Ric Flair. Shawn Michaels. Bret Hart. The Rock. Stone Cold Steve
Austin. What do these men all have
in common? They were all at one time looked at as the standard of their
industry? But that is not it. They
are all Hall of Famers? Well, The Rock is not one yet, but we all know that he
will be. However, that is still not the connection. The answer is, they all had
WWE Championship reigns that lasted less time than the current, reigning and
defending WWE Champion (thanks Paul Heyman), CM Punk.
Some people will look at CM Punk's reign
and point out that he has only main evented three Pay-Per-Views during that
time, two of which John Cena did not even appear on. Others will say that was
not the man during that time. To those people I ask this, who cares? Was Triple
H the man during his first title run? No, The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin,
two men mentioned above, were both considered to be more important. Was Rob Van
Dam the man? No, but he held the main championship on two brands
simultaneously. It does not lessen
the achievement.
As of this writing, CM Punk has the tenth
longest reign in WWE history. Of the nine reigns that are ahead of him, only
two of them took place during a time when there were monthly Pay-Per-Views,
John Cena (380 days) and Diesel (358 days). And even in those cases, Diesel did not see monthly PPVs
introduced until four months into the reign. Add to that that his first two
title defenses during those four months were also not in the main event slot of
either of those shows. In the case of John Cena, his reign was during a time
where the WWE was having split branded PPVs. His defenses were taking place
less frequently, but he still had time on his side, and he was the focal point
of the company during that time.
For the sake of argument, there can even
comparisons made to put CM Punk's reign into the running in comparison with
those reigns from the old days when someone held the championship for multiple
reigns. Take Bruno Sammartino's reign (2,803 days) for example. During that time,
the WWWF based their business model around Madison Square Garden. They would
run the Garden once a month, and that was when the major events took place. The
rest of the month was really just a replay of what happened at the Garden weeks
before. In that logic, you could say that each MSG show was like an episode of
RAW now. Based on that, every six months would be the equivalent of what a
month would be now. So Bruno's reign was a total of ninety-two months, and
using that formula, it would be like a modern day reign of about fifteen
months. As of now, the talk is that CM Punk will hold the WWE Championship
until the Royal Rumble, where one would assume he will lose the belt to The
Rock, setting up a Rock vs. John Cena rematch to main event WrestleMania XXIX,
this time for the championship. At that point, CM Punk will have held the WWE
Championship for fourteen months, one month shy of the modern day reign of
Bruno Sammartino, who has held the title longer than anyone.
Now I am not trying to say that CM Punk is
the greatest champion of all time. I'm not even trying to say that he is the
top guy in the company right now, even though I believe he is and should be.
Most fans, over the age of 12, are tired of the same John Cena shtick. The booing started at WrestleMania 22,
and here we are gearing up for WrestleMania XXIX. People point to merchandise
sales as the reason Cena hasn't turned, but I seem to remember a "Cena
Sucks" shirt being released last year to much fan fare. Anyways, what I am
trying to point out is the significance of CM Punk's reign. In a time that
championships are traded more than trading cards used to be, Punk has been a
constant. He has given those who were tired of the Cena days something to
rejoice in. He has given a new generation of fans a taste of the old days, when
a person held the championship for months and years, rather than days and
weeks. He has done it as a baby face and he has done it as a heel. He has made
people love him and made people hate him. He has given scientific matches with
Daniel Bryan and street fights with Chris Jericho. And that entire time, he has
kept the title and made it mean something again. At the end of the day, he has
shown everyone that he is exactly what he says he has been for 347 days, the
Best in the World.
Now if we could only get a new championship
belt that never spun before.
