John Cena Stripped Of WWE Championship

WWE Champion John Cena suffered a complete right pectoral tendon tear Monday night on Raw during his match with Mr. Kennedy. The injury will require surgery, prompting WWE to strip Cena of the championship.

Cena saw noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews Tuesday morning, and WWE.com accounced that Cena will be out of action 6-8 months at a time where many stars are out with injuries and others aren't on the road full-time. Cena was the top draw for RAW and the house shows as well.

Cena could be back at the earliest in April (meaning he will miss Wrestlemania) and at the worst, June 2008. John Cena will be stripped of the WWE championship with a new champion slated to be crowned this Sunday at the No Mercy PPV in Chicago.

Shortly after it was announced that Cena was stripped of the title, WWE.com reported that Vince McMahon would address the title situation on the 10/2 ECW on Sci-Fi. A legitimately distraught McMahon did open the show, and mentioned the injury and went on to say that the title is vacant and there would be a WWE title match at this Sunday's No Mercy, however didn't offer any other details that we didn't already know.

Also on ECW, when McMahon was addressing the injury, a video was shown with clips from the Cena-Kennedy match from Raw the night before. While the point where Cena got injured (after delivering an arm drag to Mr. Kennedy) was shown, the video made it appear that it was Randy Orton who caused the injury, already setting up a program for when Cena returns.

Cena's injury caps a year of unfortunate injuries to top WWE stars. Almost every top WWE star has been out of action over the past year due to injuries, including Shawn Michaels, Bobby Lashley, The Undertaker, Triple H, Rey Mysterio, Edge and Mr. Kennedy (at a time when Kennedy was favored to win the World Championship on Smackdown vacated by the injured Undertaker).