be interesting to see a rival he has a history with; or maybe just win the title on a whim in an open challenge. After all, John Cena's first appearance for the WWE was answering Kurt Angle's open challenge.
With its disappointing new look, the Intercontinental Title is the one WWE title that needs a boost and re-invention to make it a viable title again like when it was held by wrestlers such as The Miz and Dolph Ziggler. These days even the main titles lack attention with the always popular Roman Reigns not being involved in title matches at the post-Wrestlemania live events. There are plenty of viable candidates for the Universal title on Smackdown such as former champions Brock Lesnar, Kofi Kingston, Sheamus, and Drew McIntyre and it would be great to see Lesnar feud with someone who was Reigns. RAW is teeming with talent and its no doubt WWE will have its sights set on the currently injured Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes. If John Cena came back to the current roster, it would feel like a distraction to some budding RAW storylines and a further reason why the blue brand should take him back.
The fact that Cena is a 16-time World Champion cannot be ignored after he captured his last title against the always-impressive AJ Styles back at the 2017 Royal Rumble. In regards to everything he has done inside and outside of the company, it would only be right that a wrestler who is already at the legendary status and looked back on with rose-tinted glasses gets to become a 17-time champion. From a financial point of view, if Cena was given a decent time away from the business could be seen as very prosperous such as when The Rock made his return to the company. Cena is always popular whether he is loved or hated and represents the great Ruthless Aggression era loved by fans and is furthermore a great appeal to fans of all ages. Of course, the company could just focus on the talent it has now, but looking at the last couple of decades, Triple H and The Undertaker were still holding titles and wrestling in top-tier matches much longer than Cena's current career.
If Cena does have a few years left in him for the wrestling business then there's no doubt he will give it his all. Even if he didn't hold either the Intercontinental or Universal for a long or simultaneously, to become World Champion once more would be a valiant swan song and retirement present for one of the hardest working wrestlers in the business. John Cena referenced himself that he is 45 so isn't sure what length of time he has left in the wrestling business, but if legendary wrestlers like Ric Flair and Sting could still do it in their 50s, then with his physique there's no saying Cena couldn't either.
At the end of the day, even if Cena doesn't get to become a Grand Slam champion, it doesn't disregard his previous achievements and the joint-most WWE World Title wins is a bigger accomplishment to carry. There will definitely be another Wrestlemania main event on the cards that's for sure.