Roman Reigns and 3 other stars to hold the WWE Championships for 3 consecutive years

It isn't easy to become a WWE Champion, but Roman Reigns managed to do more than that. He held the Universal and World Heavyweight Championships separately and simultaneously. However, he also held them from 2020 to 2023 consecutively.

For this list, we will look at three other wrestling legends who held the WWE Championship for three consecutive years aside from Roman Reigns.

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#3. Bruno Sammartino held the WWE Championship for three consecutive years twice

WWE Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino has accomplished much in his wrestling career. However, he is most known for his impressive championship reigns totaling 4,040 days combined.

Sammartino won his first title in a house show on May 17, 1963, after defeating Buddy Rogers. 2,803 days later, he dropped the title to Ivan Koloff in another house show.

Bruno won the World Wide Wrestling Federation Championship again on December 19, 1973 against Stan Stasiak. He held the title for 1,237 days before losing it to Billy Graham in 1977.

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#2. Bob Backlund had an interesting time as champion

Bob Backlund has the second-longest WWE Championship title reign in the company's history. He won the title on February 20, 1978, during WWF on MSG. History books listed his time as a champion for 2,135 days. However, he did drop the title a year later.

On November 30, 1979, fellow Hall of Famer Antonio Inoki defeated Backlund in their house show in Japan to win the title. Backlund won it back in December that same year. However, the Stamford-based promotion did not recognize the Japanese star's reign.

The Hall of Famer's title reign was interrupted again in October 1981 when a "dazed" referee handed the title to Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. Bob won the title back in November of that same year. Despite this, the company recognizes his reign as a consecutive three years. He officially lost the championship to The Iron Sheik on December 26, 1983.

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#1. Hulk Hogan began his title reign as an "accident"

The Iron Sheik did not hold the title for that long, as he dropped it 28 days later. He was supposedly going to defend it against Backlund on January 23, 1984, but a storyline saw Hulk Hogan replace the latter "last minute."

The Hulkster made history for being the first man to escape The Iron Sheik's camel clutch and holding the WWE Championship for 1,474 days. One of his most notable moments as a champion was at WrestleMania 3 when he faced Andre the Giant.

Hogan lost the title on February 5, 1988, to Andre the Giant in a controversial manner. The referee at the time, Earl Hebner, was bribed by Ted DiBiase. Earl counted to three despite Hulk's shoulder being up. After Andre won, he handed it to Ted to complete their business deal.