thesquaredcircle

Cena had a claim to the title since he lost it at MITB and gets a rematch. Same at Summerslam, he went in as one the champions, lost his title and thus qualifies for a rematch.

And in storyline terms, Punk was gone from the company which I'm assuming made him no longer eligible to hold one of their championships. But then he returned and had a legit claim to the title since he never lost it in a match and would've still been within the 30 day period.