10 Stages Of The WWE Championship’s Devolution: From Prize To Prop
2. Record Breakers
CM Punk in 2012 embarked on the longest title reign since Hulk Hogan's inaugural reign - which reads as more impressive than it actually was. Around his waist, the prize wasn't at all a prop - but it certainly required the "consolation" prefix, something to satiate Punk as the real top star of the company. Cena continued to dominate storylines and headline PPVs at his expense. The title, by that year, was a notch below the top star, not something for the top star to wear.
Cena himself occupied a contrived role five years later; WWE, fixated on creating moments as opposed to letting them happen organically and desperately trying to glorify itself, booked Cena to end AJ Styles' run with the title - for the sole purpose of rivalling Ric Flair's phantom record of 16 World title wins. The tie was as fabricated as the record; it was pointless and avoidable, given that Cena was a transitional champion. It was inorganic desperation, which sullied Bray Wyatt's win before the referee struck the mat for a third time.
In the meantime, WWE, still unable or unwilling to escape the past, awarded WWE title wins to part-time nostalgia acts The Rock and Brock Lesnar - in thrall of their celebrity and the visual of the between-reigns gap, and at the expense of the untrustworthy full-time roster. The title served two functions: equaliser and shortcut to prominence. Neither strategy worked. The title used to exist to reward organic momentum; by 2017, it exists to transparently manufacture it.
The belt had creeped from achievement to tool. Now, it is held by one.