As of a few days ago, CM Punk's record 434 day WWE Title reign was surpassed by Brock Lesnar's Universal Title run. There's a theory going around that WWE did this out of spite, to make sure Punk's record was broken. Punk's record was referred to as the longest World Title run in WWE in the last 30 years. Not since Hulk Hogan's first Title reign had a Champion held it for that long a time period. Obviously, we are way past the age of wrestlers like Bruno Sammartino holding the Title for years at a time. However, sometimes it's nice to see long reigns, especially when they are full of substance. People compare Brock rarely showing up to defend his Title to the days of Sammartino when the Champion would appear rarely. First of all, that's an unfair and unrealistic comparison. Secondly, I did a little research and found that in just six months of Bruno's first reign, he defended the Title twice as many times as Brock did in a year. That was just Title defenses! Bruno participated in other matches as well. People fail to realize that in the days of the NWA's prominence, for instance, Ric Flair was wrestling over 300 days a year.
Alright, back to the topic at hand! Did WWE purposely have Brock break Punk's record? I still call it a theory! I have three other examples of theories like this. One is that Nikki Bella broke AJ Lee's record holding the Diva's Championship due to Lee's relationship with CM Punk. Even if that were so, it's only the Diva's Title, which frankly, was a joke of a Championship. It looked like a damn butterfly for crying out loud! Not only that, the Title itself had only been around for five years. The only record that mattered was the Fabulous Moolah's near 28 year WWE Women's Title reign anyway! The second example is fairly recent, in The New Day surpassing the Tag Team Championship record set by Demolition in the late 80's. I know this had nothing to do with spite but it was apparently simply about wanting The New Day to have this record. However, The New Day held a completely different set of Tag Team Championships, which makes the entire thing irrelevant. The third also involves Lesnar. For a time, Lesnar had been known for being the youngest WWE Champion in history. After Lesnar left in 2004, the record was broken when Randy Orton won the "World Heavyweight Title." Again, due to that being a completely different Title, it's irrelevant!
This brings me to this current theory. Could Vince McMahon be that petty? Perhaps! After all, Punk and WWE didn't exactly go their separate ways on good terms! This, like the others, are just theories and none have been proven because those of us that speculate are not in the business and have no idea what actually went on. Even those in the business may not all know the exact facts either! Regardless of whether this theory is true or not, is once again irrelevant! Brock didn't break any records because the Universal Title is not the WWE Title! Hell, as most of you know by now, I don't consider the Universal Title a World Title, as I never got behind the idea of more than one World Championship in the same company. Even if I did consider it a World Title, it's still a different Title altogether, with a different lineage, that hasn't even been around for two years yet! It's comparing apples to oranges here!
With the introduction of so many Championships in WWE's history, it got convoluted and confusing. For instance, as I mentioned before, The New Day's reign was a different set of Titles than that of Demolition. The Titles that Demolition held became exclusively for Raw around the time of the first brand extension. Not long after, the Smackdown Tag Team Titles were created, which were the Titles The New Day held during their "record breaking" reign. Even when those Titles were unified, WWE only continued to recognize the Smackdown Titles' lineage for some reason. In 2016, when the second brand extension took place, yet another set of Tag Team Titles were created specifically for the Smackdown brand and are currently held by the Bludgeon Brothers.
At WrestleMania XXXII, just before the match between Divas's Champion Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch, the WWE Women's Championship was brought back because the God awful era of Divas was finally over. Charlotte won the match and became the Women's Champion. However, what strikes me as odd is that the lineage of the original Women's Title did not continue. They started a new one with Charlotte. Later that year, after the brand extension, another Women's Championship was created for the Smackdown brand, won by Becky Lynch and today held by Carmella. The same thing was done when the Cruiserweight Title was brought back. It's lineage started anew, with TJP as the inaugural Champion. However, it seems apropos, since the original's last Champion was Hornswoggle, and that's something many fans would like to forget!
All of these different Championships brought about these tangents I went on, beyond the original theory about spitefulness! All of these theories, even if true, have no value because the comparisons were usually about two different sets of Championships. So, even if these theories are true, or if you believe them to be true, they don't really matter at the end of the day. The WWE Title and the Universal Title are not the same thing! Besides, as far as I'm concerned, the WWE Title is the Title! The number one guy right now, regardless of Brock Lesnar's star power, is AJ Styles! Even Jinder Mahal, who I consider the worst WWE Champion of all time, still held the only "World" Title that mattered! I'm curious to know your thoughts, both concerning which way you feel about the subject's theory, as well as whether you agree with me or not concerning different Title lineages.
If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments. Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST on YouTube, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans. Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport. For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
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