Best in the World?

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.