10 Longest WWE Cruiserweight Championship Reigns Ever

It's been held by an impressive variety of performers, but who held it the longest?

Shane Helms Cruiserweight Champion
WWE.com

Another month, another defunct championship history to delve into.

The Cruiserweight Championship is arguably the most poorly-booked, unfairly neglected championship in WWE/WCW history, as it provided some of the best in-ring action and some of the main excitement on shows, yet was almost always presented as a sideshow and rarely, if ever, the main attraction. 

The first champion was crowned when Brian Pillman defeated Ricky Morton in a tournament final in WCW in October 1991. 40 different competitors would hold the belt over a combined 79 reigns. Superstars as varied as Chris Jericho, Oklahoma, Dean Malenko, Alex Wright and Rey Mysterio would be champion, again showing the mishmash attitude towards its booking.

One important note is that this is the history of the Cruiserweight Championship, established in WCW and then taken over by WWE. As such, it is this lineage that is looked at here, not the WWF Light Heavyweight Title. If anything, the Light Heavyweight Title was booked even worse than this title. 

With that in mind, here are the 10 longest Cruiserweight Championship reigns in the history of the strap.

10. Billy Kidman - 113 Days

Shane Helms Cruiserweight Champion
WWE.com

Bilyl Kidman first came to the attention of anyone and everyone as the smallest member of Raven's Flock, where he wore dirty clothes and seemingly scratched himself constantly. Was he supposed to be a heroin addict? Well, his shooting star press finisher was renamed the Seven-Year Itch, so probably.

Once the Flock disbanded Kidman would go on to find success as a clean cut babyface, finally able to go out and have matches rather than being involved in run-ins and not much else. His longest run with the Cruiserweight Championship was his second, starting at the World War 3 pay-per-view with a victory over Juventud Guerrera. 

Kidman would hold the strap for 113 days, losing it in March of 1999 to Rey Mysterio. Kidman's seven overall reigns is the second most of any competitor. 

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.