10 Longest WWE Championship Reigns Ever

6. CM Punk (434 Days)

434 Days CM Punk
WWE

Towards the end of CM Punk's iconic reign with the title, he spoke with bilious rage about the disrespect he'd suffered at the hands of the company supposedly geared around him. He wasn't wrong.

For all-too-much of the 'Voice Of The Voiceless' stint with the strap, he was second fiddle to John Cena - a place he'd tried to talk his way out of when he first dropped a "pipe bomb" on WWE in 2011. The idea that nothing had changed infuriated Punk, but the fire within fuelled a heel turn that made far greater use of his time on top.

Alongside Paul Heyman and against the likes of Cena, Ryback and The Rock, Punk was finally at the company's summit. It all ended unsatisfactorily when he was forced out of the picture to make way for a (mammoth-drawing) Cena/Rock WrestleMania rematch, but his legacy now remains etched no matter how hard the company try to scrub him from history.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back almost 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 60,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett