5 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (June 11)

1. Record By Least Resistance

brock lesnar
WWE.com

After he retained the WWE Universal Championship at Greatest Royal Rumble, you knew that it was merely a function of counting down until Brock Lesnar set the record for longest world title reign in WWE for the past 30 years.

And that’s exactly what happened Monday, when Lesnar eclipsed CM Punk’s 434-day run with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. No one since Hulk Hogan’s three-plus-year run in the 80s ended has held a World title longer than Brock. But as Corey Graves noted briefly, several fans have expressed the criticism that Brock hasn’t defended the title as much as they’d like. However, Graves then brushed it off as Lesnar being a prizefighter who defends when he wants.

A check of Punk’s 14-month reign revealed 22 title defenses during that time, while Lesnar has amassed a whopping six. Six. Punk defended against the likes of Chris Jericho, John Cena, Alberto Del Rio, Daniel Bryan, Kane and Dolph Ziggler. Meanwhile, all but one of Brock’s defenses has involved either Braun Strowman or Roman Reigns.

Brock’s reign is impressive by number of days, but when you’re never around to defend and only fight the same guys you keep beating every time, it makes it less impressive and more frustrating that the champ isn’t around.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.