10 Longest WWE Championship Reigns Ever

3. Hulk Hogan (1474 Days)

434 Days CM Punk
WWE.com

Hulk Hogan's inaugural stint with the WWE Title will forever reflect the most important time in Vince McMahon's life as a wrestling promoter - the bombast, aggressiveness and magnificence of it all.

With 'The Hulkster' front and centre for expansion plans that completely reimagined the landscape of the industry forever more, Vince went on a tear through the territories that simply couldn't compete in virtually any area with the machine he'd rapidly and shrewdly assembled.

A loyal and monied soldier as a result of his part in the plans, Hogan's aura as Champion was truly incredible. Magnetising generations of supporters towards the product with his beautifully simplistic act, 'The Hulkster' was the embodiment of 1980s North American pop culture as it was happening. McMahon only managed to capture this twice, with his company's rebirth spurred on by Steve Austin's incredible momentum just over a decade later.

'The Rattlesnake' was, too, an icon of the time and a 'Mount Rushmore' certainty. But Hulk - through this particular reign - was the first of his kind.

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Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 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 over 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 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana 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