AJ Styles has joined another exclusive WWE club as he just hit his 359th day as WWE Champion, placing his reign among the top 10 longest in company history.
Styles just passed the 358-day reign of Kevin Nash (Diesel), which began on November 26, 1994. The Phenomenal One won the title back on November 7, 2017 by defeating Jinder Mahal at SmackDown in Manchester, England.
Styles currently ranks at #10 on the list. The other 9 are: Hulk Hogan at 364 days, Randy Savage at 371 days, John Cena at 381 days, CM Punk at 434 days, Pedro Morales at 1027 days, Bruno Sammartino at 1237 days, Hogan again at 1474 days, Bob Backlund at 2135 days and Sammartino again at 2803 days.
Styles will move closer to Punk’s record if he’s able to retain over Samoa Joe at Friday’s WWE Crown Jewel event. His next defense would likely come at the Survivor Series on November 18.
WWE wrote the following on Styles when announcing his spot on the list this week:
“There’s not much else to say about AJ Styles, what he means to SmackDown LIVE, or how he has upended every baffling assumption that he wouldn’t fit in as a WWE Superstar. So we’ll just stick to what happened: The Phenomenal One began his second reign a year ago when he defeated Jinder Mahal and never looked back, holding off challenges from world-traveled competitors, such as Shinsuke Nakamura and Daniel Bryan, as well as insurgent young talent like Rusev. It used to be that a Superstar like AJ Styles would point to their work in the ring to quantify their skills. At this point, it might be better to let the calendar do the talking.”
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