John Cena: "The most special thing about winning the Intercontinental Title was being able to lose it the way I did"

John Cena's retirement tour has set new records for the wrestler that will remain in the history books. Throughout this year, "The Greatest of All Time" has not only expanded his list of world championships (17 in total), but has also managed to enter the select club of Grand Slam Champions when he was able to conquer the only title that had eluded him in over two decades of his career.

We are talking about the Intercontinental Championship, which he won at the show that WWE held in his hometown of Massachusetts. Cena defeated Dominik Mysterio in an unscheduled match to bring joy to the fans who attended one of the wrestler's last appearances before his retirement.

However, his reign was short-lived. Just 19 days after winning it, Cena was defeated by Dominik in a title rematch at Survivor Series: WarGames, where the Judgment Day member received help from his faction. Although this outcome did not sit well with the fans, John has a different opinion on the matter. He explained this in a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet.

"What's special about all this is that I was able to work with Dom Mysterio in three of my last four matches. And, God, that was really special. And, honestly, the most special thing about winning the title was being able to lose it the way I did. That was really cool. I was able to experiment with the United States championship and create an open challenge. And before that, I was able to experiment with the United States title and turn it into a spinning belt. Turn it into a spinning belt. Twice I was given what the company considers a secondary achievement, and I was relentless in turning it into a main goal," he said.

"The guy who's about to leave. I said something in passing, something like: 'that last run with the Intercontinental title, just like the one Stone Cold had'," he continued. "You don't touch those things at the end. You're a champion. You're of a certain category. You don't play with secondary goals. In Boston, I made it mean something, and it did. It's a good win, and the person who had it before me definitely gave it value, but the fact that I won it and now he has it again gives it even more value".