10 Wrestling Champions Who Barely Defended Their Title
These wrestling champions didn't put their belts on the line much
Aug 22, 2024
We’re sure that, if given the option, none of us would come to work. But when you’re a professional wrestling champion, the expectation is that you’ll show up in the next town to defend your title with pride.
Expectation and reality are not always the same, of course. Whether it was due to an injury, cushy contract or clueless creative, the following ring warriors – all of whom had lengthy reigns – put their championship belt on the line about once every solar eclipse.
These are 10 Wrestling Champions Who Barely Defended Their Title.
10. Kenny Omega - AEW World Championship
Kenny Omega became just the third AEW World Champion by beating Jon Moxley on the special Winter is Coming episode of Dynamite in December 2020.
These were the COVID times, with AEW taping in front of small, socially distanced crowds at their home base of Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Best Bout Machine helped carry the fledgling promotion through these uncertain days, putting together a reign that saw him have tremendous matches with the likes of Moxley, Rey Fenix, Orange Cassidy, PAC, Christian Cage, and Jungle Boy.
And he still had time to go over to IMPACT and take their world title away from Rich Swann, too!
These matches were all different and told individual stories that made them feel distinct and special. They were all rather lengthy affairs, too, with the shortest clocking in at 17 minutes and several pushing half an hour.
In his 346 days as champ, The Cleaner defended the title seven times on television and pay-per-view, before passing the torch to ‘Hangman’ Adam Page in a blinder at Full Gear 2021.
Kenny Omega’s AEW World Title reign perfectly demonstrated that it’s really about quality, not quantity.
9. Logan Paul - WWE United States Championship
Logan Paul has taken to sports entertainment like an idiot to a Japanese forest since beginning his journey with WWE at WrestleMania 38.
After impressing in his initial seven WWE matches – all of which took place on pay-per-view – the company decided to book his first title victory in just his eighth pro match.
Beating legendary WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio at Crown Jewel 2023, Paul was good value for the win, having demonstrated an ability to consistently rise to the occasion and put on good matches despite his inexperience.
After winning the title, however, the energy drink entrepreneur only defended it three times on television.
The first two defences came at the Royal Rumble – where he beat Kevin Owens by disqualification – and at WrestleMania 40 where he somehow managed to see off Owens and Randy Orton in a triple-threat match.
He competed in other matches during his reign – including a world title bout – but the US Title felt more like an accessory he could wear during public appearances and in interview segments on SmackDown.
Thankfully, he fell in his third defence against the ever-popular LA Knight at SummerSlam 2024.
8. Gillberg - WWE Light Heavyweight Championship
WWE introduced its Light Heavyweight division in 1997 as an attempt to counteract WCW’s revolutionary cruiserweight crew.
With the world’s best luchadores and other standout workers like Dean Malenko and Chris Jericho were tearing it up on Nitro, the pickings were slim for WWE and they ended up giving up on the concept fairly quickly.
It became apparent that WWE weren’t taking it seriously when they had Goldberg parody Gillberg (who won it as ‘Duane Gill’) beat Christian for the Light Heavyweight Title on the November 23, 1998, episode of Raw.
The longtime enhancement talent, to his credit, defended the title three times within the first month, beating Christian, Taka Michinoku and Matt Hardy on episodes of Heat.
And then…nothing. Gillberg did defend the title away from WWE on various independent shows, but the JOB Squad member continued to do jobs on WWE television.
Eventually, WWE decided they had to actually do something with the title and hastily booked Gillberg to drop it to Essa Rios on the February 13, 2000, edition of Heat.
445 days as champ and just three televised defences for the longest-reigning WWE Light Heavyweight Champion of all time.
7. Blake & Murphy - NXT Tag Team Titles
The hardworking duo of Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake became the sixth NXT Tag Team Champions when they beat the Lucha Dragons of Kalisto and Sin Cara in a short match on the January 28, 2015, episode of NXT.
A day after they won them – at a January 15 television taping – they set about defending them, despite the title-winning match not being due to air for another twelve days.
While Blake and Murphy held the titles for a not inconsiderable 205 days (as recognised by WWE), they only successfully defended their titles twice on television – first defeating Enzo and Cass at NXT Unstoppable on May 20 and then the Vaudevillians on the July 29 NXT.
Three months later at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, they finally fell to Aiden English and Simon Gotch.
Though their televised defences were scant, Blake and Murphy did defend their titles on non-televised live events, notching 17 defences all told, against the teams already mentioned as well as tandems like the Hype Bros and Jason Jordan & Solomon Burke.
Buddy and Wesley were perfectly serviceable as tag champs, but there’s no denying their work was quickly eclipsed by what followed courtesy of teams like American Alpha and The Revival.
6. Shinsuke Nakamura - WWE Intercontinental Championship
The uber-talented and endlessly charismatic Shinsuke Nakamura never quite managed to win the ‘big one’ in WWE, but he did enjoy reigns with the NXT Title, SmackDown Tag Team Titles and both the United States and Intercontinental titles.
The King of Strong Style had two reigns with each of the main roster’s secondary singles titles, but whenever he held the IC strap he seemed to go missing.
Nakamura’s first run as Intercontinental Champion began on the Extreme Rules 2019 kickoff show, when he beat Finn Balor.
Between then and dropping the title to Braun Strowman on the January 31, 2020, episode of SmackDown, Shinsuke managed a paltry two televised defences against The Miz and Roman Reigns.
King Nak’s second reign began when he beat Apollo Crews on the August 13, 2021, edition of SmackDown, and this time he had just the one televised defence (a rematch with Crews) before Sami Zayn took the title from him after 189 days.
The former IWGP Heavyweight Champion did put the gold up for grabs on non-televised live events, but Shinsuke’s reigns were unmemorable (despite lasting a combined 390 days) because of his lack of title matches on TV and pay-per-view.
5. Big Show - WWE United States Championship
The Big Show added to his impressive list of accolades when he beat Eddie Guerrero to win the WWE United States Title at No Mercy 2003.
Latino Heat had held the belt since Vengeance and had defended it routinely, including one instance where he defended both the US and Tag Team titles on the same night.
The World’s Largest Athlete wasn’t quite so regular with his own defences.
As 2003 came to a close, he had only defended the title twice – against Guerrero and Bradshaw – on non-televised house shows.
To be fair, he did defend the title on the road quite a few times in 2004, but you wouldn’t know it unless you were in a particular city on a particular night.
As far as televised defences, Big Show managed to successfully defend the title twice – beating Billy Gunn and Hardcore Holly on episodes of SmackDown.
It felt like a relief when John Cena dethroned the giant in the opener of WrestleMania XX, before setting about doing the hard work necessary to rehabilitate the neglected title’s image.
4. Hulk Hogan - WCW World Heavyweight Championship
As WCW’s biggest signing ever, it made sense that Hulk Hogan would win the company’s World Heavyweight Title in his very first match for them.
And while he only defended it twice on pay-per-view during that first run, The Hulkster did at least bother to show up as champ for a couple of house show tours.
Hogan’s second reign (which began when he beat The Giant at Hog Wild 1996), however, saw him working far fewer matches.
Despite holding the gold for almost an entire year, the leader of the New World Order only defended it six times on television or pay-per-view (falling to Lex Luger in the sixth).
Hogan had the cushiest deal in wrestling history at the time, making an absolute fortune for wrestling select dates. He also got a cut of the revenue for the pay-per-views he typically headlined, meaning his world title reigns were decidedly lucrative.
To be fair to Terrible Terry, the bloke did have a massive, positive effect on WCW’s business, even if they couldn’t often advertise world title matches when he held the belt.
3. WALTER - WWE NXT UK Championship
There were only five different titleholders in the almost six-year history of the NXT United Kingdom Championship.
Of the five, WALTER is the man who held the title the longest, with his gargantuan reign clocking in at 870 days.
The Ring General beat Pete Dunne to win it at 2019’s NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn and dropped it to Ilja Dragunov at NXT TakeOver 36 in August of 2021.
So, what exactly did the angry Austrian do with the title in the two-plus years he held it?
The man now going by Gunther defended the title just nine times between episodes of NXT and NXT UK TV and TakeOver events.
However, this does come with some caveats.
A big chunk of WALTER’s reign took place during the global pandemic and, to be fair, his matches carried with them the big fight feel and were usually pretty good, especially his five-star war with Dragunov on the October 29, 2020, edition of NXT UK.
Without the restrictions of lockdowns and such, Gunther was free to defend his Intercontinental Title a lot more regularly, restoring that belt’s prestige significantly during his outstanding 666-day reign.
2. Brock Lesnar - WWE Universal Championship
When Brock Lesnar returned to WWE in 2012, everyone knew that the former UFC Heavyweight Champion would not be working very often.
Brock had established himself as a record-breaking pay-per-view draw with his once-in-a-blue moon fights and, besides, the punishing WWE schedule was one of the main reasons he had quit the company eight years earlier.
A special occasion, big-match performer, Lesnar usually put on his boots for major supercards and not much else.
This reduced schedule was taken to the extreme after The Beast Incarnate beat Goldberg to bag the Universal Title at WrestleMania 33.
It infamously took three whole months for Lesnar’s first defence, against Samoa Joe at Great Balls of Fire, and by the time 2018 rolled around Brock had only defended it on-screen a further two times.
He defended the title a further three times in 2018, before finally – finally – losing it to Roman Reigns at SummerSlam.
Lesnar did make occasional non-televised appearances at house shows in big markets, where he defended the belt in short, repetitive matches, but as far as what the average fan saw it was seven televised defences in a whopping 503-day reign.
That’s the second-longest Universal Title reign in WWE history.
1. Roman Reigns - WWE Universal Championship
1,380 days.
That’s how long Roman Reigns held the WWE Universal Title – which he unified with the WWE Title at WrestleMania 38 to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
The Tribal Chief beat Braun Strowman and The Fiend in a No Holds Barred triple threat at Payback 2020 to win the Universal Title for the second time.
This reign would be much different from his first (which ended when he prematurely vacated the belt), because Roman became very much a part-time performer after signing a new contract in April 2022.
The Big Dog for the big occasion, Reigns defended the title 32 times on television during the close to four years he was in possession of the belt, with 25 of those taking place on so-called Premium Live Events.
Including house shows – of which Roman worked relatively few – it was 56 defences in total.
In general, Reigns had his working boots on when he actually had to come to work, with his matches often exceeding 30 minutes.
Some will call it one of the greatest WWE title runs in history (if not the greatest), but those same people simply have to acknowledge the lengthy gaps between his increasingly rare defences.
