I'm sure you have noticed that the post-pandemic era of WWE has been defined by wrestlers winning championships and holding them for record-breaking durations. Let's get into the details.

Championship	Champion	Days Held
Universal Championship	Roman Reigns	1,206
World Heavyweight Championship	Seth Rollins	206
Intercontinental Championship	Gunther	557
Women's World Championship	Rhea Ripley	262
WWE Women's Championship	Iyo Sky	136
Raw Tag Team Championship	Finn Balor & Damien Priest	64

The most notable champions being Roman Reigns and Gunther, but Rhea Ripley and Seth Rollins creep closer towards the year mark.

Before all of these glorious reigns come to a dignified conclusion at Wrestlemania, let's discuss the prevalence of unbeatable champions. Do you think this is a good booking philosophy? Are there too many long championship reigns? Are you bored of these wrestlers hogging the spotlight?

I don't mind it, but I'm also not necessarily a fan of it on it's own. I think we as fans get fixated on the numbers. Sure it's a stat and a trivia thing, but if they only held the belt because there was no one else or it was at home more than tv... it's like Nikki bragging about being the longest divas champion ever as if anyone gave a shit lulz. It's something I've been thinking of when Roman started making waves with this run. It's a good story and everyone loves it, sure... but does holding a belt for long stretches of time on it's own create value? For instance is a year long reign against ham and eggers, is that more prestigious than a 2-3 month fighting champion reign who faced a bunch of varying challengers and you could buy into any of them holding it?

Personally after a year I think you're sorta pushing it a bit.

Nov 18, 2022 2:32:51 GMT @ness said:

but does holding a belt for long stretches of time on it's own create value? For instance is a year long reign against ham and eggers, is that more prestigious than a 2-3 month fighting champion reign who faced a bunch of varying challengers and you could buy into any of them holding it?

A 100 day run with 10 defenses is stronger than a 1000 day run with 2 defenses.

I've always felt that the number of title defenses is a much better metric than the length of the reign, but WWE's programming means we have to accept the length as the be-all-and-end-all. As you say, quality of opposition is also a factor.

I wanted to include the number of defenses in the table, but trying to find the numbers was too much of a pain in the ass. WWE does not acknowledge that stastic so no websites bother to collate it. I'm not doing a painstaking title-by-title research.

Dec 19, 2023 21:34:13 GMT @ness said:

I don't mind it, but I'm also not necessarily a fan of it on it's own. I think we as fans get fixated on the numbers. Sure it's a stat and a trivia thing, but if they only held the belt because there was no one else or it was at home more than tv... it's like Nikki bragging about being the longest divas champion ever as if anyone gave a shit lulz. It's something I've been thinking of when Roman started making waves with this run. It's a good story and everyone loves it, sure... but does holding a belt for long stretches of time on it's own create value? For instance is a year long reign against ham and eggers, is that more prestigious than a 2-3 month fighting champion reign who faced a bunch of varying challengers and you could buy into any of them holding it?

Personally after a year I think you're sorta pushing it a bit.

I like to think of this as the Golden Age 2.0.

We have a Hogan-esq WWE Title reign by Roman.

And Gunther has held the IC Title, with an iron fist.  Like the man who's record fell to him.

Roman gonna break the Bruno record. I would actually be down for it as well if the person who knocks him off the throne is worthy of breaking that run.

I like the title defence accolade instead, but it doesn't work in modern WWE - do you count ever live event title defence? Or just televised matches?

Roman's reign is beyond a joke now. If he were actually showing up more than once every 6 weeks sure, maybe, you could justify his run. But just counting days from the couch doesn't mean shit.

GUNTHER is at least active, he's on RAW every week. Roman isn't even remotely active.

I hate it. Maybe one long-term champion makes sense, but when it’s all titles, it’s boring as hell. There‘a a sweet spot somewhere between this and hot-shotting.

In Roman's case, the game plan for a successful title reign is to avoid the place all together. He just doesn't compete. At this point, what is the point?

He's worked 8 televised matches this year. 10 or 11 if you're counting live events.

Gunther I can see losing, while a long-term championship reign, he'll eventually lose it to whoever is destined to become a major babyface.

There's special attraction and there's fading into irrelevance. As much as I like the guy, Roman Reigns hasn't been on the island of relevancy for a while.

As for Gunther, he's been booked cleverly, being kept away from all the top guys, but it does raise the question of if Gunther is ever going to step up. Personally I'd be very curious to see how he matches up against the likes of McIntyre, Rollins, Cody, Orton, and even Reigns himself. Maybe he will enter the next level once he loses the belt, probably at Wrestlemania.

You're right. How much honour is there in being the third best champion, even long term?

It's like playing a division below pro and calling yourself a legend.

I always found it odd that veterans would be celebrated for being a 9 times IC champion... as opposed to gunning for a World Championship.

I think it works in the WWE because their whole philosophy revolves around their big tentpole PPVs. The key is building anticipation and building challengers that fans care about and that's where they've been excelling with Roman.

On the flipside, the RAW Women's division is in a rut. Rhea is the right choice, but there's just nobody on her level. I haven't been a dedicated watcher, but I'm not sensing any groundswell of support like there was for a Liv Morgan or a Bianca Belair.

I don't think necessarily having Rhea drop it would fix things but you have to book scenarios where she's in peril.

Shorter reigns can work, but you have to be smart about it. If you're trying to create a generation and get over a number of talents at once, it can be a pretty effective way to get 4-5 challengers over in a year.

Rhea is almost too big for the women's division now. She's playing a much bigger role as a member of The JD now than any run as Champion.

It's weird because Becky is just completing side quests now. Defeat NXT kid, check. Defeat Icon, check. Defeat Monster Heel, likely check.

But, booking like this, the more support I have for ending the brand split. Even Io is 4th string in Damage Control.

Dec 20, 2023 23:29:32 GMT Big Pete said:

On the flipside, the RAW Women's division is in a rut. Rhea is the right choice, but there's just nobody on her level. I haven't been a dedicated watcher, but I'm not sensing any groundswell of support like there was for a Liv Morgan or a Bianca Belair.

I don't think necessarily having Rhea drop it would fix things but you have to book scenarios where she's in peril.

The flipside of that is Roman Reigns where he's in peril so much that he has to cheat to win every single match to the point where it becomes a farce. I prefer the Rhea Ripley type of reign where she's just dominating everyone. Although, as with many things, a middle ground is the best option. And that's exactly where Gunther lies. He's dominating everyone but he's such a quality worker that he can convince us that even The Miz could beat him in the right circumstances.

Dec 21, 2023 0:13:48 GMT Emperor said:

Dec 20, 2023 23:29:32 GMT Big Pete said:

On the flipside, the RAW Women's division is in a rut. Rhea is the right choice, but there's just nobody on her level. I haven't been a dedicated watcher, but I'm not sensing any groundswell of support like there was for a Liv Morgan or a Bianca Belair.

I don't think necessarily having Rhea drop it would fix things but you have to book scenarios where she's in peril.

The flipside of that is Roman Reigns where he's in peril so much that he has to cheat to win every single match to the point where it becomes a farce. I prefer the Rhea Ripley type of reign where she's just dominating everyone. Although, as with many things, a middle ground is the best option. And that's exactly where Gunther lies. He's dominating everyone but he's such a quality worker that he can convince us that even The Miz could beat him in the right circumstances.

That hasn't always been the case with Roman and while it's a trend that's affected his recent output, I think it's playing into an over-arching story where he's becoming more complacent. Hopefully the pay-off isn't too predictible and they can introduce some compelling details.

Rumour has it, he's going to be champ until September to pass Hogan.

So, expect 5 matches between now and then.

Dec 20, 2023 19:32:32 GMT Emperor said:

There's special attraction and there's fading into irrelevance. As much as I like the guy, Roman Reigns hasn't been on the island of relevancy for a while.

As for Gunther, he's been booked cleverly, being kept away from all the top guys, but it does raise the question of if Gunther is ever going to step up. Personally I'd be very curious to see how he matches up against the likes of McIntyre, Rollins, Cody, Orton, and even Reigns himself. Maybe he will enter the next level once he loses the belt, probably at Wrestlemania.

He’s beat the shit out of McIntyre.

Really? I must have missed that one.

Dec 21, 2023 19:25:43 GMT Emperor said:

Really? I must have missed that one.

Triple Threat (w/ Sheamus) at Mania this year, and 1-on-1 at SummerSlam this summer.

Gunther/Walter has faced Rollins before too in WWE.

I'm not sure, but was there a WHC title shot recently?

Dec 21, 2023 20:56:38 GMT NATH45 said:

Gunther/Walter has faced Rollins before too in WWE.

I'm not sure, but was there a WHC title shot recently?

Not according to CageMatch.

He did face Rollins back in 2019 during the NXT Invasion, but Rollins won via DQ in a nothing match.

Dec 21, 2023 21:13:09 GMT Big Pete said:

Dec 21, 2023 20:56:38 GMT NATH45 said:

Gunther/Walter has faced Rollins before too in WWE.

I'm not sure, but was there a WHC title shot recently?

Not according to CageMatch.

He did face Rollins back in 2019 during the NXT Invasion, but Rollins won via DQ in a nothing match.

I was evident they had on Smackdown, but it turned out to be a leaked dark match from a few months ago.

Gunther v Cody would be amazing. Cody has a way of showing peril unlike another else really on the roster. And Gunther is a killer of course.

Without it being a " RAH-RAH 'MERICA " type thing, the visual of the imperialist Old World Austrian vs the embodiment of everything that is U-S-A! U-S-A! is an easy build.

I don't mind long title reigns as long as stories don't suffer because of it. There have been not one but two amazing stories done by WWE in the past year that should have resulted in Roman Reigns losing the title, but because he has to continue his streak those stories ended by blue balling their entire audience. And guess what? Roman and the entire WWE Universal Championship picture hasn't recovered.

They did it right with CM Punk's long reign. At first he was just champion for a while but after he had it over a year it became a story. Then he leaned into his Best in the World gimmick and was beating opponents with every tactic in the book. Any time someone posed a threat, Punk had an answer. He didn't just win because he was the chosen one, he won because he studied his opponent and knew how to beat them.

They basically had to bring The Rock out of retirement to get the title off him, and while we can argue about a lackluster end, or him not getting to main event Mania, or whatever, it ended when it needed to end and everything during and after made sense.

With Roman Reigns the company has just decided "he's breaking the record," so now nothing matters. And two of the best stories they have ever told will always be remembered with an asterisk.

There's barely even a mention now of Reigns. It's almost fallen into a place of irrelevancy.

Something as simply as, say a shithead heel like Austin Theory or Grayson Waller calling him out weekly ie; The Miz v Cena, Jericho v Goldberg.. only to get smashed and stacked upon his eventually return would at least be something to keep Reigns relevant.

The Sami match should have been the title change, it was the most magnificent storyline anyone in wrestling has produced in decades and then... nope, sorry.

Dec 22, 2023 0:01:02 GMT RT said:

I don't mind long title reigns as long as stories don't suffer because of it. There have been not one but two amazing stories done by WWE in the past year that should have resulted in Roman Reigns losing the title, but because he has to continue his streak those stories ended by blue balling their entire audience. And guess what? Roman and the entire WWE Universal Championship picture hasn't recovered.

They did it right with CM Punk's long reign. At first he was just champion for a while but after he had it over a year it became a story. Then he leaned into his Best in the World gimmick and was beating opponents with every tactic in the book. Any time someone posed a threat, Punk had an answer. He didn't just win because he was the chosen one, he won because he studied his opponent and knew how to beat them.

They basically had to bring The Rock out of retirement to get the title off him, and while we can argue about a lackluster end, or him not getting to main event Mania, or whatever, it ended when it needed to end and everything during and after made sense.

With Roman Reigns the company has just decided "he's breaking the record," so now nothing matters. And two of the best stories they have ever told will always be remembered with an asterisk.

On your last point, it’s almost like they’re this far in and see they might not get an opportunity in a long ass time to beat Bruno and Hulk’s records, so they are just going for it now.

On the whole long title reigns are fine, but there’s too many simultaneous reigns stretching back to Asuka’s NXT run. It’s pretty commonplace, but they do need to mix up the booking of them.

I’m not a fan. I think they seem scared to pull the trigger and have overplayed their hands on the Roman title reign especially. Maybe the story from here to Wrestlemania will change my mind but there’s been nothing Roman’s done this year that he needed the title for and his long absences have been much more pronounced this year with the bloodline also going stale when he’s out after losing Sami and Jey since January.

And the long Gunther run has definitely made the IC title more interesting than it was prior to his reign and when he’s defeated it’ll get a big response. But if they pass it off to someone that can’t similarly carry it (sorry Chad Gable but I’m looking at you), they’ll wind up just right back where it started.

I like long title reigns rather than quick swaps as I think the belts help elevate the wrestler and make them sort of worth a damn to the viewer's eyes. Belts should be meaningful and should not just be thrown back and forth, it should be treated as a big deal when a wrestler gets a belt, regardless of what it is(Rare exceptions like Hardcore/24 7 titles).

Of course, the mark of a great champion is how fresh they can keep their matches going...and Gunther I think sort of falls into the trap where he's almost too traditional where his matches are 1 on 1 singles and don't necessarily deviate off of that storytell. The hard hitting matches work but they have to be done in some medium to being able to entertain outside of the moveset.

Replacing Regins will be easier than replacing Gunther.

You think about it, he's not even there most of the time. It's not as if he's carrying the show or the company week in week out.

Gunther's style of work and physicality has set the bar high and unlike Reigns who has relied heavily on interference and shenanigans to keep his title, Gunther has essentially just chopped his way into a dominant reign. Whoever beats him needs to be able to withstand a war.

Something that is flying under the radar, Alex Shelley is in the midst of the 4th longest TNA/Impact World Title reign.

He's only less than 2 months short of being the 2nd longest reigning Champion.

After Jimmy turned on Jey, the story paused. My interest has diminished.

Dec 30, 2023 20:56:54 GMT Ed said:

After Jimmy turned on Jey, the story paused. My interest has diminished.

It's like they don't know what to do with Jimmy now. He just didn't get over.