Cena Falls Short of 50

The stage was set for John Cena to walk out of Monday Night Raw with both the WWE Championship and the Unofficial WWE Championship for 50 and 51 days respectively. Out the 432 men who have held the Unofficial WWE Championship, only 55 of them have held the title for 50 days or more. With John Cena’s light schedule since injuring his ankle, it looked like it would be a certainty that he would be the 56th, but the new kid on the block, Curtis Axel stood in his way. John Cena went chasing an ambulance that drove into the arena and lost via count-out, which we all know means he loses his precious Unofficial WWE Championship.

John Cena’s 8th reign with the Unofficial WWE Championship was his most successful yet. He overtook his own personal longest individual reign when he held the title for 44 days and he also moved into 11th of all time most days as the champion – ending on 241 total days as champion. The secret to his success was not really wrestling all that much. He worked very few singles matches at house shows and would share the load in tag matches most of the time. His biggest defence came at Extreme Rules where he fought Ryback to a draw in a Last Man Standing match.

Curtis Axel debuted as the newest “Paul Heyman Guy” to mixed reactions just one week prior and already claims a count-out victory over Triple H and John Cena. If you want to look into wins and losses, that is not a bad start for Axel – and now he holds the Unofficial WWE Championship for the very first time. He becomes the 110th holder of the title and a rare first time holder in the past 5 or so years.

How long can Curtis Axel hold onto the UWWEC? Well, the very nature of the title makes it impossible to know. Newcomers don’t often lose when they first come in, heels get a lot of sneaky victories but tend to lose a lot at house shows. I don’t think he’ll have a particularly lengthy reign and hopefully the title works its way back down the card where it is more exciting.

Congratulations to Curtis Axel for winning his first Unofficial WWE Championship, something his father, Mr. Perfect, did on two occasions back in 1990.

@UWWEC

Wrestlemania 29/Raw Fallout

Wrestlemania 29 has finally come and gone and it meant big changes for the Unofficial WWE Championship. Ryback held the title going into his match with Mark Henry at the biggest stage of them all and surprisingly left with nothing. After a reign that lasted 79 days, I don’t think there were many that expected Mark Henry to beat Ryback in the middle of the ring at Wrestlemania 29. As great as Henry has been over the past 18 months, Ryback looked destined to get the rub he needed from The Worlds Strongest Man. Instead, Mark Henry picked up the victory and became the new Unofficial WWE Champion stopping quite a historic reign in the process. Ryback’s 79 day reign was the 25th the longest individual reign and moved him up to 20th overall on total number of days as champion. Well done, Ryback.

Moving onto Raw the next night and the Unofficial WWE Champion got no time to rest as he was booked to compete against the new WWE Champion John Cena, fresh from his victory over The Rock the night before. Mark Henry faltered and lost via count-out in his first title defence as John Cena joined a handful of wrestlers before him to hold both the Unofficial WWE Championship and the WWE Championship. This is John Cena’s 8th reign as champion and he has an average reign of 24 days (which also happens to be the average reign overall). The title isn’t exactly kind to top babyfaces because it can be won or lost via disqualification and count-out and we all know this can happen numerous times leading up to pay-per-views.

Finally, I’d also like to echo many sentiments regarding the New Jersey crowd on Raw the night after Wrestlemania 29. I don’t recall a Monday Night Raw since it moved to the 3 hour format that I thought wasn’t long enough. They really made a lot of moments very special and Dolph Ziggler cashing in his Money in the Bank contract to become the new World Heavyweight Champion is one I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. It was a very fun show and the kind that makes me happy to be a wrestling fan.

A special shout-out to CM Punk vs The Undertaker, also. That match was fantastic.

Thank you,

The Unofficial WWE Championship.