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I'm a lil confused..Are we talking about peaks or are we talking about money?..Cause Austin, Rock, Cena, HBK, and Bret spent more time chasing titles than they did holding them..And all of them will tell you they were selling the most merch/making the most money while they were chasing the belt/trying to get their revenge than just simply being champ..Like Nash said, you give the baby face the belt and then you take it away and start all over..
And you're right about eras..Before the Attitude Era, it wasn't uncommon for a babyface to hold the title for longer..But that was also during the territory days/beginning of the cable tv era..If you look at WWF/NWA/WCW after 1990 the days of hot potatoing the title became the norm..The days of year long + title reigns were gone and it really became about the title chase more so than the title defense..
Rock would hold the belt for like 3 months then lose it on raw then win it again in 3 weeks and hold it for another 3 months. Him and Austin would do that a lot so when people say "He only had a run longer than ____" it's kinda irrelevant if they keeping winning it back after 2-4 weeks.
I remember when Bret winning it 5 times was a thing then by 2001 that meant little.