25 Greatest WWE World Champions - The Results!

First topic message reminder :

So after collating the results from everybody that voted on this list. Lots of people sent me their top ten WWE World Champions, and I used that list to work out who 606v2 considered to be the best WWE World Champion of all time. Number 1 in people's list was given 10 points, then number 10 was given 1, with all in between being given 9, 8, 7 etc.

24=. Diesel - 1 point

Spoiler:

Number of WWE World Title reigns: 1
Combined length of Title reigns: 358 days

Diesel, or Kevin Nash, was voted in the top ten just one time, and at number 10, but it is just enough to get him into the top 25. Diesel won the World Title on the 26th of November 1994 beating Bob Backlund in a record-breaking fast match, squashing the three day old world champion to win his first and to date, only world championship in the WWE. He would hold it for nearly a year only finally losing it on the 19th of November 1995 to Bret 'The Hitman' Hart.

24=. Kane - 1 point

Spoiler:

Number of WWE World Title reigns: 2
Combined length of Title reigns: 155 days

Kane's first world title reign was a disaster, and certainly not the reason that he makes the 25 Greatest World Championships. His first reign with the WWE Championship in 1998 lasted just one day, beating Stone Cold Steve Austin at King of the Ring, but then lost it the night later on Raw. His second world title reign, 12 years later, with the World Heavyweight Championship was significantly more popular and successful. Paid for his dues over the years, Kane's reign lasted 154 days. Kane cashed in his Money in the Bank opportunity the night he won it to beat Rey Mysterio for the world title, eventually losing it to Edge in a Tables, Ladder and Chairs match at the TLC Pay-Per View.

23. Goldberg - 3 points

Spoiler:

Number of WWE World Title reigns: 1
Combined length of Title reigns: 84 days

Bill Goldberg is better remembered for his run in WCW where he was much more successful in terms of winning world titles. Goldberg burst onto the WWE scene in 2003, but had to wait six months to win his first and only world title in the WWE. Goldberg beat Triple H at Unforgiven to win his first world title and it lasted 84 days before he lost the title to Triple H at the Armageddon show.

22. Chris Benoit - 4 points

Spoiler:

Number of WWE World Title reigns: 1
Combined length of Title reigns: 154 days

Clearly Chris Benoit will always be remembered for his final actions, but his WWE career still gets some plaudits. Benoit's only world title reign in the WWE had a good length of 154 days. Winning the title in an emotional match with Triple H and Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XX. Eventually Benoit would lose the world title to Randy Orton at Summerslam and he would never regain a world title until his death in 2007.

21. Bob Backlund - 8 points

Spoiler:

Number of WWE World Title reigns: 2
Combined length of Title reigns: 3,234 days

An amazing combined length of title reigns there from just two title reigns and even more amazingly, his second title reign lasted just 3 days in 1994. His first title reign lasted 8 years, 10 months and 6 days, it is inconceivable that this could happen in this day and age. Backlund won his first world title by beating Billy Graham in controversial fashion as Graham did actually have his foot on the ropes as the three count was met. However this wouldn't stop Backlund from dominating for close to a decade in the WWF eventually losing the title to The Iron Sheik after Backlund's manager threw the white towel in for him. Backlund's second reign was significantly less successful, Backlund managed to roll back the years to beat Bret Hart to regain the world title but would last just three days as Diesel destroyed him to win the title.

20. Chris Jericho - 10 points

Spoiler:

Number of WWE World Title reigns: 6
Combined length of Title reigns: 219 days

In a surprisingly low position in the list, WWE's first ever Undisputed World Champion is 20th in the list of the greatest WWE World Champions. Y2J first won the WCW World Championship in the WWE beating The Rock to win it, only to lose it to the Rock. Famously however Jericho would beat both The Rock, to regain his WCW World Title, and Stone Cold Steve Austin in the same night to unify the two world titles. Jericho would not win a world title again until his return in 2007 where he would win three more World Heavyweight titles, winning the first of these by entering in the place of the actual world champion CM Punk in the Championship Scramble match to win it. Jericho would lose the title to Batista, only to win it back eight days later beginning his second reign, before subsequently losing out to John Cena. Jericho would win the World Heavyweight Title in the Elimination Chamber in 2010, then retain it at Wrestlemania against former partner Edge, but losing out to Jack Swagger on a taped Smackdown after Swagger cashed in his Money in the Bank contract.


That is the first five of the list, keep watching this thread to see us get all the way up to number 1!

VDT wrote:GREATEST WRESTLER WITHOUT A WORLD TITLE (which Owen Hart will win)

Which would be a travesty because Ted Dibiase, Roddy Piper and Mr Perfect are all much better choices.

Don Caboose wrote:

VDT wrote:GREATEST WRESTLER WITHOUT A WORLD TITLE (which Owen Hart will win)

Which would be a travesty because Ted Dibiase, Roddy Piper and Mr Perfect are all much better choices.

Owen Hart wouldn't be my first choice, my top would probably be:
1. Roddy Piper
2. Ted DiBiase
3. British Bulldog
4. Arn Anderson
5. Rick Rude
6. Scott Hall
7. Jake “The Snake” Roberts
8. Owen Hart
9. Curt Henning
10. William Regal

After watching the recently released Stone Cold DVD, its obvious the guy had more talent than just the Stone Cold gimmick. IMO he could do face or heel really well and was really funny when he wanted to do comedy.

The reason his heel turn failed (although watching it as a youngster I remember wanting to smash my TV up I was that angry he had sold out to Vince) was because the fans at that time could not accept losing their beer drinking, stone cold stunnering anti-establishment hero.

Edge finishing higher than Flair is a joke.

Depends what you base it on, if it is purely based upon their times within the WWE (which I based my vote upon) then Edge is streets ahead.

I'm actually quite shocked that Michaels is ranked the 3rd best as a Champion, don't get me wrong I am a massive Shawn mark and always have been, he got me interested in wrestling and I personally feel he is the GOAT and will never be topped but I always felt he was better as the guy chasing the title and not holding it.

It suited his character perfectly similar to Eddie so that when they finally got the win you felt genuine emotion, I think because of how good he was in ring that many people forget that whilst he was a good champion he wasn't as big of a draw as the likes of Hogan, Flair, SCSA etc.

Hero

You got a point there, I was thinking overrall more than anything.

Just thought I would let Crimey know that after talking to Paul Bearer on Twitter, I asked him his opinion on the poll. When asked who he thought was the best:

Paul Bearer ‏ @wweURNiverse Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
@v2Journal UT of course.

Weird that a couple of my picks didn't make it. My top guy didn't even get in the top 25, which considering that would have given him 10 points doesn't make sense. Did you miss my votes?

who was your vote for?

Sorry, I must have missed it.

DBD was the top vote. VKM, Sgt Slaughter and Great Khali also missed out. Perhaps the most crucial thing, however, is that I had The Rock one place about Austin, which would in fact make this a tie...

Controversy!!!!!!!!!!

TBF, I get why he might have thought it was a joke vote. I only had 7 I wanted to vote for so I threw three randoms into the middle of the pack. I didn't think it would matter, because if no one else voted for them, I assumed they wouldn't make the top 25! Clearly, I was wrong, since even those with one point got in, but even ignoring those 3, it throws the top spots out of sync...

Crimey wrote:

longrangeeffort wrote:This is a great read and really interesting! One question though...how can Sammartino have the record for longest reign at 7 years when Bob Backlund held it for 8 years? Am I reading it right?! :S

I think because officially Backlund's title reign had a short part where it was interrupted. Essentially nobody else held the title for over 8 years other than Backlund.

For Bob Backlund:

His first title reign lasted 8 years, 10 months and 6 days, it is inconceivable that this could happen in this day and age.

For Sammartino:

He would hold the title for 2803 days, the record for longest world title reign in professional wrestling

Both sound like they are single title reigns to me. Backlunds other reign was only 3 days!

I know, his first title reign, there was a gap in between of a few days where the title was vacant.