Some Title Reign Facts and Observations

[Mozenrath]

AEW is still a relatively young company, but while looking at some facts on Wikipedia, some things caught my eye.

-I remembered Jericho's title reign as lasting longer than it did. So far, the only person who has had the world title for less time is Hangman, and that's just by virtue of Hangman being in the middle of his reign. If Hangman makes it to autumn with the title, then he handily beats Jericho's 182 days. I guess due to Jericho coming first, it just felt longer.

-Kenny Omega had the world title for 346 days, Moxley for 277. I do think Kenny is likely to keep this record for quite some time, as I just don't see anyone likely holding the title for just short of a full year for quite some time. It's just too early for that, even if Hangman may manage to beat Moxley's reign length.

-Similarly, the Young Bucks' 302 days are likely to stand for quite a while. Hangman and Kenny hit 228 days, and the Lucha Bros hit 122, but, again, I was totally sure SCU had lasted longer. Merely 83 days. FTR has the dubious distinction of having the shortest reign, but even theirs was about two months long, at 63 days. Jurassic Express must win their title match, or they will beat FTR's record.

-Echoing what I said about the other first champions, Riho's reign felt longer than 133 days. Nyla Rose had 101, the shortest. With 277 so far, Britt Baker has, already, beaten both of their reigns combined in length. So, she's the longest, right? Not even close, actually. Hikaru Shida held the title for 372 days, and Britt is incredibly unlikely to hold the title almost another 100 days. It's not impossible, but I feel safe in saying she falls short. Hell, I wouldn't even be surprised if no one ever beats Hikaru Shida's record in AEW for the Women's World Championship. It's the longest title reign in the company, period, which is what I'd be saying if....

-Actually, the longest one is Brian Cage with the FTW title at 377 days, just under a week longer than Shida's. Now, this is a grey area since they certainly weren't acknowledging the title yet, and I am unclear if they do now. This is also the longest anyone has held the FTW title. At 233 days so far, Starks, too, has surpassed the previous record before Cage, which was of course Taz's.

-Jade Cargill is not only the longest lasting TBS champion so far, she's also the shortest! You win some, you lose some, right?

-TNT title has easily been the most turbulent. Only Cody and Sammy have held a title twice in AEW so far, and only Cody has done it 3 times. Interestingly, all three of Cody's reigns aren't enough to top Darby's 186 days. Cody's is 154 if we go by air date, which is what AEW does officially. Brodie Lee has the shortest combined reign, though Cody's second and third reign are both shorter, and so is Sammy's second so far. Miro, at 140 days, is in second place for longest singular reign, and in third place for combined reign so far. Sammy will have to keep the title a few weeks longer if he wants to surpass Miro.

[Bad Moon]

I don't really care about chronological length of a title run, the meaningful number is televised title matches.

[Mozenrath]

Mar 4, 2022 10:45:08 GMT -5 Bad Moon said:

I don't really care about chrontological length of a title run, the meaningful number is televised title matches.

Generally, yeah, a title reign's measured by the defenses and the challengers/angles on if it was a good one. On that metric, even if Brodie had a short reign, and the Dustin and Orange Cassidy defenses weren't, like, top of the line or anything, him winning the title and him losing the title were both pretty memorable. I'd take that over total length pretty much any time.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Mar 4, 2022 10:45:08 GMT -5 Bad Moon said:

I don't really care about chronological length of a title run, the meaningful number is televised title matches.

I do care about both but would be very interested in this stat too

[Mozenrath]

Mar 4, 2022 14:11:25 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Mar 4, 2022 10:45:08 GMT -5 Bad Moon said:

I don't really care about chronological length of a title run, the meaningful number is televised title matches.

I do care about both but would be very interested in this stat too

I'd love to hear, too. Like, I can hazard a guess Cody probably has the most TNT title defenses, and that Shida has the most Women's World title defenses, but I'd love if anyone has solid numbers on that or the other titles.

[Bo Rida]

Shida's is so weird. She does all that, basically disappears other than looking like a jobber in a battle royale, has a good fued with Deeb and is now gone again.

Hopefully she comes back from Japan reinvigorated.

[Kalmia]

Darby was TNT champ for that long? I'd have guessed that Cody's first reign was longer. It's weird how your brain misremembers stuff.

[Bad Moon]

Mar 4, 2022 15:09:54 GMT -5 Kalmia said:

Darby was TNT champ for that long? I'd have guessed that Cody's first reign was longer. It's weird how your brain misremembers stuff.

I think it's cause he spent a big chunk of that run not wrestling singles matches, just a ton of tag-team matches with Sting.

I think the Team Taz feud was the worst, because it kept going even AFTER he'd already beaten Cage in a singles title defense.

[asuka007]

Spending the better part of two years with only two women’s champions, has not done the division much good imo.

[Cyno]

The thing with AEW is that because they don't have as many PPV's or special events as other companies, they also don't have as many opportunities for title defenses.

I think this contributes a lot to why some title reigns end up being so long, but then you also run into the problem of filler defenses because you don't really see the title changing hands on a random Dynamite or Rampage. I don't want to see Attitude Era-esque hotshotting with either singles world title, but I think a shock change can do a lot to shake up a stagnant reign, even if the champ eventually wins it back.

[asuka007]

The thing is, when so many title reigns are long. It stops feeling less special.

[Mozenrath]

Mar 4, 2022 16:22:36 GMT -5 Cyno said:

The thing with AEW is that because they don't have as many PPV's or special events as other companies, they also don't have as many opportunities for title defenses.

I think this contributes a lot to why some title reigns end up being so long, but then you also run into the problem of filler defenses because you don't really see the title changing hands on a random Dynamite or Rampage. I don't want to see Attitude Era-esque hotshotting with either singles world title, but I think a shock change can do a lot to shake up a stagnant reign, even if the champ eventually wins it back.

They do at least sometimes shake it up, like I'm pretty sure Nyla beat Riho on a regular Dynamite, plus they sometimes do the special episodes, like Omega winning the title at Winter is Coming.

[Tiffany Stratton's Daddy]

I can see Hangman losing at Double or Nothing, or during the summer. I don't see him holding it til All Out

[Convoy]

For those asking about title defenses:

AEW WORLD
Jericho (4 in 182 days)
Moxley (10 in 277 days)
Omega (7 in 346 days)
Hangman (4 in 114 days)

TNT
Cody (9 in 82 days)
Brodie (3 in 55 days)
Cody 2 (3 in 31 days)
Darby (9 in 186 days - there were technically 10 defenses, but The Butcher defense remains unaired)
Miro (9 in 140 days)
Sammy (5 in 84 days)
Cody 3 (2 in 35 days)
Sammy 2 (4 in 38 days)

AEW WOMEN'S WORLD
Riho (5 in 133 days)
Nyla (2 in 101 days)
Shida (9 in 372 days)
Britt (7 in 281 days)

AEW TAG TEAM
SCU (4 in 83 days)
Omega/Hangman (10 in 228 days)
FTR (4 in 63 days)
Young Bucks (10 in 302 days)
Lucha Bros (5 in 122 days)
Jurassic Express (4 in 61 days)

TBS
Jade (5 in 61 days)

FTW
Cage (4 in 377 days)
Starks (3 in 236 days - there were technically 5 defenses, with two coming on the October Jericho Cruise)

[Bad Moon]

Mar 4, 2022 18:30:59 GMT -5 Convoy said:

For those asking about title defenses:

AEW WORLD
Jericho (4 in 182 days)
Moxley (10 in 277 days)
Omega (7 in 346 days)
Hangman (4 in 114 days)

TNT
Cody (9 in 82 days)
Brodie (3 in 55 days)
Cody 2 (3 in 31 days)
Darby (9 in 186 days - there were technically 10 defenses, but The Butcher defense remains unaired)
Miro (9 in 140 days)
Sammy (5 in 84 days)
Cody 3 (2 in 35 days)
Sammy 2 (4 in 38 days)

AEW WOMEN'S WORLD
Riho (5 in 133 days)
Nyla (2 in 101 days)
Shida (9 in 372 days)
Britt (7 in 281 days)

AEW TAG TEAM
SCU (4 in 83 days)
Omega/Hangman (10 in 228 days)
FTR (4 in 63 days)
Young Bucks (10 in 302 days)
Lucha Bros (5 in 122 days)
Jurassic Express (4 in 61 days)

TBS
Jade (5 in 61 days)

FTW
Cage (4 in 377 days)
Starks (3 in 236 days - there were technically 5 defenses, with two coming on the October Jericho Cruise)

This is super fascinating. And it puts the thing about how Darby's reign felt much shorter than Cody's first in perspective, they had the same number of matches as champion but Darby's were stretched across a much longer time so it felt like there wasn't a lot happening while he was champion, hence why it seems shorter than it was.

[Mozenrath]

I had no idea Jericho's title defenses were that sparse. They were maybe being a little too precious about it, but I guess this was early on, and they were likely less keen to do world title matches on free TV yet, though he did do two, with Scorpio Sky and Darby Allin getting Dynamite title matches against him.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Mar 5, 2022 5:02:10 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I had no idea Jericho's title defenses were that sparse. They were maybe being a little too precious about it, but I guess this was early on, and they were likely less keen to do world title matches on free TV yet, though he did do two, with Scorpio Sky and Darby Allin getting Dynamite title matches against him.

It's a combination of them not needing a whole lot of televised title defenses in the honeymoon phase of the company where Jericho even being on TV was a draw (the Demo God name was true for quite a while, even if he's cringey as f*** now), and the fact that Jericho had one or two tag title matches as well during that reign.

[Mozenrath]

Mar 5, 2022 5:46:17 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

Mar 5, 2022 5:02:10 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I had no idea Jericho's title defenses were that sparse. They were maybe being a little too precious about it, but I guess this was early on, and they were likely less keen to do world title matches on free TV yet, though he did do two, with Scorpio Sky and Darby Allin getting Dynamite title matches against him.

It's a combination of them not needing a whole lot of televised title defenses in the honeymoon phase of the company where Jericho even being on TV was a draw (the Demo God name was true for quite a while, even if he's cringey as f*** now), and the fact that Jericho had one or two tag title matches as well during that reign.

If nothing else, the Elite vs Inner Circle feud ate up a lot of it. I'm almost surprised they didn't throw in something random like a title match against Nick or Matt Jackson, especially since either could have afforded a loss against him while still getting to show some singles chops during that feud. Minor, but it'd have been fun.

[TheMediocreWarrior]

Mar 4, 2022 16:59:29 GMT -5 asuka007 said:

The thing is, when so many title reigns are long. It stops feeling less special.

I think AEW could afford to hot potato the TNT and tag team titles a little bit given how many potential champions they have in both divisions. I wouldn't mind seeing Jurassic Express and reDragon trade the titles back and forth. I was rooting for Andrade to win the TNT Title.

I like the long world title reigns.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Mar 5, 2022 18:14:22 GMT -5 TheMediocreWarrior said:

Mar 4, 2022 16:59:29 GMT -5 asuka007 said:

The thing is, when so many title reigns are long. It stops feeling less special.

I think AEW could afford to hot potato the TNT and tag team titles a little bit given how many potential champions they have in both divisions. I wouldn't mind seeing Jurassic Express and reDragon trade the titles back and forth. I was rooting for Andrade to win the TNT Title.

I like the long world title reigns.

Someone needs a short world title reign eventually just to show it could happen and make the title defences a bit less of a foregone conclusion.

I don't think even Lance Archer in kayfabe thought he was winning that one