10 Longest Gaps Between World Title Reigns In WWE History
The Miz, Shawn Michaels, and Hulk Hogan prove that sometimes, a break is good...
At the end of Elimination Chamber 2021, The Miz cashed in Money in the Bank to pin a beaten-down Drew McIntyre to win the WWE Championship.
This marked the second world title reign for The A-Lister and his second successful Money in the Bank cash-in, winning the belt for the first time in over a decade.
Whilst it's not often as extreme as The Miz, it's not uncommon for wrestlers to spend years away from the world championship picture and then return to it with a bang. Wrestling has a rich history of utilising older talent - for better or worse - and WWE have no qualms about putting their top prize on a much older wrestler - for better or... actually, who are we kidding, it's always worse.
Some of these performers take extended leaves of absence from WWE, some of them return from injury in an underdog storyline, and some just float around the company long enough to be given multiple title reigns.
To clarify, the world championships we are including on this list are the WWE, World Heavyweight, and Universal Championships. Top-level main-roster titles.
You'll get your turn...
10. Shawn Michaels - 5 years 0 months 9 days
If Shawn Michaels hadn't come back in 2002, his final title run would have begun with The Montreal Screwjob.
HBK's final WWF Championship reign was cut short by a combination of Steve Austin's rise to popularity and a potentially career-ending back injury. Michaels dropped the gold at WrestleMania XIV and stepped away from the ring for four long years. Despite making sporadic appearances on WWE TV, The Showstopper wouldn't lace up a pair of boots until he was coaxed back into wrestling at SummerSlam 2002.
Following his all-time classic with Triple H, Michaels would go on another brief hiatus before returning at that year's Survivor Series.
As part of the first ever Elimination Chamber match, Michaels overcame five other men including The Game to win the match and the World Heavyweight Championship. This would be Michaels' final ever singles title run in WWE and, sadly, it didn't last long. However, seeing the legend return from obstacles both physical and mental to win the big one was truly special.
As you can see, it was almost exactly five years to the day after Montreal when HBK won his next world championship; a lovely piece of poetry in a truly unique career.