WWE Updating Its History Books With Longer Championship Reigns
Fans will have to get used to seeing Roman Reigns as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, as the company is focusing on lengthy title reigns.
Reigns has been virtually unstoppable since capturing the Universal Championship at Payback 2020 in his first match back after a four-month hiatus. At WrestleMania 38, Reigns unified the title with Brock Lesnar's WWE Championship, and most recently prevented Cody Rhodes from 'finishing the story' at WrestleMania 39 earlier this month.
Today marks Day-972 of Reigns' incredible run as champion, and the Tribal Chief is showing no sign of losing the title anytime soon. Earlier this week, the Wrestling Observer's Jim Valley said he believes the new World Heavyweight Championship has been created in part so that fans are more accepting of a lengthy title run for Reigns. Valley also shared his view that Reigns will surpass Hulk Hogan's first reign as WWF Champion which lasted for 1,474 days. In response, Andrew Zarian reports that he has been told "numerous times" that WWE wants to update its history books, and needs longer title reigns to do so.
Reigns' tenure as champion has seen the Tribal Chief reach several milestones, including becoming the first man to defend the WWE Championship at three consecutive WrestleManias, all within the same title reign. In 2016, The New Day broke Demolition's record for the longest reigning Tag Team Champions, a record which was broken by The Usos last year.
Other than Roman Reigns, WWE's main roster has two champions closing in on shattering their respective records: Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair and WWE Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER. For Belair to become the longest-reigning Raw Women's Champion, she will need to reach the end of next week to surpass Becky Lynch's first reign of 392 days. With Belair being drafted to SmackDown during the recent WWE draft though, her future with the title remains unclear.
As for GUNTHER, the Imperium leader has held the Intercontinental Championship since dethroning Ricochet last June. To surpass the Honky Tonk Man's 454-day reign as champion, the Austrian will need to keep the gold until September 8, 2023.
