John Cena won the World Heavyweight Championship in 2000.
John Cena . Cena started his professional wrestling career in 1999 with Ultimate Pro Wrestling ( UPW ) and won the UPW Heavyweight Championship the following year . Throughout his WWE career , Cena has won 25 championships , with 16 reigns as a world champion ( 13 times as WWE Champion and three times as WWE 's World Heavyweight Champion ) , an accomplishment only previously achieved by WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair . World Heavyweight Championship (WWE) . It was one of two top championships in WWE from 2002 to 2006 and from 2010 to 2013 , complementing the WWE Championship , and one of three top championships from 2006 to 2010 with the addition of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship . The title was established under the Raw brand in 2002 , after Raw and SmackDown became distinct brands under WWE , and moved between both brands on different occasions ( mainly as a result of the WWE draft ) until August 29 , 2011 , when all programming became full roster `` supershows '' .