Quick Gold for Curtis

One week after debuting as the third “Paul Heyman Guy”, Curtis Axel won his first Unofficial WWE Championship from John Cena. I was unsure how long he would hold the title because it wasn’t apparent how the WWE would book him yet. They quickly showed that they were ready to get behind Axel, giving him count-out wins over John Cena and Triple H and putting the Intercontinental Championship around his waist within a month of debuting. His triple threat match at Payback was a highlight on a card that was generally praised for its in-ring work. The Chicago crowd was well and truly behind him with one of the loudest pops of the night going to Axel using the Perfect Plex made famous by his father, the late Mr. Perfect. Arguably, Perfect’s greatest moment in a WWE ring came when defending that very Intercontinental title at Summerslam ’91 against Bret Hart, and you could tell this meant a lot to Axel. Mr. Perfect only had two reigns as Unofficial WWE Championship for a total of 12 days – Curtis Axel moved past this number in his first reign.

I won’t say for sure that I am 100% behind Curtis Axel yet and he still has a long way to go before he proves himself as a favourite of mine. But so far, with his alliance with Paul Heyman, I give him every chance to impress me. I hope for his sake that he is able to really become a defined character and stay fresh from week to week. Giving him an early IC title run might be risky if he isn’t ready but it’s a great chance for him to step up and prove that he belongs to be a contender in the WWE.

As far as the Unofficial WWE Championship is concerned, Curtis Axel has had quite a successful first reign that. Now that he has championship gold, it’s unclear if they are going to book him as a fighting champion or have him retain the IC title through count-out and disqualification victories. If that is the case, it could be only a matter of time before he loses the Unofficial title, but the championship is so unpredictable that it is impossible to say. As of today, Axel has held the UWWEC for 27 days and moves above legends for total days as champion.

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