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AEW Star Athena Breaks Roman Reigns’ Historic WWE Record

By Sunil Joseph • Published Jul 19, 2026 10:56 EDT
Athena and Roman Reigns
Athena and Roman Reigns (Source: WWE.com)

Athena has just broken a Roman Reigns WWE record.

When Roman Reigns returned to the ring in 2020, he underwent a massive change to his character. He formed an alliance with Paul Heyman, and the Tribal Chief was born. It didn’t take him long to win the Universal Championship.

After winning the Universal Championship, Reigns went on an absolutely dominant run along with The Usos and Solo Sikoa. He defended the title against some of the biggest names in the company and retained it thanks to his Bloodline stablemates. During this legendary reign, Roman also won the WWE Championship. He reigned as the Universal Champion for a record-breaking 1316 days until he lost the title to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40. This broke the record for the longest-reigning champion of the modern era. At one point, it looked like this record may never be broken.

Athena won the ROH Women’s World Championship on 10th December 2022. She became one of the most dominant champions in ROH history. During her historic title run, Athena defeated some major names. Now, she has done the unthinkable and has surpassed Roman Reigns as the longest-reigning champion of the modern era. Athena’s title reign currently stands at 1317 days. She is still the ROH Women’s World Champion. Hence, this number is only going to increase further.

Roman Reigns opens up about his WWE retirement

Roman Reigns is near the tail end of his career. Hence, the topic of his retirement was brought up during the Nightcap podcast at Fanatics Fest. Reigns stated that he still has a few years left in him.

“I definitely have a few more years in what I’m doing now. I guess it just depends on what the schedule would look like. And you’ve seen other performers. You know, I just talked to Undertaker a few minutes ago and he was like, ‘I’m working more than I did in the past 10 years.‘ Because he had a very nice schedule, but he put in a lot of work to get to that point. I guess it just depends on what the outside projects look like,” said Reigns.

Roman Reigns will defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins at WWE SummerSlam 2026.

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