10 Times WWE Waited FOREVER To Break Records
7. Least WWE Championship Matches In A Year
There was a time when WWE put on 300+ shows a year and only a handful of them were broadcast.
Before the days of Raw, SmackDown, and monthly pay-per-view events, the business model used by the McMahons was to put on as many shows a possible. If you've been to a house show in the past, you've seen how WWE used to function; shows where not a lot happened, but there was nearly always a big title match to see out the night.
Even with TV deals and more PPVs, WWE continued to put on these regular shows, but now there's way fewer of them. Plus, they've been sticking the biggest titles on wrestlers who don't work the live circuit as much.
When Brock Lesnar monopolised the one and only WWE Championship belt they had at the time, live events were often main evented by non-title grudge matches instead. It was made worse when Roman Reigns got hold of both titles.
The Tribal Chief defended the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship nine times in 2023; only five of those were broadcast. Gone are the days when you'd at least see a title match at every PPV. Even during his reign of terror, Triple H defended the World Heavyweight strap on Raw, then put it on the line in untelevised matches for the rest of the week.
Having a super long title reign has been refreshing (and we'll get to that later), but what happened to the fighting champions?