Fightingest WWE Champions

[BatistaWasRight]

Folks,

 

A few months ago I made topics about the Fightingest World Heavyweight Champions and Fightingest US Heavyweight Champions.  To complement this series, I've put together the numbers to find out who is the Fightingest WWE champion.

 

Utilizing data from www.ProFightDB.com, I've determined that these are the top five individual reigns of all time, as judged by most defenses:

1. Bruno Sammartino '63, 63 defenses
2. Bob Backlund, 45 defenses
3. Bruno Sammartino '73, 32 defenses
4. Pedro Morales, 28 defenses
5. CM Punk, 26 defenses

In addition, if you go by total defenses for all combined reigns, here are the top five wrestlers:

1. Bruno Sammartino, 95 defenses
2. Bob Backlund, 66 defenses
3. John Cena, 46 defenses
4. Hulk Hogan, 41 defenses
5. Pedro Morales, 28 defenses

Now some of this is dicey, because the database might be missing defenses, and also Bob Backlund's initial reign is not split by all sources, but I tried to be as consistent as possible with what I had.

 

If you want to see the raw data, you can download it from here.  That will enable you to correct my inevitably incorrect math.

[Brian Fowler]

I'm having a hard time with the idea that Hogan had less than 30 defenses during his 49 month first title reign.  Partly because I watched about 12 title defenses of his up through 9/7/84 a few years ago for an aborted Hulkamania project.  And his reign lasted another 3+ years after that.

[RIPPA]

yeah - iwd and cagematch both don't count house shows... well most house shows.

 

They do have MSG shows and some bigger shows from Chicago and Toronto

 

But it clearly isn't every single defense ever

[Big Fresh]

If house shows count, Punk might be #1. He probably defended it 5 or 6 days a week.

[The Nature Boy]

If house shows count, Punk might be #1. He probably defended it 5 or 6 days a week.

 

Bruno would probably far and away be #1 still. He at least defended it once a week and he was champion 7 times as long as Punk.

[RonL21]

Bret Hart is number 1. The Hell with what the numbers say!

[brandonr4s]

Bret Hart is number 1. The Hell with what the numbers say!

 

And nobody says it more than Bret Hart.