Time Goes By: Can Someone in WWE Hold Onto Their Title?

Does anyone know who holds the longest current title reign in the WWE?

Don't think too hard.

The answer is The Hart Dynasty, the Unified Tag Team Champions. While there is nothing wrong with the tag team holding their titles the longest, the problem is that they have only held the titles for eight weeks.

On April 26, a night after the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, the WWE held their 2010 draft on RAW. On that night, The Hart Dynasty defeated ShowMiz to win the Unified Tag Team titles.

In the 56 days that have since passed, every other title has changed hands at least once.

All six singles championships have been reassigned in the last two months, including the United States Championship, which has since been held by three men and vacated once.

At last night's Fatal Four Way pay-per-view, five separate championships were on the line. Three of them were defended, all unsuccessfully, in fatal four-way matches. Meanwhile, the other two title matches that were defended in one-on-one matches had the champions both retain.

There have been 13 separate WWE Championship reigns in the past 18 months, beginning with Edge winning it at the 2009 Royal Rumble and ending with Sheamus and his second title win last night.

In an attempt to make all of their talent look important in a historical sense, titles are changing hands left and right.

The most evident point in that argument is Sheamus, who debuted on the main roster on June 30, 2009, almost one year ago. Since then, he has become a two-time WWE Champion and has fought with the likes of John Cena, Triple H, Edge and Randy Orton.

Why such a rush to put this kid into the highest stratosphere?

Even John Cena, the face of the company and this generation of wrestling, has seen his championship reigns lose credibility. From his first WWE title, won in April 2005, to his third, which he lost from an injury in October 2007, Cena held the WWE Championship for a combined 693 days.

In his four title reigns since, Cena has held the same belt for just 184 days combined, including a reign after February's Elimination Chamber that lasted just minutes. None of the last four reigns lasted for more than 84 days.

In fact, the last time that one person held the WWE Championship for more than 100 days was Triple H's 210-day reign from April 2008 to November 2008.

In this day and age of the WWE, it isn't about the quality of your reign, but the quantity. Edge, a nine-time world champion, has only had one 100-plus-day reign. Chris Jericho, one of the most decorated champions of our generation, has never held a world championship for more than 98 days.

Not since JBL's WWE Championship reign has a reign meant something important. While we don't expect any wrestler to rival Bruno Sammartino's record of 2,803 days in a single reign, how can anyone gain credibility as a champion if they will just lose it in another three weeks?

The United States Championship is the lone title that sticks out from the current pace of title changes. Despite having three changes in the last two months, The Miz held the title in his first reign for 224 days, the 12th-longest reign in the 35-year history of the title. Two of those 11 longer reigns were from Shelton Benjamin and MVP, reigns that occurred in WWE.

Instead of trying to make all of their wrestlers into living legends, WWE just needs to focus on developing credibility. If anyone and everyone is winning championships, how can we take anyone seriously?