During the “New Generation” and before, if you had won the WWF title 5 times, you had run your course with the company, and were prime for WCW relocation. Hulk Hogan was the first 5 time champion after beating Yokozuna at Wrestlemania 9 in 1993; a company record that stood until Bret Hart won his fifth world championship to tie that record at Summerslam in 1997 by beating the Undertaker. It took Hogan nine years to reach the 5-time mark, and another nine to reach his sixth WWF/WWE title reign (of course during that hiatus, he managed to win the WCW title 6 times in five years during 1994-1999). Bret won his five titles in five years, from 1992-1997, and then 2 in WCW by 1999. Beginning in 2006, Edge has won his 9 titles in four years. Popular whipping-boy John Cena has won 9 championships since 2005.

So what’s in a number? Are Edge and Cena really that awesome, has the post-Attitude era eclipsed the past generations that greatly, or have championships become too “proppy” in the paradigm shift of wrestling to sports-entertainment to just full-on entertainment?

I have to argue for the latter. The revered 1999 “Fingerpoke of Doom” from Hogan to Kevin Nash on Monday Nitro to win the WCW title may have been the catalyst for the total devaluation of world titles in wrestling. Further in ’99, Vince McMahon won the WWE title and then the ECW title later in 2007; actor David Arquette won the WCW title in 2000 (probably in some movie cross-promotion deal for “Ready to Rumble); and then-WCW writer Vince Russo also won it later that year.

As it became clear you didn’t even have to be a wrestler to win the Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, the “strap” became just that – a leather belt around your waist with some shiny metal attached to it; its only real use being that it signified the current holder can sell a lot of merchandise, or get someone else over in the near future. No more “boyhood dreams” or any pure or wholesome sounding lifetime title pursuit storylines to be interested in; as long as you have the right look, charisma, and the company thinks it can use you to make money, you could be the champion too. All this combined with higher PPV frequency (thanks again, WCW), and less feud build-up time makes it necessary to have more interesting things happen more often to keep viewers interested and PPV buyrates up. Unfortunately, this sacrifices the glory of world title reigns to the watered-down “transitional champions” and “ghost” wins that we see more often in wrestling today.

As of now, here are the title reign standings (including all WWF/E, WCW, NWA, TNA and ECW reigns):

Ric Flair – 15-19 (depending on the source)
HHH – 13
Hulk Hogan – 12
Jeff Jarrett – 10
The Rock, John Cena, Edge – 9
Sting – 8
Bret Hart, Big Show, Undertaker – 7
Steve Austin, Randy Savage, Kevin Nash, Randy Orton, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Batista, Booker T – 6
Shawn Michaels – 4
Mick Foley – 3
To me, when I read this list, I start to think that the greater wrestlers/performers are really the ones in the lower half. The Rock, Hart, Undertaker, Austin, Michaels; those are the kind of guys I’d really want to tune in to see holding the belt. Considering that Ric Flair has been wrestling the same standard match routine since the 80’s, I can’t stand to see another HHH title reign, only half of Hogan’s reigns were worth watching, I’ve definitely “Cena-Nuff” , and Jeff Jarrett only wins titles when he owns the company he’s winning them in, I don’t think I’m that far off in my assessment. But that’s just my opinion.

Every generation of every sport surpasses its previous generation in ability and statistics at some point, and I’m certainly not arguing that this new generation of wrestlers should not do the very same. But if something doesn’t slow down soon, Jack Swagger and Sheamus are going to be a 34-time world champions before the age of 35, and surely that’s something we can all agree that we don’t want to see happen.