Will Brock Lesnar Outlast The CM Punk World Title Reign?

As I sit here writing this, Brock Lesnar is the reigning WWE Universal Champion, celebrating his 392nd day with The Big Red Belt. That puts him just 42 days shy of CM Punk’s historic 434-day reign, or exactly six weeks.

This isn’t a new thought from me, either:

Brock Lesnar is now 45 days away from surpassing CM Punk’s reign. pic.twitter.com/owTBEtuohm

— Greg DeMarco (@ChairshotGreg) April 27, 2018

Read the replies to that tweet, it’s actually a great discussion.

On the date of Brock’s next scheduled title defense, he’ll…umm…wait–Brock doesn’t have a next scheduled defense!

Anyway, CM Punk has a WWE Championship run that lasted 434 days, at least officially stated by WWE. Counting his actual days as champ (he did wake up on January 27, 2014 as WWE Champion before losing that title to The Rock at the Royal Rumble) he’s at 435. But we’ll go with 434 for the purpose of our article, as it’s universally accepted by those watching and analyzing the product.

So if Brock Lesnar makes it to June 10, 2018, he’ll tie CM Punk’s run, and on June 11, he’ll break it. June 11, 2018 also happens to be a Monday night. This edition of Raw emanates from the Verizon Arena in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Brock Lesnar is nowhere to be found on the advertisement. That, of course, subject to change…provided WWE wants to spend $127k to be petty.

That would mean we get past Backlash (Brock Lesnar is not advertised and Roman Reigns will face Samoa Joe), and be done, as WWE Money In The Bank takes place on June 17, six days after Brock’s broken the record.

But there’s a bigger issue at hand, here.

CM Punk Held The WWE Championship, not the Universal Championship

To WWE, no. And there’s actually a precedent set for it.

WWE loves to brag about the ever growing list of Grand Slam Champions. Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, and Seth Rollins all joined that list in 2018, with Rollins’ addition coming when he won the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania.

But what does the “modern day” Grand Slam consist of…

• Intercontinental Championship
• United States Championship
• A Tag team Championship (currently one on each brand, Raw and Smackdown)
• A World Championship (currently WWE and Universal)

If WWE applies this interchangeability of championships to the Grand Slam distinction, what makes us think they’d stop there?

They won’t.

But What About Bruno Sammartino? Or Hulk Hogan?

WWE isn’t going to let that stop them. Hell, it didn’t stop CM Punk, who was already calling himself the longest reigning WWE Champion “of the modern era” during his 434 days. When did the “Modern Era” begin? Who the hell knows.

What we do know is that WWE won’t put themselves into a position to have to define it.

So if we accept that (and many of you won’t, but WWE will still hype it), we have another guy to discuss, and that’s AJ Styles.

Why Not Let AJ Styles Break It?

AJ Styles captured the WWE Championship on November 7, 2017, 173 days before this article was written. That puts AJ Styles at January 15, 2019, which is 16 days before the 2019 Royal Rumble. So if you want to do something else with that championship for WrestleMania, you still have an out. But WWE just turned Shinsuke Nakamura heel, and they’re probably giving him the title at Backlash.

Would WWE Really Be That Petty?

In a word, yes. Look at AJ Lee’s Divas Championship reign. AJ Lee held the Divas Championship for 295 days, which stood until Nikki Bella surpassed her at 301 (losing to Charlotte Flair). Nikki beat AJ by six days, meaning WWE took the belt off of Nikki Bella at the first available moment after she broke AJ Lee’s reign.

And AJ Lee is the wife of CM Punk, but she’s not actually CM Punk.

The fact of the matter is this. We might not even see Brock Lesnar before he breaks CM Punk’s record. But will it be mentioned? I’d bet he gets added to the June 11 edition of Raw, and Paul Heyman will deliver the promo to drive the “record” home.

Will the fans accept the new “record?” Honestly, in a worked sport, it doesn’t even matter. Especially not to WWE.

Did WWE Really Screw Up Roman Reigns’ Moment For This?

Brock Lesnar is inching closer and closer to the 434 days CM Punk was WWE Champion. Despite all of the inconsistencies in the story, you better believe Lesnar is surpassing this mark. In WWE’s mind, Roman’s reign (no pun intended…really) can wait. It won’t have to wait long, but it’s waiting.