Roman Reigns Reaches Significant Milestone As WWE Champion

The epic title reign of Roman Reigns has seen The Tribal Chief pass another wrestling legend as far as the longest title reigns in WWE history.

It was August 30, 2020 at a pandemic-era WWE Premium Live Event called Payback when Roman Reigns started his incredible reign as the WWE Universal Champion. It was also the start of Reigns becoming the top heel in WWE after about six years of the company pushing him as a top babyface even though the fans booed him often.

At WrestleMania 38 in 2022, Reigns beat Brock Lesnar to become the WWE Champion as well. Reigns carried around those two championships together for over a year until WWE merged them into one gold championship that acknowledges Reigns as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.

With thanks to WrestleOps on X, Roman Reigns has now passed Bruno Sammartino’s second longest title reign as the longest WWE World Title reign in company history. Reigns now sits at 1,238 days as the WWE Universal Champion, which has now taking over as the main WWE Championship. That title reign for Reigns is the fourth longest of all time for a World Title in WWE history.

The all-time records for longest WWE World Title reigns are as follows:

1. Bruno Sammartino – 2,803 days (May 7, 1963 to January 18, 1971)

2. Bob Backlund – 2,135 days (February 20, 1978 to December 6, 1983). This one is actually a bit controversial since Antonio Inoki won it from Backlund and Backlund won it back, but WWE recognizes Backlund’s reign as one consecutive reign without an interruption.

3. Hulk Hogan – 1,474 days (January 23, 1984 to February 5, 1988)

4. Roman Reigns – 1,238 days (August 30, 2020 to current)

5. Bruno Sammartino – 1,237 days (December 10, 1973 to April 30, 1977)

For Reigns to pass Hogan’s number of days as the third longest title reign, he would have to hold the championship until mid-September of this year.

What Happened To Roman Reigns On WWE SmackDown?

On WWE Smackdown in Atlanta, it wasn’t a great night for Roman Reigns since Randy Orton beat The Bloodline’s Solo Sikoa in the main event. After the match, Orton dropped LA Knight and AJ Styles with RKO’s as well.

That’s when Roman Reigns finally emerged to hit Orton with a Superman Punch. When Reigns went for a Spear, Orton was back up and dropped Reigns with an RKO, much to the crowd’s delight.

Roman Reigns will defend the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Randy Orton, LA Knight and AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble next Saturday, January 27th.