With her victory at WrestleMania 36 over Shayna Baszler and making it through Raw After Mania still Raw Women’s Champion, Becky Lynch has now held the Raw Women’s title for 365 days. In the past few weeks, she moved past Alundra Blayze (Madusa)’s 342-day reign as WWF Women’s Champion to place herself as the seventh-longest reign by a woman in WWE history – and with the real possibility of some lockdown or diminishing match-ups during the COVID-19 outbreak, she has a real shot of getting much higher. Here’s a look at the top 10 longest singular reigns by a Women’s Champion in the WWE.
Becky Lynch Racing Up Top 10 Longest Reigns For Women in WWE
DISCLAIMER: The WWE officially recognizes the Fabulous Moolah‘s run as the first WWF Women’s Champion as being 10,170 days, going back to her winning the NWA World Women’s Championship in 1956. Moolah actually lost the title on several occasions during that run, but neither the NWA nor WWE officially recognizes those title changes. When Moolah joined WWF from NWA in May of 1984, she sold her title belt to WWF, who christened her the first-ever WWF Women’s Champion, but they assumed the lineage of the NWA World Women’s Championship, despite that lineage continuing in the NWA – Debbie Combs won the vacant title in a tournament in 1986. For the purpose of this article, we are only counting Moolah’s first reign as WWF Women’s Champion from May 19, 1984 (when she debuted as WWF Women’s Champion) through July 23, 1984 (when she lost it to Wendi Richter), for a total of 66 days.
#10. Nikki Bella, 301 days, WWE Divas Champion
One of the most polarizing personalities and champions in WWE history, Nikki Bella defined everything that many fans felt was wrong about the WWE’s booking of women during the Divas Era. There were far better wrestlers in the ring, but WWE went with putting the title on Nikki Bella, a former model who, alongside her twin sister Brie Bella, had become figureheads in WWE’s attack into the mainstream media leading Total Divas on the E! Network a year before in 2013. Now gracing red carpets, Nikki Bella won the Divas title at Survivor Series 2014 from AJ Lee and held the title for 301 days, eclipsing Lee’s own record-setting 295-day reign. During that reign, Nikki defended the title against Naomi, Paige, and Tamina, before losing it to Charlotte Flair at WWE Night of Champions in 2015. Flair would become the final Divas Champion, as the title was dissolved the following WrestleMania to make way for the return of the WWE Women’s Championship.
#9. Paige, 308 days, NXT Women’s Champion
Paige arrived in the WWE Universe in 2012 with Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) and its successor NXT, after being an international indie star out of the UK who had worked with SHIMMER, Pro Wrestling EVE, and her family’s World Association of Wrestling (WAW). In the spring of 2013, NXT held a tournament to crown the very first NXT Women’s Champion and Paige defeated Tamina in the first round and Alicia Fox in the semi-final round to eventually defeat Emma (now IMPACT’s Tenille Dashwood) in the finals that June. She would defend the title against Summer Rae, Natalya, and Emma for the remainder of the year, before vacating the title on April 24, 2014. The title was vacated because she’d already moved to the main roster, capturing the WWE Divas title on her Raw debut against AJ Lee two weeks previous.
#8. Alundra Blayze, 342 days, WWF Women’s Champion
Originally known as Madusa Miceli, Alundra Blayze came into the WWF in 1993 as an established star worldwide. She arrived from WCW, where she was floundering almost predominantly on WCW Live Events, but was a former 2x IWA Women’s Champion in Japan (working with All Japan Women’s Wrestling (AJW) in the late 80s) and had held the AWA Women’s title for 335-days during her beginnings with the American Wrestling Association (AWA). She won the vacant WWF Women’s Championship by defeating Heidi Lee Morgan in a tournament in December of 1993 and would go on to defend the title against the likes of Bull Nakano, Leilani Kai, and Luna Vachon. After defeating Nakano at SummerSlam 1994 in a title defense, she traveled to Japan for the rematch. Nakano ended up ending Blayze’s 342-day reign as Women’s Champion at the Big Egg Wrestling Universe at the Tokyo Dome, an AJW presentation that saw wrestlers from AJW and WWF compete amongst other stars from GAEA, Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (JWP) Project, and Ladies Legend Pro Wrestling (LLPW).
#7. Becky Lynch, 365+ days, WWE Raw Women’s Champion
The current reigning Raw Women’s Champion, Becky Lynch became “The Man” last year and in doing so became one of the most popular WWE Superstars of the current generation. Lynch never won gold in her time with NXT, and it took her much longer to claim gold once making the “main roster” than it did her other Four Horsewomen compatriots. But April 7, 2019, at WrestleMania 35, she headlined the event and captured both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s titles (her third SmackDown title). She would lose the SmackDown title to Charlotte Flair at 2019’s Money In The Bank, but she has continued to reign strong as the Raw Women’s Champion, fending off challenges for exactly one year against the likes of Lacey Evans, Natalya, Sasha Banks, Asuka, and most recently, Shayna Baszler. With the potential for lockdown on events for the next few months, it’s not out of the question that Lynch could reach #1 by year’s end – she’s only 145 days (nearly five months) removed from Asuka’s NXT reign of 520 days.
#6. Fabulous Moolah, 380 days, WWF Women’s Champion
While we’re discounting her 10,000+ day reign as WWE lists it, Moolah did have one substantial reign as WWF Women’s Champion during her tenure with the company after joining in 1984. At a WWF Live Event in July of 1986, she quietly defeated Velvet McIntyre for the belt and held it for 380 days, although by then, the WWF Women’s title had already lost its luster from the Wendi Richter Rock N’ Wrestling days just two years prior. She would defend it on television twice – against former protege Leilani Kai and former NWA Women’s Champion Debbie Combs – on WWF on MSG, before losing it to Sensational Sherri at another Live Event (house show) in July of 1987. While she held the title for over a year, she had only two defenses of the title before losing it to the next champion.
#5. Shayna Baszler, 416 days, NXT Women’s Champion
Former MMA fighter Shayna Baszler had been working in pro wrestling since 2015 when she joined NXT in 2017, just months removed from a tour in Japan with Stardom. It didn’t take long for her to climb the ranks and just nine months later – and two years to this date – won her first NXT Women’s title from Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans. Her first run only lasted 133-days, losing it to rival Kairi Sane at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn 4 a few months later. She would regain the title for her second time at WWE Evolution, defeating Sane and going on to hold the title for 416-days. During that year plus run at the top, Baszler was dominant in her title defenses against Bianca Belair, Io Shirai, Mia Yim, and Candice LeRae, before succumbing to Rhea Ripley last December on NXT television. But even the savagery of Shayna Baszler couldn’t end Becky Lynch and her Raw Championship run of 2020.
#4. Sensational Sherri, 441 days, WWF Women’s Champion
Sherri Martel had started in the industry in 1980, first training under Fabulous Moolah and then heading to Japan in 1981. She returned and worked in Memphis Wrestling, where she was managed by Jim Cornette. Her career would really take off when she joined the AWA in 1985, where she would become 3x AWA Women’s Champion, including one 392-day reign as champ. She joined WWF in 1987 and won the WWF Women’s Championship on her debut event, a WWF house show in Houston, Texas. She would defend her title against advances from Moolah, Velvet McIntyre, Debbie Combs, Desiree Petersen, and Rockin’ Robin, but after 441-days as champion, she was finally defeated by Robin on WWF television from a show taped in Paris, France in October of 1988. Sherri was soon phased out of active wrestling, taking on a managerial role for the likes of “Macho Man” Randy Savage and then a young Shawn Michaels.
#3. Trish Stratus, 448 days, WWE Women’s Champion
Trish Stratus survived some atrocious sketches during the Attitude Era to become one of the most beloved WWE Superstars and champions of all time. She would go on to become a 7x WWE Women’s Champion but it was her sixth reign that ruled the WWE Universe from 2005 to 2006. In January of 2005, she defeated Lita for her 6th Women’s title at WWE New Year’s Revolution in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and held onto the title for two and half years. During that reign, she would defend the title against Molly Holly, Victoria, Christy Hemme, Melina, Candice Michelle, and Mickie James, before finally losing to James at WrestleMania 22 in Chicago.
#2. Rockin’ Robin, 502 days, WWF Women’s Champion
In December of 1988, from Paris, France, Rockin’ Robin emerged as the new face of the WWF Women’s Division, defeating Sensational Sherri and ending Martel’s 441-days as champion. The sister of WWF Superstar Jake “The Snake” Roberts and daughter of NWA legend Grizzly Smith, she debuted with WWF in 1987 and spent a year chasing Sherri’s title. She would go on to hold the title for 502-days, setting the current record for the longest reign of the WWF/WWE Women’s Championship, defending her title against her rival Martel as well as Judy Martin. She would end up vacating the title in 1990 when WWF closed down the Women’s Division during the early 1990s and Robin departed the company.
#1. Asuka, 510 days, NXT Women’s Champion
“Nobody is ready for Asuka!” At least for 914 days no one was. From her NXT debut victory over Dana Brooke at NXT TakeOver: Respect in October of 2015 through her first six months with Raw and SmackDown, Asuka was simply unbeatable. Though her streak ended at WrestleMania 34 to the Figure 8 of Charlotte Flair in New Orleans, Asuka saw a singles undefeated streak never before seen in the WWE. For 510 days of that streak, she was the undisputed NXT Women’s Champion. She won the title from Bayley at NXT TakeOver: Dallas in April of 2016 and would defend against all-comers such as Nia Jax, Mickie James, Nikki Cross, The Iiconics (Peyton Royce & Billie Kay), Ruby Riott, and Ember Moon. Her reign was so dominant, that she never lost the title – instead, she abdicated the championship upon being called up Raw in October 2017. But she’ll go down in WWE history – for now – as the longest single title reign by any Women’s Champion in WWE. But for Becky Lynch, time is now all that’s on her side.
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