Throughout the illustrious history of the championship, only 7 men in total have held the WWE Title for longer than a full calendar year at a time. Obviously, many can claim to have held the belt for over a year through multiple reigns, but only an esteemed list can say they carried the strap for one full year without a break. Amongst those names are the likes of Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, with CM Punk also incredibly being one of the elite. Rounding out the list are guys like John Cena, Pedro Morales and Bob Backlund, but Punk must surely stand as the most unlikely of all those men. Given WWE's long-standing reputation as a company that favours big men, Punk's unbelievable 434 day reign as WWE Champion from November, 2011-January, 2013 even topped that of Kevin Nash. As Diesel, Nash held the belt for 358 days in the mid-90's, but CM Punk takes the biscuit as the longest running champ since the likes of Hogan. It's quite interesting that he chooses to forget that when complaining about never being handed the chance to be 'the man' in WWE.
Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.
