There was once a time in WWE when a wrestler would hold the company's top prize for years at a time. Take Bruno Sammartino. The Hall of Famer's first reign as champion lasted more than seven and a half years, and it took another three years to get it off him again once he won it for a second time. For comparison, John Cena has held the WWE Championship 13 times, not including his three reigns with the World Title, and all of those reigns combined only just surpass Sammartino's second reign.
There are a number of reasons title reigns as long as Sammarinto's became a thing of the past a long time ago. Fans don't have the attention span they used to, for starters. The introduction of gimmicks like Money in the Bank has contributed to. Some title reigns last minutes rather than years should a new champion be unlucky enough to have a contract cashed in on them right after their crowning moment.
434 Day Title Reigns
An era of quickfire title reigns has resulted in longer runs with the belt meaning a whole lot more. They have to be booked well though, and have to feature a champion fans want to see. Both those things apply to CM Punk and Roman Reigns' longest runs with a World Championship. Punk's 434 days as WWE Champion, and The Tribal Chief's 438 days and counting as Universal Champion. Since Reigns' run as Universal Champion recently surpassed Punk's time as WWE Champion, the two have been compared and contrasted quite a bit recently.
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Reigns made quite the impact when he returned at SummerSlam 2020. The Big Dog had finally turned heel and threw the PPV's Universal Title match into disarray. One week later, he was inserted into a rematch for that same title and won. That reign has continued and he is still champion 438 days later. Punk's iconic 434-day reign as WWE Champion started when he beat Alberto Del Rio for the title at Survivor Series 2011. It came to an end right before WrestleMania 29 at the hands of The Rock. It later became clear that was so Rock could drop the title to Cena. Punk pitched doing it himself in a triple threat match with Rock and Cena, but WWE clearly didn't like the idea.
How you win a title is one thing. It doesn't determine how long you will keep it, though. That depends on how well you do as champion, the quality of the matches you have, and the level of your opponents to some extent too. While facing lower-level wrestlers might mean you keep your title for a longer period, it isn't going to be a reign that goes down in history. It also won't be remembered fondly if you hardly ever show up to defend the title. We're looking at you, Brock Lesnar. The Beast Incarnate was Universal Champion for over 500 days, yet only defended the title seven times on PPV.
The Level Of Their Respective Challengers
Despite both Punk and Reigns holding their respective titles for ten weeks less than Lesnar at this point, they both defended their titles on big shows far more often. Punk's WWE Championship was on the line in 14 different PPVs, while Reigns is at 13 and counting, so pretty much the same in that regard. What about the level of opponent? Well, Punk's list boasts a Hall of Famer in Mark Henry, and arguably a few more who will be in there with The World's Strongest Man someday such as Big Show, Daniel Bryan, Cena, and Rock.
Bryan is on Reigns' list too, as is Edge. Not to mention Lesnar, of course. The Head of the Table has had a number of what might be considered lower-level opponents too. Cesaro, Shinsuke Nakamura, he even started his reign feuding with Jey Uso. However, despite it never feeling like those stars were ever going to beat Reigns, pretty much all of his title matches have been pretty great. Wrestling Reigns raises the stock of his opponents right now. That couldn't really be said for Punk during his 434 days as WWE Champion. Del Rio for example. The two competed a number of times and even though the Mexican star had previously held the WWE Championship, their matches never felt like big occasions.
While Reigns arguably had tougher opponents and raised the stock of those he stepped in the ring with, Punk seemingly had harder matches. More multi-person bouts and even a successful defense inside the Elimination Chamber. So far, Reigns has only had to defend the title against more than one person at the same time on one occasion. Versus Bryan and Edge at WrestleMania.
As demonstrated above, there is an awful lot to consider when comparing title reigns in the same company. The state of WWE at the time and whether it was changed via Punk and Reigns being a World Champion also has to be considered. Reigns has had the best year of his career, while Punk's work in WWE ten years ago brought a lot of lapsed fans back to the promotion. If you have been lucky enough to watch both reigns unfold, appreciate that. Punk was a great WWE Champion, Reigns continues to be a terrific Universal Champion, and both made WWE a better place by being one of its champions.