Randy Orton surpasses Shawn Michaels...
 

...in total time as WWE Champion. The current top ten:

1) Bruno Sammartino 4040 days
2) Hulk Hogan 2184 days
3) Bob Backlund 2138 days
4) Pedro Morales 1027 days
5) John Cena 947 days
6) Bret Hart 654 days
7) Triple H 539 days
8T) Randy Savage 529 days
8T) Steve Austin 529 days
10) Randy Orton 421 days

Read this on another site earlier. I have to admit, this surprised me. Does not seem like Orton's time at the top has been long enough. Or that HBK spent so little time with the belt compared to some of his contemporaries.

I'm way more shocked that Austin is only 8th.

And that Triple H is only 7th. With as much criticism as he gets for "supposedly" being where he is only because he's Stephanie's husband, you'd think he'd have spent more days as Champion.

cena beats bret by almost a year :-\

I was almost suprised when I saw that Cena nearly doubles Austin's record....

Now I'm kind of curious to see the entire list. May take a shot at putting one together tonight unless someone else is feeling ambitious.

Cena has a ways to go before reaching Hogan. Probably never will.

Also, I didn't know Macho Man had spent so much time as Champion.

This is only the WWE Championship. Triple H has also been World Heavyweight Champion 616 days.

Oh, ok...so combined, that puts him over Morales into 4th.

That's more like Triple H.

<font color=goldenrod>Sammartino's total time is basically impossible to top. 11 full years as champ. Even combining time for both belts nobody is gonna hold it that long again.</font>

Triple H's days came in an era where titles switched hands a lot more often. So did John Cena's. Pretty crazy to think that they're already on a list like that.

I don't seem to remember the title changing hands alot when Cena had his title reigns. :shifty:

Austin spent more time chasing the belt than he did holding it, when Vince was keeping it away from him. That's why he's not higher up

Other than Cena's first reign (which was pretty much 14 months, minus the 3 weeks Edge had it) and his 2nd reign (12-13 months), all of his other reigns (World and WWE Title) have been less than 3 months.

Doesn't feel like it.

14 & 12-13 months is pretty ridiculous though these days,especially for his first reigns.

Yeah, he's clearly an outlier.

suprising...... Never would have thought Orton was so high on the list and HBK was barely Top 10......

The biggest problem with this list is you have to consider how often the strap was defended. I'm sure while HBK is at 11, he defended the title more than Bruno. Not taking anything away from Bruno, Backlund, or Pedro (fuck Hogan) but guys like Cena, Orton, Savage, Bret, etc had to put their title on the line more often.

It did take Orton twice as many reigns to topple HBK in total days and about 100 days less than Austin who held it 6 times as well.

After reading this I'm interest to see who's defended the title the most times. Just don't include house shows post Diesel's win against Backlund. Or just count the prominent defenses, since the pre-RAW era will be dicey.

Totally didn't think Savage would be that high, seeing as Hulk dominated the 80s basically. I mean he had his time, but idk...

Apart from his reign as a heel in 2001, Austin never really held the title that long.

I knew Sammartino held it the longest, just didnt realise the gap between 1st and 10th was so big, hes almost double Hogans in 2nd. Love to see a comparison to the NWA/WCW title though.

The complete list (I'm counting all winning-then-losing-it-the-same-night as a 1-day reign, and basing time on WWE.com's title histories):

1) Bruno Sammartino 4040
2) Hulk Hogan 2184
3) Bob Backlund 2138
4) Pedro Morales 1027
5) John Cena 948
6) Bret Hart 654
7) Triple H 542
8) Stone Cold 529
9) Randy Savage 519
10) Randy Orton 421
11) Shawn Michaels 399
12) Diesel 358
13) Brock Lesnar 353
14) The Rock 308
15) Kurt Angle 299
16) Superstar Billy Graham 296
17) Ultimate Warrior 294
18) Yokozuna 281
19) JBL 280
20) Undertaker 238
21) Sheamus 161
22) Edge 139
23) Eddie Guerrero 133
24) Ric Flair 118
25) Chris Jericho 98
26) Sid 97
27) Big Show 78
28) Sgt. Slaughter 64
29) Rob Van Dam 55
30) Jeff Hardy 42
31) Batista 37
32) Mankind 36
33) The Iron Sheik 28
34) Ivan Koloff 21
35) Buddy Rogers 18
36) The Miz 12 and counting
37) Stan Stasiak 9
38) Mr. McMahon 4
39T) Andre The Giant 1
39T) Kane 1

30) Jeff Hardy 42
31) Batista 37


This made me laugh for some reason :$

Would be different if Vic Venom was writing these days.

His pal Vince Russo would be in the top 20 at least.

Eventually that was a given.

I was going to say how is that possible, but then I remember he held the belt the longest with the World Title, but if you combine Batista's reigns he is pretty high up too.

I read Stan Stasiak as Sean Stasiak and freaked out that I had missed that epic moment in WWE history :'(

Also amazed that I would trust loopydates facts that much that I would believe that Sean Stasiak held the title if he told me he had.

MEAT!

Things get a little craziak...on Planet Stasiak!

I'm sort of surprised that Orton has cracked the top ten. He's also got 28 days as World Heavyweight Champion.

If you combine the time that Hulk Hogan spent as WCW Champion with his time as WWE Champion, you get a total of 3361, I believe. That's still 679 days behind Bruno Sammartino.

Ric Flair spent 3101 days as NWA World Heavyweight Champion, 506 days as WCW Champion, 118 days as WWE Champion, and I don't know whether people count this, but he spent 63 days as WCW International World Heavyweight Champion. That gives Ric Flair a total of 3788 days as a World Champion. It's tricky with Flair, because it's hard to know just which of his title reigns are considered "cannon," so to speak.

So either way you cut the cheese, Bruno Sammartino is still the leader, with Ric Flair in second and Hulk Hogan in third.

The guy at 4th as WWF Champion, Pedro Morales, is from Puerto Rico.

Yes!

The thing that impresses me the most is that somebody like Shawn, did it in only like 2-3 runs with the belt, same with Savage. They did these numbers in a era where the belt meant something not just a hot potato that is now. So to me honestly I would love for them to add such and such dates in so many title reigns, that would really make the list really feel more legit and add more to some hall of fame resumes!

Tomorrow I'll try tackling the World Title (since its RAW return, anyway. Too complicated before that), then combining the two. Really interested to see how that changes things.