10 Great But Short Wrestling Title Reigns

While a lot of focus is placed on how long a wrestler can hold onto a championship for, some performers achieve more in a handful of weeks with a belt than others do in years.

All of these reigns lasted for less than 90 days, but were extremely impactful, important, or entertaining.

There are a lot of wrestlers currently on long championship runs that could learn a lot from these examples.

This is 10 Great But Short Wrestling Title Reigns.

10. Seth Rollins - WWE Intercontinental Championship - 71 Days

Winning a championship at WrestleMania is pretty good. Becoming a Grand Slam Champion is also pretty good. Winning a championship that makes you a Grand Slam Champion at WrestleMania? Well, that’s pretty much as good as it gets.

This is what happened to Seth Rollins when he won a triple threat match against The Miz and Finn Balor to become Intercontinental Champion in the opening match of WrestleMania 34.

Rollins was extremely over at the time and one of the best workers in the company, so what he did next made total sense.

Rollins would put on great matches with a variety of opponents across this reign, including a four-way ladder match at Greatest Royal Rumble and a stonking singles match with Miz at Backlash, both of which were the best things on those godforsaken shows.

It all came to an end when Rollins was unseated by Dolph Ziggler 71 days into his reign, kicking off their rivalry that would stretch out for most of the year.

He may have only had the belt for just over two months, but the Architect built quite the Intercontinental legacy in that time.

9. Jon Moxley - Interim AEW World Championship - 70 Days

From one Shield member to another and from a midcard title in one promotion to another federation’s top prize…sort of.

When CM Punk got injured shortly after becoming AEW World Champion, Tony Khan broke the glass that he keeps Jon Moxley behind in case of emergencies. Moxley then took a bump on that glass and bled everywhere, just because.

The former Dean Ambrose was booked to defeat Hiroshi Tanahashi at Forbidden Door to become AEW’s interim world champion. Many assumed he was just keeping the belt warm for Punk’s return, but this reign turned out to be way more than filler.

Mox defended the title pretty much every week on Dynamite, defeating the likes of Brody King, Rush, and Chris Jericho. Then, when Punk did come back, he beat him too in a shocking squash!

By the time Punk finally beat Mox to reclaim the gold, the former Hound of Justice had only had the belt for a total of 70 days, but had put on more excellent bouts in that time than other world champions who reigned for much, much longer.

8. John Cena & Shawn Michaels - WWE World Tag Team Championships - 63 Days

The main event of WrestleMania 23 was not the Battle of the Billionaires but rather a WWE Title clash between two men who knew each other very well.

A couple of months out from their big clash in Detroit, on the January 29th, 2007, episode of Raw (to be specific), John Cena and Shawn Michaels teamed up to defeat World Tag Team Champions Rated-RKO, giving HBK his first tag gold in 13 years and Cena his first ever.

This was done to add some extra spice to their upcoming main event, as Cena was well aware that Michaels had turned on pretty much every single one of his partners over the course of his career. It added quite the wrinkle to the ‘Mania match, which Cena ended up winning.

Not only did this reign add some intrigue to a big match, but Cena and Michaels actually defended the belts a few times on TV. All in all, they reigned for 63 days, before Shawn turned on John by costing them the belts in a battle royale.

Old habits die hard, I guess.

7. Sami Zayn - WWE NXT Championship - 62 Days

Coming in at a day under Michaels and Cena’s tag run is the reign that made Sami Zayn, made Kevin Owens, and, for many fans, helped make NXT.

The main event of TakeOver: R Evolution saw NXT Champion Adrian Neville (the modern-day PAC), put the big gold X on the line against the red-headed Montreal native.

After coming up short several times in the past, Zayn had wagered his career on this match and it paid off, as he defeated the Geordie to win the belt in the ultimate feelgood moment.

And then Kevin Owens powerbombed him into the centre of the Earth.

KO’s betrayal led to a title match between the real-life pals at TakeOver: Rival, which Owens would win via referee stoppage.

The fact that Zayn’s reign was so short, 62 days in total, only added to the drama; Owens had robbed his former pal of something that meant so much to him just two months after he’d won it.

Amazingly, Zayn never got to hold this title again, despite being the face of this era of NXT for so many people.

6. Chris Jericho - WWE World Heavyweight Championship - 49 Days

Although he won six world titles in WWE, the most time Chris Jericho ever spent with one of the top belts (the Undisputed Title) was just 98 days.

When it comes to the World Heavyweight Championship, a title he held three times, the longest Jericho could hold on for was just 49 days.

Luckily for us, those 49 days were epic.

This was during Y2J’s suit-wearing, slow-talking days, widely regarded as one of the best stints of his entire career. At Unforgiven 2008, he was a last-minute entry into a Championship Scramble match, which allowed him to win a world title for the first time in seven years.

This then led to one of the all-time great World Heavyweight Championship matches, when Jericho defended the belt against Shawn Michaels in a Ladder Match at No Mercy.

He lost it three weeks later to Batista, but he’d already ensured that his name would be forever linked to this particular prize.

Weirdly, Jericho got the belt back just eight days later, only to lose it again 20 days after that to John Cena.

So why did WWE even have Batista win it in the first place?

5. Kurt Angle - Eurocontinental Championship - 35 Days

The Eurocontinental Championship never officially existed, despite the fact it was held by three different wrestlers.

First was D’Lo Brown, then Jeff Jarrett, then the greatest champion in this unofficial belt’s history, Kurt Angle.

Just a few months into his rookie year, Angle beat Val Venis on the February 8th, 2000 edition of Raw to win the Intercontinental Title. 19 days after that, he defeated Chris Jericho to win the European Championship too, setting up a marquee match at the upcoming WrestleMania 2000.

Angle would defend both belts against Jericho and Chris Benoit, with whoever scored the first pin winning one title and whoever scored the second winning the other.

Despite not being pinned, Angle dropped both of his titles on this night, bringing his time as a double champ to an end after just 35 days.

However, this brief run gave fans a glimpse at how great he was with gold around his waist, paving the way for his WWE Title win later that same year.

He was cocky, he was arrogant, he was endlessly entertaining, Angle was so good as Eurocontinental Champion that WWE never put both titles on the same person ever again.

4. The Rock - WWE Championship - 35 Days

Speaking of 35 days - and of Kurt Angle - that’s precisely how long The Rock had the WWE title for after he beat the Olympic gold medallist at No Way Out 2001.

Everyone and their dog had figured out that Rocky was winning here, as the champ would be going on to face Royal Rumble winner Steve Austin at WrestleMania 17. Angle vs Austin would have been nice, I’m sure, but come on; it was never gonna happen.

In the five weeks between No Way Out and ‘Mania, Rock defended the belt on TV against Angle and William Regal, built to his match with Stone Cold, and was featured in one of the greatest wrestling video packages of all time.

This is without mentioning the night he dropped the belt; the night Austin went heel, shook hands with Vince McMahon, and changed the very face of pro wrestling forever.

Some may see Rock’s sixth WWE Title reign as little more than a way of getting the belt onto Austin, but it was so much more than that. It set up the quintessential Attitude Era pay-per-view main event.

3. CM Punk - WWE Championship - 28 Days

Though WWE would like us to believe that the “Summer” of Punk started at Money in the Bank 2011, it didn’t actually get going until much later in the year.

You all know the story by now - CM Punk’s contract is running out, he’s facing Cena for the world title in Chicago, he wins the belt, blows a kiss, and runs off into the wilderness.

Unfortunately, instead of doing what he said he would and taking the belt all over the world, he was back on Raw within eight days.

This set up a rematch with Cena for SummerSlam, where the winner would be crowned the undisputed WWE Champion. Punk won, with a little cheating, but was then cashed in on by Alberto Del Rio, ending the title reign that had begun so promisingly in just 28 days.

Even with this disappointing number attached to it, Punk’s first run with the WWE Title is still important.

Without it, there would have been no monster 434-day reign to follow, nor Punk would not be the cherished figure he is today.

2. Taz - ECW World Championship - 9 Days

Let me tell you a little story about a man named Mike Awesome.

As his name suggested, he was an Awesome wrestler, so much so that Extreme Championship Wrestling made him their world champion in late 1999. There was just one problem; Mike wasn’t getting his wages paid, so he decided to entertain an offer from WCW.

Awesome turned up on Nitro whilst still ECW Champion, leaving Paul Heyman with a massive headache. In order to get the title off his rogue champ, he called in a favour from Vince McMahon, who loaned him back one of his old favourite toys.

On April 13th, 2000, Taz returned to the promotion where he made his name, beat Awesome for the belt, and became a two-time ECW Champion. This meant that - and say it with me now - a WWE wrestler had beaten a WCW wrestler for the ECW World Championship.

Lovely stuff.

Though he would only hold the gold for nine days before dropping it to Tommy Dreamer, Taz got a lot done. Famously, he wrestled Triple H on an episode of SmackDown, pitting reigning WWF and ECW champions against each other for the first time ever.

History-maker Jones, over here.

1. Andre The Giant - WWE Championship - 2 Minutes

Ironically, the man who spent the shortest total time as WWE Champion is one of the biggest stars in company history. Both figuratively and literally.

On February 5th, 1988, on a TV special called The Main Event, Andre the Giant pinned Hulk Hogan to end his 4+ year long reign with the WWE Championship, thanks to more than a little help from a crooked referee, some plastic surgery, and a millionaire.

After finally getting his revenge on the Hulkster for WrestleMania III, Andre immediately turned around and “sold” the top prize to Ted DiBiase. Whilst The Million Dollar Man’s reign was eventually retconned, the Giant’s wasn’t, making him an official WWE Champion.

Without Andre’s briefest of brief reigns, so much wouldn’t have happened.

There would have been no WrestleMania 4 main event, which means that Randy Savage would have never won his first world title. This means that there would have been no Mega Powers and, in turn, no Savage/Hogan main event of WrestleMania 5 either.

It may have been a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it non-run under the screwiest of screwy circumstances, but Andre’s one and only world title win was absolutely huge.