Keys to the Game 7.14.07: Winning or Keeping?
Posted by Joe Estee on 07.14.2007
This week we examine and contrast the difficulty of winning a World Champiosnship with the defense of one.
Catching up on the eighteen hours of wrestling that managed to accumulate on my DVR box, I heard JBL proclaim that keeping a World Title is considerably easier than winning one in reference to Ric Flair. Later that morning, Jim Cornette states to Kurt Angle that it's one thing to win a World Title, but an entirely different matter to hold onto it.
Indeed, a worthy question: Is it more difficult to win the belt or to keep the belt? Let's break down some of the KEY components and see if we can make some sense of this.
THAT WAS THEN; THIS IS NOW
Specific eras in professional wrestling play a large roll in effecting a world champion title reign. Were we to glimpse back to the 60' and 70's, we see that title reigns were considerably lengthier than they are today due to several factors. First off, most of professional wrestling was separated into territories at that point. This meant that wrestlers not only traveled less frequently, but they faced a much smaller pool of talent.
Also, the variety of matches that we've come accustomed to today were all but non-existent. Even Steel Cage Matches were reserved exclusively for the most severe feuds. Today however, no one blinks twice at a Multi-competitor-Ladder-Chair-Cage-Barbed Wire-Baseball Bat-Dildo-Wielding Monkey-Blindfold-Ferris Wheel-Limbo-Inferno Title Match.
Our beloved sport has grown exponentially since its inception. We have more wrestlers, more venues, and perhaps most important, more media exposure. Remember, wrestling wasn't always on at least three days a week and one pay-per-view every month. All of these equate to more matches, and the more matches, the more title shots.
But there are also more world titles. The current splintered WWE has lead to a dilution in the brands and a loss of prestige with regards to winning a World championship. For example, two of the last three ECW World Champions have been Vince McMahon and Johnny Nitro (And please, no one email me about the David Arquette WCW World title debacle).
Still, the question remains: Winning or Keeping?
REIGN OF CHAMPIONS
Rather than bore you with histrionics, let's take a look at the numbers:
99 different wrestlers have held a World Championship.
Out of the roughly 246 World Title reigns in professional wrestling history, only 32 have lasted over a year, while 41 times the reign has ended within a week (and 19 of those times within a single day)
Find out who's the longest, and who's the shortest
Stone Cold Steve Austin's six World Championships have only amounted to 529 combined days as champion, while The Rock's nine World Titles have only amounted to 394 days.
Bruno Sammartino holds the longest title reign in his first run as champion no less, lasting 2,803 days (Almost 8 years).
Amongst the shortest title reigns are the Sandman (just over 14 minutes), Yokozuna (just over two minutes), and Andre the Giant (45 seconds).
But what does it all mean?
Basically, the World Title has been passed around more times than we've wondered if it's too soon to make a Chris Benoit joke (and yes, it's too soon; allusions, however, begin the healing process).
THE DEFINITIVE ANSWER
Here at Keys to the Game, we don't believe in ties or draws. We believe in the sanctity of the midget joke. We believe that everyone, not just wrestlers, should have theme music when they punch in to the office. We believe everyone deserves a second chance, even the Shockmaster. We believe in a big frickin' gold belt. We believe in tag teams that dress alike. We believe the pile driver and the harness entry are due for resurgence. We believe Ric Flair will either die in the ring or not die ever. We believe in pudding matches, but with low fat pudding and low fat divas. We believe that the Undertaker is of the undead. We believed that Vince McMahon was dead. We believe in the Royal Rumble. We believe in face paint. We believe in the Boogieman. We believe that steroids in wrestling: good; steroids in baseball: bad. We believe strippers should dance not only erotically but pantomime the lyrics of the song. We believe Samoan wrestlers should always be barefoot and use a head but. We believe They Live deserved an Oscar; Hell Comes to Frogtown did not. We believe Loews is far better organized than Home Depot. We believe in Randy Orton's finely tuned, well-oiled physique and see no homoerotic undertones in this whatsoever. We believe in slinging long, drawn out rants in order to fill our word count quota during an especially slow week. We believe in a lot of things; but right now we choose to believe in answers:
Even though winning a world championship is the height of achievement, reserved for the elite, too many not-so-elite wrestlers and even non-wrestlers have had the distinction of being "World Champion." Freak occurrences and a bit of luck can win you the title, but your mettle in the ring will be shown in how long you can keep your belt.
A wrestler should be measured not by his title win but by his title reign. Holding on to the belt is a far more difficult undertaking than initially grabbing on to it.
