bret hart was the longest reigning wwe champion of the modern era.
bret hart was the longest reigning wwe champion of the modern era.
longest reigning wwe champion of the modern era?
bret hart
the wwe championship was the first world championship introduced into the promotion in 1963. the inaugural champion was buddy rogers, and there have been 51 different official champions overall and 11 vacancies. the longest reigning champion is bruno sammartino, who held the title from may 17, 1963 to january 18, 1971, for a total of 2,803 days (7 years, 8 months, and 1 day); sammartino also holds the record for longest combined reign at 4,040 days. andré the giant is the shortest reigning champion, officially holding the title for 1 minute, 48 seconds. the youngest champion is brock lesnar, who won the title at the age of 25, while the oldest champion is vince mcmahon, who won it at the age of 54. john cena holds the record for most reigns with 13.
wwe championship
the next night on "raw", a furious mick foley confronted punk for refusing to pick john cena as his hell in a cell opponent, leading the two to agree to meet at survivor series in a survivor series match with punk choosing alberto del rio, cody rhodes, damien sandow and the miz for his own team. however, punk was replaced as captain by dolph ziggler the following week on "raw" and was instead booked in a triple threat wwe championship match against john cena and ryback instead by vince mcmahon. at the event on november 18, punk won the match by pinning cena following interference from the debuting faction called the shield, allowing him to retain the wwe championship and hold the championship for a full year. on december 4, punk underwent surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus, removing him from his title match against ryback on december 16 at . despite his injury, punk became the longest reigning wwe champion in the past 25 years on december 5, when he hit 381 days, surpassing john cena's 380-day reign. punk returned to in-ring action on the january 7, 2013, episode of "raw", retaining the wwe championship against ryback in a tlc match following interference from the shield.
cm punk