WWE Championship History by the Numbers

One complaint I have heard for the last few years is how the WWE only used the same guys over and over for the main event scene.

And I thought they were right. For a long time. Then I decided to look at the raw data and compare decades to see when the WWE used the same guys and when they didn't.

The info I found was actually really surprising. I will break down the numbers by decade since that is how most people refer to different eras in wrestling.

1960's

The WWF championship was officially introduced in 1963 when Buddy Rogers defeated Antonio Rocca for the belt. Only one other man would hold the title that decade and that man was none other than the legendary Bruno Sammartino.

Sammartino held the belt for an astounding eight year reign, something that has never been duplicated.

1970's

In the seventies the belt started to get tossed around a bit more, but not much. Only six different men held the belt between 1970 and 1979. While some had multiple reigns during the decade, most lasted a year or more, including Sammartino's second reign which lasted four years.

If anyone knew how to keep a title it was Bruno.

1980's

Many of the older wrestling fans, and by older I mean over 30, think of the 1980's as the golden age of wrestling. Hulkamania was running wild and WWF had cemented its place as the top wrestling company in the world by the middle of the decade.

Surprisingly enough only five different men held the title in the 80's. Hulk Hogan, The Iron Sheik, Andre The Giant, Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior. The only one of them to win it more then once that decade was Hulk Hogan.

The 80's may be the worst decade when it comes to using the same guys over and over.

1990's

The 1990's were the most active years for the title, seeing 19 different competitors hold the title during the ten year span. And plenty of the title holders had multiple reigns during that time as well.

The 90's saw the emergence of such stars as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Sgt. Slaughter, Yokozuna and Diesel in the main event scene.

2000's

Since the beginning of the millennium the WWE has had 17 different men hold the WWE championship. This number is slightly down from the previous decade, but not much.

Over the last ten years we have seen many new faces hold the gold like Edge, John Cena, Randy Orton, HHH, Brock Lesnar, The Rock, Mankind and Steve Austin.

These men tossed the title back and forth quite often. The Rock even gained seven WWE championships during his relatively short career in the WWE.

I say short in comparison to guys like Bret and Hulk who had 20 plus year wrestling careers.

Analysis

People complain about seeing the same people hold the title for too long, or too many times, but the fact of the matter is that the last twenty years has seen three times as many title holders as the previous thirty years.

One reason people may feel hampered down by the same stars is the increased number of shows as compared to earlier decades.

The WWE is on television for six houres per week plus a monthly pay-per-view event, where as before in the 90's you were lucky to catch one to two hours of WWF programming per week. Pay-per-view events didn't even become the norm until the first Wrestlemania.

In conclusion, people need to remember that with all the WWE programming going on they have to use some of the same guys over and over. If they didn't there would be too many people in the main event, which in turn would take away from the prestige of the title.

I have been a fan of WWE since the mid 80's when Hulkamania was at its peak. Since then I have stayed loyal to the sport, but sometimes I find myself complaining about things that may not even be real problems.

I have decided to take a different approach to wrestling then I have in the past. I used to analyze and critique wrestling.

I am going to go back to simply enjoying it.

Thanks for reading and let me know what your thoughts are on the subject.