WWE: Sheamus Steadies Rollercoaster Ride for World Heavyweight Championship

The World Heavyweight Championship will have been in existence for 10 years this September. Since its creation, the title has enjoyed 49 title reigns, with some being more impressive than others. In that same time, the WWE Championship has seen 43 different reigns, including Brock Lesnar's first reign with the title, which had begun a month earlier.

While the WWE Championship has had some odd champions and unusual reigns, the World Heavyweight Championship can always seem to top it.

The WWE Championship has only had 43 different men be recognized as champion since the title was introduced on this month in 1963. Meanwhile, the World Heavyweight Championship has crowned 24 different men as its rightful holder in just under a decade of existence. At this rate, the number of men to have held the title will have been well over 100 by the time it reaches the age of the WWE Championship.

Since Survivor Series 2008, the night that John Cena won the World Heavyweight Championship for the very first time, there have been 10 men who have laid claim to their first reign with that championship belt. Half of those men have done it within the last calendar year. Four of those five men have been the last four reigns with the championship.

Now with Sheamus as the World Heavyweight champion, things can hopefully calm down the constant shuffling of the title and its growing list of holders. Sheamus is in his first reign with the belt and, for the sake of his credibility returning, will hold that title for at least a few months.

All in all, it has been a torrential ride for the Big Gold Belt over the last year. It was a vacated title at this point a year ago. Following Edge's sudden retirement, Alberto Del Rio and Christian squared off at Extreme Rules with the winner gaining their first world championship in WWE.

Christian won it, but let it get away from him in just five days. A title bout against Randy Orton during Christian's first SmackDown episode as champion saw the belt become property of Orton. It would take Christian until Money in the Bank to regain it.

It was at that July pay-per-view that Christian became the first man to ever obtain the World Heavyweight Championship from their opponent being disqualified. A No Holds Barred match at SummerSlam gave it right back to Orton. Orton was holding it until Mark Henry snatched it away at Night of Champions.

Three months later, Big Show finally became World Heavyweight champion... for one minute and 53 seconds. It was that time that took Henry to knock Big Show out and Daniel Bryan to cash in Money in the Bank to win the title.

Not to be outdone, a sly Bryan would make it all the way to WrestleMania and lose in just 18 seconds to Sheamus, making The Great White the new World Heavyweight champion. The 105 days that Daniel Bryan spent as champion made for the longest reign in the last year and the longest overall since Kane's 154-day reign in 2010.

It hardly felt like Bryan had earned anything in his entire reign and it was that reign that did more to alter Bryan's persona than to build up Bryan's credibility.

In fact, outside of Orton and Henry, not one person had the championship do them any favors in terms of being given any respect in the last 12 months. Let's even look back to right before Edge's last reign. He had to give it to Dolph Ziggler, who held the title for a few minutes before losing it back to Edge. Ziggler has not been back to winning a world championship since.

It's ironic that many were worried about the credibility of the Intercontinental Championship, but it is the older title on the SmackDown brand that is passed around more often. It is a heck of a lot prettier than the WWE Championship is today.

If Sheamus can hold onto the title with good matches in his title defenses and ultimately lose it at a big event like SummerSlam or Survivor Series, it will be a nice and long reign for the Great White. It will also make the new champion have some shoes to fill.

Sheamus isn't the last chance for this championship to gain credibility, but he needs the credibility just as badly as the title does.

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