The 10 Longest Reigning ROH World Champions, Ranked By Length

Since its inception, Ring of Honor has tried its hardest to ensure that their championships are prestigious. Most notably, they pulled that off (for a long time at least) with the ROH World Title. Instead of changing hands often and being used as a prop, it was an important title usually won by the elite.

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It debuted in June of 2002 and by the time the championship reached its first full decade, there had only been 17 total reigns among 16 wrestlers. Most of the reigns lasted a long time. That's especially true for these ten wrestlers, who held it longer than anyone else in company history.

10 Austin Aries (245 Days)

Austin Aries has to be the most successful wrestler to currently not have a job in a major promotion. The guy has seemingly gone out of his way to burn bridges with ROH, TNA, WWE, and anywhere else he's competed. In ROH, he had a ton of success.

First, he won the ROH World Champion and ended a legendary reign (more on that later) in 2004. That only lasted 174 days but in 2009, he became the first two-time ROH World Champion. He beat Jerry Lynn for it and held it for 245 days as the villainous "A-Double" before dropping it to Tyler Black (Seth Rollins). Aries had 14 successful defenses.

9 Adam Cole (275 Days)

Only one man has held the Ring of Honor World Title on three occasions and that's Adam Cole BAY BAY. His first reign came when he beat Michael Elgin in the finals of a tournament after the title was vacated due to a Jay Briscoe injury. This happened at Death Before Dishonor XI.

This reign of Cole's was his longest, spanning 275 days and 13 successful title defenses. He would eventually drop it to Elgin at Best in the World 2014. Cole went on to regain it in 2016 and 2017, for 105 and 65 days, respectively.

8 Jay Lethal (280 Days)

Jay Lethal is the only person to appear on this list twice. There's a reason he has the most combined days as ROH World Champion between his two reigns. This 280-day stint with the gold marked his second run.

It started in June of 2018 when he beat Dalton Castle on an episode of ROH TV. These were tough times for ROH as they were struggling as a company but Lethal was a steady hand to turn to. He defended the title 14 times before losing it to Matt Taven at G1 Supercard.

7 Jay Briscoe (286 Days)

At Supercard of Honor VII in 2013, Jay Briscoe reached the mountaintop. One half of ROH's most decorated tag team, The Briscoes, Jay dethroned Kevin Steen to become World Champion. Unfortunately, he vacated it 89 days later due to injury.

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Briscoe returned with a vengeance and ended Michael Elgin's 76-day run as champion in 2014. He went on to hold it for 286 days and through 12 title defenses. He lost it to Jay Lethal in a match for both the World and Television Titles.

6 Davey Richards (321 Days)

It seems like the wrestling world has kind of forgotten about Davey Richards. As the 2010s began, everybody was talking about him and Eddie Edwards as The American Wolves. Edwards shocked everyone by becoming ROH World Champion first.

After 99 days, Edwards saw his reign end when he lost it to his former tag team partner at Best in the World 2011. Richards held it for 321 days and defended it 13 times, including a Dave Meltzer approved five-star match. A lot of fans do view this as a lesser era for the company as too many guys with similar skill sets were on top.

5 Kevin Steen (328 Days)

Davey Richards saw his near year-long reign come to an end at the hands of a man who went on to best his stint by a week. Kevin Steen had been through a ton with ROH, with both incredible highs and awful lows, by the time 2012 rolled around.

It felt like it was all worth it when he finally won the top title. Steen was a fighting champion, defending it on 17 occasions before Jay Briscoe took him down. Steen seemed like a guy ROH waited too long to pull the trigger on.

4 Jay Lethal (427 Days)

The final four entries on this list all held the gold for over a year. Ring of Honor put everything in the hands of Jay Lethal when Best in the World 2015 rolled around. On that night, he finally won the World Title and he was also reigning as Television Champion at the time.

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This first reign lasted a whopping 427 days. Lethal defended the title 27 times before losing it and that's not including what he did with the TV Title (which he held for 567 days). In fact, Lethal has the record for combined reigns of both championships, with 798 for the TV and 707 for the World.

3 Bryan Danielson (462 Days)

In what was an important era for ROH, Bryan Danielson was at the top. Through a war against CZW, booming DVD sales, and more, Danielson was indeed the "best wrestler in the world." He proved it with each defense after he won the title at Glory by Honor IV from James Gibson (Jamie Noble).

Danielson made it a point to give almost everyone a shot. That meant he put down 38 challenges in his 462 days as champion, which was a record at the time. He also often won his matches in different ways, showing versatility. Homicide bested him at Final Battle 2006 to end the reign.

2 Nigel McGuinness (545 Days)

You may only know him as a commentator on NXT but Nigel McGuinness was in the conversation for the best wrestler on the planet during his prime. At 2007's Undeniable, he finally won the big one that eluded him when he dethroned Takeshi Morishima.

A few months later, McGuinness suffered a concussion but finished an incredible match and retained the title over Austin Aries. The fans turned on him when he missed the next show, suggesting he drop the ROH World Title. That helped McGuinness turn into a villain and that propelled him to a 545-day reign. He one-upped Danielson by successfully defending the gold 39 times before Jerry Lynn beat him.

1 Samoa Joe (645 Days)

Low Ki and Xavier were the first two ROH World Champions and they didn't make much of an impact. It was Samoa Joe who solidified and legitimized the title. He was different from everyone else in wrestling and he made the championship special.

ROH ran fewer shows during this era (Joe's reign ran from 2003 until the end of 2004), so he only mustered up 30 defenses, though that's still impressive. That included his iconic trilogy with CM Punk. He finally lost it to Austin Aries at Final Battle 2004 in a shocker.

NEXT: Ranking The 10 Greatest ROH World Champions In History