Roman Reigns’ Historic Title Run Has To Come With An Asterisk

We know wrestling is fake, so getting upset about an artificial record seems pointless and irrational. However, when that title run in pro wrestling is artificially inflated, the fans have a right to get upset. We all know Roman Reigns is the IT guy right now as he remains WWE Universal Undisputed Champion after his win over LA Knight at Crown Jewel, but it seems from his reactions that fans are getting tired of him being champion.

Ever since Roman Reigns returned after COVID and his illness, he has been WWE Champion for three and a half years. Over that time, he has made 29 title defenses on PLEs and 54 total title defenses. That is not a lot compared to Hulk Hogan, who made 468 title defenses during his reign as champion after winning the belt from the Iron Sheik.

Wrestling was a lot different back then than it is now. However, to modernize it, during a six-month period AEW’s Orange Cassidy made 32 title defenses as AEW International Champion, winning 31 of them before losing to Jon Moxley at All Out back in September. It is crazy to think a new champion had more championship defenses than a guy who held the belt for three and a half years.

Granted, Reigns is not on TV all the time and does not wrestle at every event. That is also the issue. His next scheduled PLE appearance and title defense is the 2024 Royal Rumble. That is in January. He will not be at Survivor Series. Thus he does not have to defend the title and the number of days just continues to go up as champion.

Again, WWE is an entertainment company, but this is getting beyond ridiculous. Roman Reigns is not as popular as he once was. Cody Rhodes, LA Knight, Jey Uso, and others are more over right now — hence WWE should have made the switch to Cody at Wrestlemania 39. But we digress.

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And his matches are the same old song and dance. They are not entertaining at all. At least with Orange Cassidy, there was intrigue. You wanted to see what clever way he was going to keep the title. Here, you know exactly what is going to happen: interference from Bloodline, Reigns keeps the belt. Not really that exciting.

And while LA Knight has his visual look at beating the champion, the crowd never went on the roller coaster ride of emotions like with Cody at Mania or Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber. This match was what it was, thus no one is really talking about it.

As much as it is easy to make fun of Hulk Hogan and talk about how he could not wrestle, at least he put in the work. The WWE Championship is an important title, not some prop like it has become. We get it; Roman Reigns is the new Brock Lesnar, but this is why you need a full-time wrestler being WWE Champion. The title needs to be on TV all the time.

And while the Bloodline storyline is moving along, fans have lost interest. They went in such a direction that people don’t really care, thus making the champion seem irrelevant now. The WWE Champion shouldn’t be irrelevant; he should be the priority — if Roman Reigns was there.

Again, it is entertainment, but guys like The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin in their prime would not be part-time champions. Even a guy like Bret Hart would defend the title more than Reigns has during his run as champion.

It is impressive what Roman Reigns is doing. The record for the number days as champion is all well and good, and good on WWE for having someone pass Hulk Hogan and potentially Bruno Sammartino. But, it is an artificially inflated number.

However, there has to be an asterisk next to it because HE IS NEVER THERE!!!