10 REALLY Long WWE Title Reigns That Didn’t Work
4. Triple H - World Heavyweight Champion (76, 280, 91 & 169 Days)
Included as one entry because it conspired to feel like one unending torture, Triple H's vice-like grip over the World Heavyweight Title aided his grand plan to cosplay as his heroes at the expense of a rapidly diminishing core audience.
On offense, he mimicked Harley Race, in everything else it was Ric Flair. His denim dad look was replaced by a bouncing bouffant and buttoned down suit (in style, rather than class), ill-gotten Championship (in reality, rather than storyline) and group of heavies (in Evolution, rather than The Four Horsemen).
The biggest, crucial difference was match quality. 'The Game' commanded so much time, either during his lengthy Monday Night Raw promos or dirt-worst pay-per-view matches, and so rarely made decisions that suited anybody other than himself. He put Goldberg over long after the former WCW Champion actually required the rub. He went multiple months with Kevin Nash, Booker T, Rob Van Dam and Kane despite never remotely intending to put them over. He jobbed clean to Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton just to win dirty (but conclusively) less than a month after the original defeats.
Only Batista's outstanding rise justified his reign(s) of terror on Monday Night Raw. WrestleMania 21 saw Hunter bid farewell to his 'Nature Boy' dream sequence - but it was in reality the end of a nightmare.