Did Randy Orton Beat John Cena For The WWE Championship At Backlash 2025

Published: May 11, 2025 by Liam | Last Updated: May 11, 2025 by Liam

Liam has been reporting & analyzing wrestling news for over eight years, and is currently the Managing Editor at WrestleTalk.com. Immersed in wrestling for 18 years, he has over 11,000 published articles in addition to leading and overseeing WrestleTalk.com's coverage.

Did Randy Orton Beat John Cena For The WWE Championship At Backlash 2025

Randy Orton challenged John Cena for the Undisputed WWE Championship during tonight’s Backlash premium live event.

The match main evented the show taking place at the Enterprise Center in Orton’s hometown of St Louis, Missouri.

In a unique situation after all of their matches and rivalries over the years, Orton was the clear babyface and Cena the clear heel, which was only amplified by the St Louis hometown effect.

The match featured not one but two referees being taken out, resulting in numerous situations where Orton had the match won but there was no referee to count it.

This led to WWE SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis coming out with some producers trying to get the referees to recover.

Frustrated, Orton then RKO’d Aldis along with producers and former WWE stars in their own rights, Shane Helms (The Hurricane), Shawn Daivari and Jamie Noble.

Just as it looked like Orton had another opening to win, R-Truth – who has been in denial about his “childhood hero” John Cena being a heel – entered the ring and prevented Orton from striking Cena.

Orton laid Truth out with an RKO, but the distraction was enough that it allowed Cena to capitalize, as he struck Orton with a low blow, a title belt shot, then won the match to retain his title.

Cena cut a short promo after the match, telling St Louis to drink it in because this is what the “last real champion” looks like.

A big news story coming out of the show was the debut of former NJPW star Jeff Cobb, who has been brought in as an ally of Solo Sikoa.

Sikoa and Cobb helped Jacob Fatu retain the WWE United States Championship, although Fatu didn’t seem to appreciate the help, and apparently had no idea Cobb was going to be there.