Will Seth Rollins Break CM Punk’s Record WWE Championship Reign?

With fans complaining about Nikki Bella’s long Divas Championship reign, 411Mania’s Greg DeMarco is here to remind you that it’s CM Punks’ reign the WWE is out to break.

Come this Sunday, Nikki Bella will be 279 days into her WWE Divas Championship reign, sixteen days shy of AJ Lee’s historic 295 day reign that ran from June 2013 to April 2014. It’s been assumed for a while now that the WWE was going to book Nikki to break AJ’s record—be it out of spite towards her husband CM Punk, her relationship with John Cena or (gasp!) as a way to build some prestige for the butterfly belt.

Any way you slice it, surpassing that mark is all but inevitable now as the next pay-per-view event is Night of Champions, taking place on September 20—after Nikki has passed AJ’s reign.

Some fans have complained about Nikki’s reign, as she has yet to defend the championship since the launch of the “Divas Revolution” (my thoughts on which you can find here). However, as many have pointed out on social media, Nikki has had just as many defenses as AJ (seven), and AJ Lee once went 70 days between defenses herself.

Nikki’s reign doesn’t deserve the criticism it’s receiving, but that’s coming for two simple reasons:
a) Nikki Bella is the champion of the Divas when we’re in the middle of this supposed revolution,
b) she’s not Internet Wrestling Community favorite AJ Lee.

I love the speculation about Nikki’s reign and the reason it continues to go on. You hav the reports the John Cena used his influence to stop a title switch already (which you can read more about here and here), and of course the reports that this is all being done just to remove AJ Lee’s name from the top of the history books.

While I do think the WWE is in fact trying to give Nikki Bella the longest Divas Championship reign to date, I think the “master plan” theories are somewhat misguided.

Okay, maybe misguided isn’t the best word. I think I’d prefer…incomplete.

On November 20, 2011, CM Punk defeated Alberto Del Rio to win the WWE Championship, ending a stretch of championship hot potato that started the July prior. To combat that hot-potato, the company embarked on a 434 day journey with Punk as champion, the longest single reign since John Cena’s 2006 campaign that saw him move from Smackdown to RAW.

Punk’s is the seventh longest reign in WWE history, behind Hall Of Famers Bruno Sammartino (who has two of the six longest reigns), Bob Backlund (also with two), Hulk Hogan and Pedro Morales.

(Also an interesting side note, all seven of the WWE’s longest reigns—including CM Punk’s—started at Madison Square Garden.)

Seth Rollins has been WWE World Heavyweight Champion for 154 days (as of Sunday) and is the holder of the 26th longest reign. However, by the time he steps into the ring with Sting at Night Of Champions he will pass The Miz, Randy Orton’s eighth reign, Bret Hart’s first, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s sixth reign as champion, moving him up to 22nd all-time. If he makes it to the 2016 Royal Rumble (not an impossible thing to imagine), he will have been champion for 301 days, putting him at number 12 all-time, ahead of Superstar Billy Graham’s 296 days reign but behind Diesel’s 358 days.

On Monday, June 6, 2016, Seth Rollins will surpass CM Punk’s historic WWE Championship reign. Mark that date down on your calendars…

…because it’s happening.

And guess day of the week it is?

If you said Monday, you’d be right!

So I pose this very simple question to each and every one of you:

Why would the WWE stop at having Nikki Bella outlast AJ Lee’s historic title reign to spite CM Punk when they can have Seth Rollins outlast CM Punk’s historic title reign to spite CM Punk?

It makes perfect sense—if the WWE views CM Punk as the real “bad guy” in this weird feud (and remember, I’ve already stated for the record that he will be back by, at the very latest, WrestleMania 35), then they want to stick it to him more than they want to stick it to AJ Lee.

And they likely want to do both.

So be happy that Nikki Bella is ever so close to breaking AJ Lee’s reign, because that means she can drop it to Charlotte, or preferably, Becky Lynch or Sasha Banks. Although just to troll us, I’d bet Nikki gets a successful defense or two in after beating AJ’s record. Because Triple H knows us.

But just remember that it doesn’t end there. The real mark is CM Punk’s 434 day reign. So I hope you’re enjoying Seth Rollins’ title run as much as I am, because you’re in for at least another 281 days of it!

Does anyone else really hope the July 6, 2016 edition of Raw is in Chicago?

Greg DeMarco is a wrestling fan of over 30 years and has worked on the independent circuit as a promoter, announcer, character and booker. Greg is a weekly contributor at 411Mania.com, applying his opinionated style to the world of pro wrestling as often as possible.

He began writing for 411Mania in October 2010 and has been pissing readers off ever since!

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