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CM Punk became the longest-reigning holder of a WWE men’s singles title in 25 years when he retained the WWE Championship for 434 days between November 2011 and January 2013.
“The Best In The World” captured the title from Alberto Del Rio at Survivor Series 2011 and successfully defended it at 12 PPV events before eventually losing to The Rock at the 2013 Royal Rumble.
It looked for a long time as if Punk’s modern-era record reign with a world title would never be beaten, with closest challengers Brock Lesnar (224 days), Seth Rollins (220 days) and Kevin Owens (188 days) all falling way short of 434 days.
However, all good things come to an end, and today is the day that it’s finally official: Lesnar’s reign with the Universal Championship has hit 435 days, which means “The Beast” can now lay claim to being the longest-reigning holder of a WWE men’s singles title since 1988.
So, has Lesnar really deserved to break Punk’s record? Whose title reign will live for longer in the memory? Let’s take a look at five key aspects of both title reigns, ranging from crowd interest to match quality, and decide whose reign was/is better.
#5 Crowd interest/excitement
While Brock Lesnar’s box-office attraction status worked for a while, especially in the two years after he ended ‘The Streak’, crowd interest in his matches has drastically plummeted recently and the majority of fans are disappointed that Raw hasn’t had a full-time holder of the show’s main title for over 14 months.
CM Punk, by contrast, was a popular fan favorite for the first seven months of his title reign and then freshened his character up by turning heel, which proved to be the perfect way to keep fans interested in his storylines for the rest of his time as champion.
Winner: CM Punk
#4 Main-event spotlight
Brock Lesnar has main-evented four of his seven Universal Championship pay-per-view matches (a ratio of 57 percent), while just five of CM Punk’s 14 WWE Championship matches went on last on a PPV card during his reign (35 percent).
Granted, two of Lesnar’s title defences (vs. Samoa Joe and vs. Braun Strowman) were on Raw-exclusive PPVs events, so there was little choice but to put them on last, but his main-event spotlight with the Universal Championship still reads a lot better than Punk’s with the WWE Championship.
It’s also worth noting that Punk headlined just one of his first 10 PPV matches as champion, with WWE preferring to highlight non-title storylines involving John Cena in the main event instead.
Winner: Brock Lesnar
#3 Quality of opponents
Brock Lesnar was involved in largely meaningless rivalries with the Wyatt Family, Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton for much of 2016, so it’s felt like a significant upgrade over the last 18 months to see him taking on the likes of Goldberg, Samoa Joe, Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman and Kane in meaningful title matches.
Five years earlier, CM Punk was facing several top stars on the WWE roster, including Alberto Del Rio, Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, John Cena and, of course, The Rock. However, his reign also involved title matches with lower-profile guys including Dolph Ziggler and Ryback.
It’s tough to call this. Both champions had strong challengers but they could have been stronger if WWE fully utilised the whole roster. Let’s call it a tie.
Winner: Draw
#2 Match quality
Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter ratings cause plenty of debate among fans, so we’ve trawled through the archives to see how CM Punk and Brock Lesnar’s matches compared during their title reigns.
Punk’s highest rating during his 14 PPV title matches came when he defeated Daniel Bryan in a classic match (rated 4.5 stars) at Over The Limit 2012, while his lowest rating (1.5 stars) was given after his match against Ryback at Hell In A Cell 2012.
In comparison, Lesnar’s best rating came following the Fatal 4-Way main event with Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman and Samoa Joe at SummerSlam 2017 (4.75 stars), while his lowest rating (1 star) was given for his match against Reigns at the Greatest Royal Rumble.
Overall, Punk averaged an impressive 3.5 stars per title match during his time with the WWE Championship, giving him a superior tally to Lesnar, whose Universal Championship matches have only averaged 2.75 stars.
Winner: CM Punk
#1 Storyline logic
The story of Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship reign centers around two things: the most lethal finishing move in WWE today, the F5; and the man who is destined to dethrone him as champion one day, Roman Reigns.
Lesnar only needed to execute one F5 to defeat Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman in singles matches in 2017, making it all the more astonishing from a storyline perspective that Reigns kicked out of the move five times at WrestleMania 34.
CM Punk, on the other hand, became a much-loved champion a few months after his famous ‘Pipebomb’ promo, while his heel turn midway through his title reign came about because, in the shadow of John Cena and The Rock, he felt he wasn’t being given the spotlight and the respect that he deserved.
The Punk reign had its faults – not many people were happy with the Ryback rivalry – but we can confidently say that the story of his WWE Championship reign was a lot more interesting than Lesnar’s Universal Championship reign.
Winner: CM Punk
Summary
In all honesty, it’s very difficult to make a case for Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship reign being better than CM Punk’s WWE Championship reign.
We selected five categories for this article, with Punk winning 3-1-1, but we could have chosen five more and “The Voice of the Voiceless” would still have continued to come out on top.
Lesnar’s reign began well but most fans are bored of the repetitive matches we’ve seen from him over the last year, especially during his feud with Roman Reigns, and it’s a shame that such an underwhelming title reign has surpassed Punk’s legendary record from 2011-2013.
Do you agree with our verdict? Let us know in the comments!
