The best Champions for each title in WWE history.
2 and 1/2 years ago I did a "The worst Champions for each title in WWE history". At the time I was planning on doing a best list as well, but thanks to a series of computer crashes all the information I had complied to make that list disappeared repeatedly, and I basically got too annoyed to do it.
Well given that the second biggest WWE event of the year is coming up, the worst list is the most popular thing on the blog, and Im not as pissed about doing this for what is the 3rd time, I figure its time to get it done.
Two quick things to note though: First, when I did the original list of worst champions, it was before the current brand split, and just prior to Wrestlemania 32. As a result the Smackdown Tag Titles, Smackdown Women's title, Raw Women's title, Universal Title and current Crusierweight title didnt exist and were not included on that list. Ive decided to keep them off this list as well, as I will be doing a "best and worst" combined list for those 5 titles later on. And while included on this list, the current Raw Tag Team titles will be referred to as the WWE Tag Team titles for the same reasons.
Secondly, all the same rules from the worst list are still in place, currently reigning champions can not have their current reign considered for placement, but can be judged on previous runs with the same title, assuming that reign was under the WWE banner, no titles pre 1980 are included if they no longer exist, no "novelty"/vanity titles (IE million dollar championship) And the titles are listed in order of the prestige they had with that "top" champion. So the guy at the top of the list is the best champion WWE has ever had even if its not the WWE championship. Makes sense right?
Oh and one last note, even with the 2 1/2 year gap, only one my worst list has changed, sorry to those who thought Jinder Mahal would replace Rey Mysterio as the worst WWE champion (go read the article, to see why hes the worst before you lose your shit....) but its not him, its John Cena being replaced by Braun Strowman and Nicholas as the worst WWE Tag Team Champions for reasons I hope to god are self evident to anyone with a functional brain (fucking 11 year old kid gets a WWE title? WTF?!?!?!?!)
So here we go, the best champions for each title in WWE history,
#15 WCW Tag Team Champions: The Brothers of Destruction
These titles kick off the best list the same reason they kicked off the worst list....they just werent that important ever in WWE. And like the worst list, the winners here are kinda by default, since Brothers of Destruction vs DDP and Kanyon was the only proper feud this title ever had.
#14 WWF Light Heavyweight Champion: Dean Malenko.
Weirdly enough, despite the name, the WWF didnt actually recognize this belts existence until 1997, even though the belt was created in 1981. So only the guys who won the belt in the last 4 years of its life count. And of that group, one man sits head and shoulders above the rest, Dean Malenko, who has to be considered the best pure wrestler to ever actually hold this title in WWF. Problem here is, both Malenko's short in ring career overall in WWF, and the fact this belt became an afterthought, before actually being replaced by its more prestigious WCW counterpart after Invasion. So again, great champion...lame belt
#13 WCW Champion (AKA the World Champion): Booker T
The 5 time, 5 time, 5 time, 5 time, 5 time, WCW Champion is also likely the ONLY one you can name under the WWE banner, as he brought the title to WWF, then won it back for his 5th time in WWF. Maybe you can also name Chris Jericho, but if so, only for his second reign which lasted for about 2 seconds before the belt was unified with the WWF title, and by that point was known as the World Championship. So again, this is another win by default, for a very unimportant in WWF history championship. Fun fact though, there wasnt much of a list to go with here, as Booker, Y2J, the Rock and Kurt Angle (who won the worst reign) were the only options. Not only that, Booker T's 140 days with the title in WWF were longer than all 3 of the other guys 5 reigns combined (119 days)
#12 #10 The WWE Crusierweight Champion (AKA the WCW Crusierweight Champion): Chavo Guerrero.
So I did say the Lightheavyweight title was replaced by its more prestigious counterpart...what I didnt say before is WWE kinda shit on that prestige. Honestly Chavo wins by virtue of being the only guy I remember consistently wrestling for and winning the title during its entire lifespan under the WWE banner...even if most of his matches were intentionally designed for him to appear foolish or just to allow a bunch of oddities (an old man (chavo classic) a dwarf (hornswoggle) or a woman (jackie) to become champion,
#11 The WWF Hardcore Champion: Big Boss Man
It started as a way to mock Mankind, and ended as basically a 3 ring prop comedy/over the top violent circus with the 24/7 rule. But for a brief period of time, the title was actually seen as a serious title with a brawling focus. And during that period it was usually held by the Big Boss Man. In fact arguably the thing became a legit title when Boss Man took it off Mankind, and became a joke when the man he lost it too in his 4th and final run, Test, dropped it to Crash Holly a month later and the 24/7 rule was born. So yea, because he was the centerpiece of the division at the only time the division was taken seriously, he has to be the best champion of that division.
#10 WWF European Champion: William Regal.
Another win by default as much as I hate to say it. Honestly from the start this title was never taken all that seriously (the second title switch involved a guy laying down to lose, the 3rd switch involved a guy cosplaying as the champion, and oh yeah it was even put on Shane McMahon and deactivaed for a long time). However it did eventually serve as a solid undercard title, mostly to be defended on B list shows, and during that time, Regal was the center piece of the division, so he wins. Woo! *no enthusiasm*
#9 #7 The WWE Divas Champion: AJ Lee.
To the extent the Divas championship was ever taken seriously, it was when it was around the waist of AJ Lee, and Paige, Nikki Bella and Charlotte (the 3 women who fought or followed her to that title) massively benefited from that. But given they eventually (and thankfully) scrapped the damn thing in favor of the new Womens title, it just proves even AJ cant work miracles....even if she can be one of the first Divas champions who can actually wrestle and put the first crack in the glass ceiling that led to the Womens Revolution
#8 ECW Champion: Christian.
Basically ECW under WWE was what NXT is today, though they did start out trying to be a coequal 3rd brand with RAW and Smackdown, RVD and Big Show's runs did some damage before being used as a vanity piece by Vince McMahon and vacated by Bobby Lashley killed off any remaining prestige. However once ECW found its new identity as a proving ground for upcoming talent, Christian became the champion and in effect the gatekeeper to the main roster....most talent that advanced up the card and became successful on RAW or Smackdown had to do well against him first. And hell its hard to do better than that as far as being the best champion
#7 The WWE Tag Team Champions (AKA the Unified Tag Team Championship and RAW Tag Team Championship): The Bar.
Thank freaking god I waited 2 1/2 years between these lists cause thats the only reason we have clear winner here. The honest truth is, since the inception of these belts in the first brand split WWE never took tag team wrestling all that seriously, at least until the current brand split, and very very few established teams had any real impact on these belts. Had I done this list when I did the worst list, I would have given this spot to MNM, who honestly were just kinda an average tag team at best, also happened to be basically the only established team to repeatedly win these titles, or Id have had to do with the worst list and give it to a single person, Kofi Kingston, who managed to win the titles with the New Day (twice), Air Boom and R-Truth, so by sheer numbers of partners hed have been a lock, but still a weak win. Thankfully The Bar came along and have spent the better part of 2 years winning these titles from, or defending against well established tag teams, and a strong tag division builds up the champions so they honestly deserve to be atop this list....its just a shame some kid named Nickolas shit all over their hard work.
#6 WWF Women's Champion: Trish Stratus
So before the current Women's Revolution, there was only really one time in history when the WWE Womens title actually felt relevant, and it was at the tail end of the attitude era, and beginning of Ruthless Aggression shockingly enough, and thats because it spent a lot of time around the waists of women who could actually wrestle, like Ivory, Lita, Molly Holly, Victoria, and Mickie James. And then of course, Trish Stratus who set a record as a 7 time champion. Basically Trish and Lita are to the women what Stone Cold and the Rock are to the guys. They were the first two women to main event RAW, and they had one of the most epic and remembered rivalries in WWE history.
And then of course we had Trish and Mickie, who also had an epic rivalry and arguably the best womens match in the history of WM (although I prefer the Horsewomen triple threat from WM32). Given Trish's involvement in both those feuds its impossible to deny her the top spot...but shes got Lita and Mickie James right behind her.
#5 WWE United States Champion (AKA WCW United States Champion): John Cena
I get it, people HATE Super Cena (me too). But you know what he was before he was Super Cena? possibly the most popular up and coming superstar on the roster, and he got there by being the 3 time US champ. And look, love or hate the US Spinner belt (and I liked it), it really made his reigns memorable. But thats not why he has this spot. See what happened when he finally stopped being Super Cena? 2 more runs with the US title, including the US title open challenge, and I dare you to find a single bad match in there. In fact the idea was so popular WWE keeps bringing it back with AJ, and Jeff Hardy, or making it a heel move not to do it, with Owens, its almost now an expectation of the title...and its there because of John Cena. When Cena came up, the US title made him a star, and on his way out, he returned the favor by trying to bring the US title up to his level and make all US champions after him stars as a result. And the simple fact is, no one has had as much impact on how a title is viewed as he did with those last two runs, so love him or hate him, this spot is well deserved.
#4 World Tag Team Champion: Billy Gunn and Kane
Wait what? Yes I did just pick two guys who NEVER won the tag titles together....but thats cause this should be seen more as a tie. The simple fact is, most successful tag team wrestlers have a single partner with whom they are associated with. Take for example Hawk and Animal. Both also teamed with Power Warrior in Japan, and Animal teamed with Heidenrich, but if you heard one name, youd instantly associate it with the other.
But what about Billy Gunn? if you were a fan in the New Generation Era, you might well say "Bart Gunn" and the Smoking Gunns as the first name that comes to mind. If you were a fan of the Attitude Era, its the Road Dogg Jesse James, and the New Age Outlaws. But if you only started watching in the Ruthless Aggression era it would be Chuck Palumbo and Billy & Chuck.
In fact between those 3 teams, Gunn has won 10 World Tag Team titles, the only person in WWE who can claim more is Edge, and been World Tag Team champion 916 days, second only to Mr. Fuji's 932 (fun fact, if we add in Gunns WWE tag run, he actually exceeded fuji for longest reigning tag team champion of all time across all belts). And while both Edge and Fuji were in at least one famous team, neither can really claim 3 famous teams....that honor is Billy Gunn's along....almost.
That brings us to Kane. Kane has actually won the World Tag Team titles with 6 partners (and the WWE tag titles with a 7th), which is a record (both for a single title and for partners across all titles). Of those 3 (4 if we count the WWE tag titles with the World Tag titles) were multiple reigns.
Furthermore, at least 3 of those teams, with Big Show, with the Undertaker, with X-pac are well remembered. And that doesnt even include his one time reigns with RVD, Huuricane, or two runs with Mankind (Team Hell No doesnt count since thats WWE tag team) So like Gunn, Kane has been all over the tag team scene. In fact he's just behind Gunn in overall number of reigns with 9 (tied with Christian), but has only held the titles a mere 393 days. Also, while Gunn's had some teams that didnt work out (Honky Tonk Man, Big Show), I cant remember a single team Kanes been in where he didnt win the belts.
So yeah they have never won the titles together...as far as I know theyve never even teamed together for a single match, but both of them have legit claims to being the best tag team wrestlers, Gunn by the time hes spend with the strap + repeated success with multiple partners and Kane for basically being able to win those with ANYONE.
#3 World Heavyweight Championship: Edge
Really there were 3 possible choices here. HHH, Batista and Edge, the 3 men most associated with this belt. Problem for HHH starts with the reign of terror. I admit I liked it as a kid, but looking back on it now I see why it was despised, it wasnt that great for the belt.
Batista meanwhile had the belt ALOT, but never really did anything with it. Yes he had a fantastic series of matches with Undertaker, but that was basically it in his 4 reigns.
Which left Edge, who over his 7 reigns with the title, made himself synonymous with Smackdown, and helped solidify the WHC as THE title on Smackdown, and as a true equal title to the WWE title, which until he got it always seemed a bit secondary to the WWE title (even when it was on RAW and the WWE title on smackdown). And put on a hell of a lot of great matches too. See feuds with Undertaker, Dolph Ziggler, John Cena, CM Punk....dude even made Alberto Del Rio kinda entertaining in their feud. And heck, he went out on top...he retired as World Champion...and who else (other than Trish Stratus) can say that?
#2 WWF/E Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon and The Miz
I really really really dont like doing ties, but I have a bit of a problem here. In that had I done this list 2 1/2 years ago, Razor would have clearly been the winner. He was basically champion or challenging for it during the titles most prestigious period, when its reputation was cemented as the work horse's championship. When your the centerpiece of the division at its more prestigious time, your the best champion the belts ever had.
And then the RAW after Wrestlemania 32 happened, and the Miz won the title, and over the course of his next 4 reigns/2+ years, he transformed himself into the top heel, and arguably the top guy in the WWE. Yet despite this, he never challenged for the so called top prize the Universal title, instead he declared the IC belt was better than the Universal belt, and he was the top champion on RAW....and it worked. Lots of people (myself included) believe for all intents and purposes it is still the top title on RAW to this day. And yes some of that is due to shitty booking/Lesnars run with the Universal title, but a lot more of it is due to the Miz. Heck they kinda tried the same thing with the US strap on Rusev when there was no Universal title, or with Reigns when Owens had the Universal title, and it didnt really work, no one actually bought the US title was the top belt. They did with the IC belt, and thats cause of the Miz.
So make no mistake about it, Miz is splitting this spot with Razor Ramon/Scott Hall out of my sense of fairness, but if it wasnt for Miz, there is no way this belt would be in the #2 spot right now. (it would be around 4 or 5 just due to how unimportant the belt became in the 2000's)
#1 WWE Champion: Hulk Hogan
As much as I hate to admit it, this may have been the easiest spot to pick on the list. And I hate it because I was never a hulkamaniac. But when I tried to justify giving this spot to Stone Cold, The Rock, HHH, Undertaker, Kurt Angle, John Cena, Bret Hart, HBK, ect kept running into the same problem.
When I talked about Edge, I mentioned how he kinda became synonymous with the WHC and Smackdown while he was champion. And back in WCW Ric Flair did the same with the WCW Title.
Well as champ, Hulk Hogan became synonymous with the entire god damn wrestling industry, and no one else has ever come close to that. Even the Rock, who comes the closest is known by non wrestling fans as "Oh yeah that actor who USED to be a wrestler". No one while still being a wrestler comes close to the name recognition fame or love that Hogan had as champ. Without him, its possible WWE wouldnt be around anymore, Wrestlemania wouldnt be a thing, and one one would give a damn about wrestling...so as much as it hurts to do it.....Here we go, the best WWE Champion of all time, and the best champion any belt has ever had....Hulk Hogan.
Well given that the second biggest WWE event of the year is coming up, the worst list is the most popular thing on the blog, and Im not as pissed about doing this for what is the 3rd time, I figure its time to get it done.
Two quick things to note though: First, when I did the original list of worst champions, it was before the current brand split, and just prior to Wrestlemania 32. As a result the Smackdown Tag Titles, Smackdown Women's title, Raw Women's title, Universal Title and current Crusierweight title didnt exist and were not included on that list. Ive decided to keep them off this list as well, as I will be doing a "best and worst" combined list for those 5 titles later on. And while included on this list, the current Raw Tag Team titles will be referred to as the WWE Tag Team titles for the same reasons.
Secondly, all the same rules from the worst list are still in place, currently reigning champions can not have their current reign considered for placement, but can be judged on previous runs with the same title, assuming that reign was under the WWE banner, no titles pre 1980 are included if they no longer exist, no "novelty"/vanity titles (IE million dollar championship) And the titles are listed in order of the prestige they had with that "top" champion. So the guy at the top of the list is the best champion WWE has ever had even if its not the WWE championship. Makes sense right?
Oh and one last note, even with the 2 1/2 year gap, only one my worst list has changed, sorry to those who thought Jinder Mahal would replace Rey Mysterio as the worst WWE champion (go read the article, to see why hes the worst before you lose your shit....) but its not him, its John Cena being replaced by Braun Strowman and Nicholas as the worst WWE Tag Team Champions for reasons I hope to god are self evident to anyone with a functional brain (fucking 11 year old kid gets a WWE title? WTF?!?!?!?!)
So here we go, the best champions for each title in WWE history,
#15 WCW Tag Team Champions: The Brothers of Destruction
#14 WWF Light Heavyweight Champion: Dean Malenko.
Weirdly enough, despite the name, the WWF didnt actually recognize this belts existence until 1997, even though the belt was created in 1981. So only the guys who won the belt in the last 4 years of its life count. And of that group, one man sits head and shoulders above the rest, Dean Malenko, who has to be considered the best pure wrestler to ever actually hold this title in WWF. Problem here is, both Malenko's short in ring career overall in WWF, and the fact this belt became an afterthought, before actually being replaced by its more prestigious WCW counterpart after Invasion. So again, great champion...lame belt
#13 WCW Champion (AKA the World Champion): Booker T
#12 #10 The WWE Crusierweight Champion (AKA the WCW Crusierweight Champion): Chavo Guerrero.
#11 The WWF Hardcore Champion: Big Boss Man
#10 WWF European Champion: William Regal.
#9 #7 The WWE Divas Champion: AJ Lee.
#8 ECW Champion: Christian.
#7 The WWE Tag Team Champions (AKA the Unified Tag Team Championship and RAW Tag Team Championship): The Bar.
#6 WWF Women's Champion: Trish Stratus
And then of course we had Trish and Mickie, who also had an epic rivalry and arguably the best womens match in the history of WM (although I prefer the Horsewomen triple threat from WM32). Given Trish's involvement in both those feuds its impossible to deny her the top spot...but shes got Lita and Mickie James right behind her.
#5 WWE United States Champion (AKA WCW United States Champion): John Cena
#4 World Tag Team Champion: Billy Gunn and Kane
Wait what? Yes I did just pick two guys who NEVER won the tag titles together....but thats cause this should be seen more as a tie. The simple fact is, most successful tag team wrestlers have a single partner with whom they are associated with. Take for example Hawk and Animal. Both also teamed with Power Warrior in Japan, and Animal teamed with Heidenrich, but if you heard one name, youd instantly associate it with the other.
But what about Billy Gunn? if you were a fan in the New Generation Era, you might well say "Bart Gunn" and the Smoking Gunns as the first name that comes to mind. If you were a fan of the Attitude Era, its the Road Dogg Jesse James, and the New Age Outlaws. But if you only started watching in the Ruthless Aggression era it would be Chuck Palumbo and Billy & Chuck.
In fact between those 3 teams, Gunn has won 10 World Tag Team titles, the only person in WWE who can claim more is Edge, and been World Tag Team champion 916 days, second only to Mr. Fuji's 932 (fun fact, if we add in Gunns WWE tag run, he actually exceeded fuji for longest reigning tag team champion of all time across all belts). And while both Edge and Fuji were in at least one famous team, neither can really claim 3 famous teams....that honor is Billy Gunn's along....almost.
That brings us to Kane. Kane has actually won the World Tag Team titles with 6 partners (and the WWE tag titles with a 7th), which is a record (both for a single title and for partners across all titles). Of those 3 (4 if we count the WWE tag titles with the World Tag titles) were multiple reigns.
Furthermore, at least 3 of those teams, with Big Show, with the Undertaker, with X-pac are well remembered. And that doesnt even include his one time reigns with RVD, Huuricane, or two runs with Mankind (Team Hell No doesnt count since thats WWE tag team) So like Gunn, Kane has been all over the tag team scene. In fact he's just behind Gunn in overall number of reigns with 9 (tied with Christian), but has only held the titles a mere 393 days. Also, while Gunn's had some teams that didnt work out (Honky Tonk Man, Big Show), I cant remember a single team Kanes been in where he didnt win the belts.
So yeah they have never won the titles together...as far as I know theyve never even teamed together for a single match, but both of them have legit claims to being the best tag team wrestlers, Gunn by the time hes spend with the strap + repeated success with multiple partners and Kane for basically being able to win those with ANYONE.
#3 World Heavyweight Championship: Edge
Batista meanwhile had the belt ALOT, but never really did anything with it. Yes he had a fantastic series of matches with Undertaker, but that was basically it in his 4 reigns.
Which left Edge, who over his 7 reigns with the title, made himself synonymous with Smackdown, and helped solidify the WHC as THE title on Smackdown, and as a true equal title to the WWE title, which until he got it always seemed a bit secondary to the WWE title (even when it was on RAW and the WWE title on smackdown). And put on a hell of a lot of great matches too. See feuds with Undertaker, Dolph Ziggler, John Cena, CM Punk....dude even made Alberto Del Rio kinda entertaining in their feud. And heck, he went out on top...he retired as World Champion...and who else (other than Trish Stratus) can say that?
#2 WWF/E Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon and The Miz
I really really really dont like doing ties, but I have a bit of a problem here. In that had I done this list 2 1/2 years ago, Razor would have clearly been the winner. He was basically champion or challenging for it during the titles most prestigious period, when its reputation was cemented as the work horse's championship. When your the centerpiece of the division at its more prestigious time, your the best champion the belts ever had.
And then the RAW after Wrestlemania 32 happened, and the Miz won the title, and over the course of his next 4 reigns/2+ years, he transformed himself into the top heel, and arguably the top guy in the WWE. Yet despite this, he never challenged for the so called top prize the Universal title, instead he declared the IC belt was better than the Universal belt, and he was the top champion on RAW....and it worked. Lots of people (myself included) believe for all intents and purposes it is still the top title on RAW to this day. And yes some of that is due to shitty booking/Lesnars run with the Universal title, but a lot more of it is due to the Miz. Heck they kinda tried the same thing with the US strap on Rusev when there was no Universal title, or with Reigns when Owens had the Universal title, and it didnt really work, no one actually bought the US title was the top belt. They did with the IC belt, and thats cause of the Miz.
So make no mistake about it, Miz is splitting this spot with Razor Ramon/Scott Hall out of my sense of fairness, but if it wasnt for Miz, there is no way this belt would be in the #2 spot right now. (it would be around 4 or 5 just due to how unimportant the belt became in the 2000's)
#1 WWE Champion: Hulk Hogan
When I talked about Edge, I mentioned how he kinda became synonymous with the WHC and Smackdown while he was champion. And back in WCW Ric Flair did the same with the WCW Title.
Well as champ, Hulk Hogan became synonymous with the entire god damn wrestling industry, and no one else has ever come close to that. Even the Rock, who comes the closest is known by non wrestling fans as "Oh yeah that actor who USED to be a wrestler". No one while still being a wrestler comes close to the name recognition fame or love that Hogan had as champ. Without him, its possible WWE wouldnt be around anymore, Wrestlemania wouldnt be a thing, and one one would give a damn about wrestling...so as much as it hurts to do it.....Here we go, the best WWE Champion of all time, and the best champion any belt has ever had....Hulk Hogan.
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