The ESSENTIALS: Reviewing John Cena's 380 Day WWE Championship Reign

John Cena is without question, one of the greatest WWE Champions ever.

Welcome to another "Great Champions" edition of the ESSENTIALS. Last time, we took a look at why CM Punk's legendary 434 day WWE title reign is easily, the best of the 2010s thus far. Today, we breakdown Punk's greatest rival, John Cena's 380 day run to see why it's widely considered the best title reign of the decade prior. 

Randy Orton: A Not So Transitional Champion

Orton has been on the roll of his career as of late.

When Randy Orton cashed in his Money In The Bank contract to become WWE Champion last month at Summerslam, I like everyone else thought that his title run would just serve the purpose of getting the title back on Daniel Bryan in the most impactful way possible.  What I didn't realize is that Orton may very well turn in the most amazing mini-run in the history of the business.

CM Punk Title Reign Tribute - 434 Days

I was watching a couple of matches on Youtube and came across this tribute to CM Punk's WWE title reign.  It's very well done.  Also, if you missed my very own recap where I review every major match in Punk's title run, you can find that article here.



The ESSENTIALS: Reviewing CM Punk's 434 Day WWE Championship Reign

Welcome to another very unique edition of the ESSENTIALS.  Last month, CM Punk lost the WWE Championship to The Rock and the WWE witnessed the end of an era.  CM Punk spent 434 days as WWE Champion and is now in the books as the 6th longest reigning WWE Champion of all time.  Now that his historic run is over, I realized that we may never again see a modern era superstar surpass the level of greatness Punk achieved during his tenure as champ and I have decided to honor his achievement with a full recap of his incredible rivalries, classic matches and unforgettable moments that made his reign arguably, the best ever. 

CM Punk is one of WWE's Elite

The facts don't lie!  And last Sunday's Night of Champions PPV made it official!  Find out why Punk is in some elite company after the jump!

The ESSENTIALS: Great Champions Of North America

Welcome to this very special edition of the ESSENTIALS.  I am a huge believer in the theory that a pro wrestling promotion is only as good as it's champion.  In the long history of the business, there have been many, but only few who have truly defined what the word 'champion' really means.  In the WWE, they like to consider a great champion someone who drew a lot of money (such as Hogan, Austin, The Rock and Andre the Giant).  While that may be true, in my mind, a true champion is a person who defined a belt and dominated that belt's competition in their respective era. 

So how do I rank these great champions?  Heres the criteria:

• The person must have held the championship for more then a few months (which is uncommon nowadays) or have had a high amount of reigns. 
• The quality of the opponents the champion defended against.
• The quality of the matches.
• The ability to elevate other talent.
• The champion's reign's importance to the championship's history.

Now that we've covered all the bases, here is the list of the 15 greatest champion's of all time.