Bruno Sammartino had a reign as WWWF Champion that lasted eight years, and he had another that lasted over three years. The Honky Tonk Man reminded us that he was “the greatest of all time” because of his Intercontinental Title reign that lasted 14 months. We may yet see Honky Tonk Man’s record broken, although it isn’t likely, but it’s safe to say no one will ever again come close to matching even half of Sammartino’s reign.
Why is that? Bob Backlund and Hulk Hogan had multi-year reigns, and AJ Styles is coming up on a year, but to paraphrase Chris Jericho from his podcast when he interviewed Sammartino, he joked that an average title reign today is 12 days, as opposed to Sammartino’s 12 years.
You can argue that Sammartino, Backlund, the Hulkster, and even Pedro Morales are the exceptions, that title reigns don’t typically last for years. But they certainly weren’t meant to last for only a few days. In fact, any reign lasting two months or less was subject to ridicule and shame. We were thrilled when Dusty Rhodes and Kerry Von Erich each beat Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. But their combined reigns of less than one month still make those of us who booed the Nature Boy a little salty. It wasn’t enough for them to win it and lose it back immediately. It was almost better had they not won it at all. Ricky Steamboat, considered by many of his peers as the best in-ring performer, held both the WWF Intercontinental and NWA World Titles, but each reign was barely two months. His Intercontinental reign was the shortest in history up to that point. And after dropping the NWA strap back to Flair, he thanked the fans and said he wasn’t ashamed of his title reign. It was a reminder that two months was not a prestigious length of time to be champion. Conversely, we loved to remind the heels who wore the belt as a filler for the next babyface, guys like Stan Stasiak, Ivan Kokoff, and the Iron Sheik, how short their title reigns were.
So why are title reigns typically so short now? I think this trend started in the mid to late 90’s. Kane beat Stone Cold at King of the Ring 1998 and lost it back the next night on Raw! The Rock and Mankind traded the WWF Title five times in three months! Sid, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Sid (again) and the Undertaker were all WWF Champion from Royal Rumble 1997 to WrestleMania XIII! At WrestleMania 2000 the Hardcore Title changed hands about 10 times in one battle royal!
Now fans complain when a pay-per view doesn’t have any title changes. Is it our attention span? Do we need a title to change hands on virtually every show to feel entertained? Doesn’t this revolving door of title changes cheapen the championships as well as the champions? Wasn’t it cool when the New Day broke Demolition’s record? Hasn’t it been fun to watch AJ Styles’ run and guess who will finally be the guy to beat him? It reminds me a bit of the Hulkster and how I used to wonder who would finally take his WWF Title.
What do you guys think? Do you like more title changes, or would you like to see longer reigns?
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