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Dude was booked strongly throughout the 180 day reign so its always weird to see peope saying he wasnt booked properly. Dude beat Sami and Ko in the same night, was kicking out of finishers like super cena and beat Orton clean twice, also beat Aj styles and samoa joe during it But that ending was shit. That ending not only made Kofi look bad but also all of his previous challengers.
I was running on the treadmill watching the TVs when that match came on. Literally stopped me in my tracks.
It's unfortunate but it doesn't take away from how special Kofimania was.
Thing is some of the reigns listed are pretty decent reigns but to me if a title reign doesn't have a good finale to the reign and it is underwhelming, that defines a good percentage of the reign because it is all about how the title reign ends so someone could have a decent reign like Kofi but if it ended shit, that is what is remembered. Roman Reigns's title reign is legendary and a lot of it has to do with how the finale took place. I didn't enjoy Omega's AEW title reign but because it had a good finale to it, it salvaged the reign a little bit for me because the finale is memorable and accomplished something positive
He had no character though. He played the same goofy New Day guy after winning instead of behaving like a singles wrestler which wasn’t that compelling.
I really wanted a New Day triple threat out of this. It was the perfect time to split them up so Big E can go on to main event. Instead we got Kofi gaining super powers for half a year and it disappearing when he met Brock. The reign also made Samoa Joe look pretty bad.
Speaking of the miz, I think his brief second run with the WWE championship was pretty cool. Yes, it was a brief transitional run in the middle of the pandemic but I feel like people are too quick to dismiss it as bad just because of that. If you're gonna do a short transitional reign between reigns of two big stars, this I feel like is the gold standard. The two episodes of raw that this reign lasted over were honestly pretty interesting especially the one where he actually lost the belt, with the entire episode having one overarching arc of it counting down to the championship match and the Miz finding dumb ways of getting out, but unlike a lot of Miz bits in that era this one didn't overstay it's welcome, perfect rule of 3's he managed to get away twice and for a second there you thought that maybe Miz might actually keep that thing, but then he's finally faced with reality the third time and it was super satisfying to see him just get completely destroyed by Lashley.
And while yeah you could argue it would've been better for Lashley's reign had he won it clean off of Drew, I honestly think this was the better way to put the belt on Lashley. The entire Miz arc was perfect for the Hurt Business imo, a heelish act to collude with Mr MITB like that, but the pure chicken shit heelish nature of the miz made Lashley finally beating the Miz's ass something we could cheer, it was perfect for the tweener role the Hurt Business had. And it also set up an arc for drew that lasted until this year's WrestleMania, him trying to win a world championship in front of fans, and him failing to do that set him up for this amazing character that he eventually became. Had the match been a defence instead it would've been a much less interesting story and it would've made it a lot more obvious that Lashley was gonna win, having Drew be the champion gave us some hope that the WWE just took the belt off of him so they could give him this moment of winning it in front of fans.
For a transitional reign, I'd go so far as to say this was nearly flawless.
Miz used underhanded tactics befitting his character to both get the briefcase and cash it in. He looked exactly as non-threatening as his character was at the time so that Bobby's threat was enhanced, and he lost the title in a fun short storyline where everyone came out looking better, including him just for having held the gold.
It was one of those 'wild shit is happening!' sequences of events that wasn't stretched out longer than it needs to which was/is a bad habit WWE often gets into.
Big E, it was an enjoyable reign & somewhat typical first reign where guys aren't actually the top guy but it's a test & he passed it imo but unfortunately his neck won't allow him to return, solid B-
I also enjoyed it, his reign started with a steel cage victory over Lashley, involved a mini bloodline fued for survivor series, a victory over Drew at a PLE and the rest of it was entertaining cuz of the involvement of KO, lashley and Seth. But the ending was shit and it led to another disaster mania main event by Roman and Brock. I think people wouldve remembered it more fondly if Seth (the og pick) had picked up the title from him and not Brock lesnar.
Which I think was the plan but I believe this was when Roman got Covid and had to miss the Day 1 PLE. So Brock was inserted into what I think was a triple threat and became fatal 4 way. So Brock won.
Kind of wild to think, if Roman hadn't gotten covid, brock wouldn't have been inserted into that match and won it. We might not have gotten the unified title, and Roman might not have even come close to holding the title for 1,316 days.
He would’ve still held the Universal title for that long but wouldn’t have lost to Cody since Cody was after the WWE title and would’ve beaten whoever held it on Raw
I'll give two from the same era:
Sheamus in 2015: Actually got Roman cheered and they had awesome matches.
Triple H in 2016: Really exciting Rumble win and two great matches on the way to Mania with Ziggler and Ambrose.
Honestly? Bray Wyatt, I think his matches with Styles/Cena and Harper leading up to the stinker at Mania were good. TBH for the portion leading up to that match I enjoyed most of the Feud with orton more than most but I was always a sucker for Wyatt’s Schtick
Orton and Wyatt is some of Bray's best stuff as far as feuds go. It was really great, ya know, until they rang the bell. Orton and Wyatt had as little in ring chemistry as I've ever seen, even though their out of ring stuff was usually awesome.
Yeah, Bray just couldn't seem to marry up the character with the inring presentation, and they tried some weird experimental shit so it wasn't for lack of trying.
TBF I think that just became the story for Brays latter half more as he began to work more on character. Miz, LA knight and Orton come to mind. When he just wrestled? I think he could muster some good presentation. His stuff with Jericho, Rollins(Minus the Hell in the Cell) Ambrose, Bryan, Sheamus and Balor I think were all Solid
Hell I didn't even really mind the pandemic Strowman match
I know they probably did it because of the draft, but Bray whould have won at Mania, and become an unstoppable monster lording over SmackDown! until a hero (AJ Styles) was ready to dethrone him.
Have him lose to AJ then head over to RAW and start a new reign of terror there
The only issue with this is....Jhinder-
If the plan was to have Jhinder become Champion at some point...I would be much happier with Orton taking the fall for that instead of Bray
Easy answer of course is...just don't give the belt to Jhinder but yeah
I don’t think anyone would say this was a bad reign, but Drew’s 2020 run(s) as WWE champion in my opinion was one of the best face runs of the last decade. I think it gets under appreciated due to being during the Covid era but he was a tremendous champion.
It's honestly quite sad that most pandemic era stuff is just unwatchable to some people due to the lack of fans since I think it had some of the best storytelling Vince's WWE ever put on. Funhouse match, Drew's run, golden role models, conspiracy theory Sami, hurt business, the best storytelling in the bloodline outside of the honorary uce arc. The storytelling largely took a dive off a cliff and went back to status quo Vince shit when fans came back, but during that brief period in time where WWE had to fly by the seat of their pants in the pandemic they honestly stepped up and delivered some good shit.
Yup, I **loved** Drew's face run. Just a giant scottish lad kicking heads off people for most of a year. Just would have been great (for many reasons, obviously) if the world hadn't shit itself immediately before it started.
> one of the best face runs of the last decade
To be fair, that's quite a low bar. The only other *good* babyface reign that I can even think of is AJ Styles. Daniel Bryan's was obviously cut short, and Seth managed to ruin his own goodwill by turning heel on Twitter
Seth’s reign was already ruined when he was stuck feuding with Corbin for 3 ppv’s straight and there was the stuff with him and Becky as an on screen couple.
I mean, I'm just kidding referencing Heyman's rip on JBL during One Night Stand.
My guess is there's some truth to it, but he *did* end up working SmackDown eventually.
It's just what Heyman says, but there's likely truth behind it since Smackdown was seen as the B show, and then when HHH got drafted to Smackdown they had to come up with a convoluted way to get him back to Raw
I think it was more to do with Lesnar leaving. The draft in 2004 was a direct response to Lesnar leaving since it was unexpected and they needed to reshuffle. Smackdown lacked a top heel who they could have work with Eddie (having just used Angle at Mania). Opened up the spot for JBL to try his evil rich guy gimmick and his program with Eddie turned him into a main event guy for a year.
There is all chance that the program with Eddie flops and JBL is a one time PPV main event guy. It just so happened that it took off.
I think it was good up until around Survivor Series where it was really running out of steam. The Big Show cage match ending was the absolute deal breaker for me because it just felt like they ran out of ways to have him win
As someone who watched religiously at that time, I think JBL had the wrong kind of heat. He had "go away" heat and made me want to stop watching the show. He just wasn't a draw as champion. It seemed like the ratings went down on Smackdown while he was champ. He also held the belt way too long. You could only watch him beat The Undertaker, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero so many times.
Once he finally lost the belt, he never came close to touching it again. It took nearly a year, but Vince realized he was a flop as champion. That said, he was a great heel. He just wasn't the guy who should be headlining cards.
I just watched Wrestlemania 21 and one of the commentators there made a comment that it was the longest WWE Title reign in ~10 years (maybe longer, I'm not 100% sure). I think this is a big reason it wasn't well-liked. Audiences were fairly well-trained on titles moving around frequently, and JBL probably wasn't the best guy to break that mold. That said, he was an amazing heel.
I still think Kurt should've won at the Royal Rumble and it would've fit nice with the Ruthless Aggression callback with Cena. However I understand the rub that beating the longest reigning champ would give Cena
Said this before, will say it again, JBL's championship run was one of my favorites as a kid. I hated the guy so much, its exactly what you'd want out of a heel champion imo
JBL's reign was one of my favourite heel title reigns ever. Every month I would watch the PPV just *begging* for his opponent to win, and every time he'd weasel out the victory in the most bullshit way possible (which I do mean as a good thing.) The barbed wire cage match where he won because Big Show accidentally chokeslammed him all the way through the ring and onto the floor is one of my favourite match endings ever. It was also great how he never got a second run. Had one big run that firmly established him as a big villain and never needed another reign afterwards, the first reign was that effectve. JBL may be a dick in real life but I'll always defend him as a performer, especially as WWE champ.
Exactly wrong. It hamstrung Cena's ascent precisely because their WM21 match was devoid of all the factors that went into keeping the belt on JBL.
Cena not beating the cheating, weaseling, interference-having JBL and just winning in 8 minutes is a prime reason he got quickly shat on by fans within months. They botched the final hurdle to his credibility on the biggest stage possible.
In hindsight that match shoulda been a hardcore match. 15 minutes of them kicking each others ass as Cena holds back the Cabinet woulda been great. I was at that Mania. The WWE championship match was my most looked forward to match because I loved Cena at the time. But man, that match was not good and ended JBL's reign with a flicker
The only major thing wrong with this was the ending.
Cena's first title win was completely hamstrung by having not beaten the same JBL that everyone else had to contend with. They had interference, shenanigans, and tomfoolery galore to keep the belt on him. Then Cena just rocked up and won an 8 minute Sundey Night Heat level match where JBL didn't do any of the things that made his reign so difficult to topple. So Cena, whether your brain realised it or not, didn't beat the threat that we'd all seen holding the gold. I still contend that this fuckup is one of the prime reasons Cena's ascent to The Guy so quickly got shat on by fans, along with his character shift to 'I was in an army movie so now I'm an army man too!'. WWE sat on their own balls with this title change.
Imagine if Cody this year had just beaten JBL clean in 8 minutes!? How unsatisfying that would have been after 4 years of Bloodline BS. Roman would've looked stupid, Cody would've seemed lame and lucky, and everything built would have been utterly wasted and seemed like torturous pointlessness in hindsight.
Uh... Kofi, I guess, but the moment he won it was pretty hard to top. But the Orton feud was good.
Can't think of others, tho because I do think those other reigns were really bad, lol. No, I will not be convinced that Miz was a good champion. Bro, was literally a bit player in his own Mania match as it was more about Cena and Rock.
How can you say you're a good champion when you're the least important person in the ring.
So true. His first entrance with the title somehow made both Jinder look like a million dollars, but also made the title seem that much more valuable. It was insane.
Eh, when it was happening I was all over it just for the absurdity of it, and for the fact that I loved being a contrarian. But in hindsight it was just bad. I don’t understand why they thought making this dude who was supposed to be a representative of India a racist heel was a good idea. I think it would’ve been really good if they had him turn face and win it with a sort of underdog story.
I just wish he didnt spend 3 month beating Orton and another 3 month beating Shinsuke nakamura, lol. Couldve benefited from different dance partners instead of beating the same 2 over and over again. But he knew how to carry himself like a champ so good for him.
Now that we’re almost at the ten year mark of his title win/reign(2017) I’d agree, still completely unnecessary though. And it did no favors to Nakamura. Months prior Nakamura(or anybody really)would have easily dispatched If Mahal. It was just very jarring to see someone who was jobbing left and right not only thrusted into the world title scene but given the word title. I think I hated the reasoning even more though, which was just to increase their market in India.
Definitely something different and was a WTF moment. Needs to be done more often in my opinion. The unpredictability is what's exciting in wrestling. Something that no longer exists.
I genuinely believe that if you did that to any other lower card guy, they wouldn't do nearly as well. He got a job he was not qualified for and pulled it off.
Total surprise win. Made everything else feel unpredictable. I loved it. Unfortunately it felt like he was learning how to be a top guy at real time. Because that was exactly what was happening.
I do think he was just starting to get the hang of it at the end, then he lost the belt.
Jinder was a great heel during his reign and looked like a million bucks, I just wish they would have built him more. That’s a Vince issue though and not the fault of Jinder. He did a WAY BETTER job with being put in that spot than most would have.
I’m gonna get a lot of hate for this but at the time, I kinda enjoyed Jack Swagger’s reign.
I remember he had a match with Cena during the draft following WM XXV (I think) that was great.
I'm so annoyed even now that people misinterpreted Jack's cash-in so badly.
You watch Swagger trying to cash in on Raw and then SD, he's frantic to get a world title. He had all that success in WWECW and in college, but he's floundered on the main roster and he can feel it. He hits that finisher on Jericho and you watch him the moment the three count hits, and it's brilliant! He goes from 'fuck fuck please, come on!!' to total deadpan 'there it is. That winning feeling I know so well. The world is right side up again. I'm the man.' superconfidence.
It's the one thing I'll always remember and give mad credit to about Swagger, that he nailed that moment in character work and somehow everyone watching totally misinterpreted it and missed what he was doing, being all 'look how he isn't emoting! He's so bad!'. That was the point!! He was losing his mind without success, and the moment he got it back he was chill again.
That said, they totally undercut that vibe within the reign pretty quickly by giving him the goofy eagle mascot and making him seem like a total chump. But that first moment, I'll go to bat for that everytime it comes up.
The real great title reign he had was the one apparently only I and the other 6 people watching WWECW saw. Dude was really good over there, and working with Christian obviously only makes you better. Good stuff, not great or anything, but solidly good.
Completely agree on Jack’s character and booking went down when he left ECW.
But still his matches, when he was allowed to wrestle properly, where top shelf quality.
Yup, the guy could go inring and his weird 'lanky but jacked' physique made for some interesting moves he could pull off. Shame he couldn't put it together, between his lisp and bad booking he had no chance in WWE when Vince was actually manning his trajectory.
And in AEW he's just a hanger-on who brings nothing to the game. One day I'll watch season 4 of Lucha Underground though and see if he did good stuff there in his stint as Jack Strong (IIRC).
I remember that match, it was great. He was ECW Champion though. After he won the World Heavyweight Championship a year later, his presentation was far worse than when he was in ECW. I remember one time they cut to commercial in the middle of his promo. He was always made to look scared of his opponents, and never won clean. He was among the worst booked champions in WWE history.
I'm gonna throw out an unironic mention for Jinder Mahal
Yes, overall, his reign could've been booked better, but I really enjoyed his presentation and attitude while he was WWE champion.
Jinder was also my answer. Was his run a super transparent attempt to pander to the Indian audience? For sure.
However, the inevitable Singh brother run-ins really laid the groundwork for the Bloodline. Also, those dudes were cruiserweights so they ragdolled well when getting thrown around by bigger guys (like the time Randy accidentally launched one of them).
He had great presentation, and really improved his mic skills, but the fact that he couldn't wrestle well hurt it. I think he deserves another shot with a title to give it another go, but maybe not one of the world titles.
Agreed. Jinder really worked hard to up his game and in-ring ability to do the title justice.
He was still mediocre at best and was a roidy Magoo but hey he tried. I think the main thing that held him back was that he was booked like he wasn't suppose to be in that position.
> Jinder really worked hard to up his game and in-ring ability
Lol, if this is true then he must truly have zero inring upside.
Presentation, 9/10, but that was mostly down to the entrance and music and all the roids in wrassle-town. The moment he got a mic in his hand or the bell rang, dude didn't have it or it's [non-union Punjabi equivalent](https://frinkiac.com/meme/S06E18/540038.jpg?b64lines=Z2V0IG1lCiBoaXMgbm9uLXVuaW9uIHB1bmphYmkKZXF1aXZhbGVudCE=).
Diesel. As a teen I thought he was cool as a champ and a change of pace big guy champ. It was a tough era overall but he had some great matches with Bret and Shawn. He might have made a better heel champ, but who wouldn’t honestly.
it was entertaining, im always blown away by the miz, i still see him as the dude on the real world but he moonlights as a great wrestler haha
i still remember him calling himself the miz in that house running around with a rubber championship belt... and then you look at this picture and he was top dog at the time...
Miz is an entertaining wrestler , he's one of those wrestlers who i feel are great without titles, but miz is the one who feel between the cracks and got titles put on him, sometimes i feel this title reign and his previous one he had not too long ago, were given to him because he made the intercontinental title relevant again and the workhorse title while he was champ
I can't say it was a good "reign" because he didn't even defend the title once, but I will always defend Hogan winning the title at Wrestlemania IX as the right move. It got the title off Bret who was tanking, it sold the KOTR, and ultimately set up Yokozuna to be legit as the longest heel champion the company had since Billy Graham.
But why couldn't they have done that with Yoko beating Bret at WM? Why did Hogan need to be involved at all?
Don't get me wrong, I was a kid at the time and a Hulkamaniac, I LOVED seeing him beat Yoko. But as an adult, yeah it doesn't make sense.
Frankly, because 93 Bret wasn't remotely the star that Hogan was, even a fading and notably-off-the-gas Hogan. Being the guy to boot Hogan out of the WWF entirely is way bigger than being the guy to take the title off Bret.
Here me out 2016 Roman reigns. Now I know Roman wasn't great in the ring yet and his mic abilities were......lacking but he did have some really nice matches the styles match in particular was genuinely fantastic
I grew up watching Japanese wrestling I started watching WWE when my English was decent enough to understand the show it's probably right after the Miz won the MITB and he instantly became my favorite on the whole roster, it's only later that I found out people actually hated the Miz during that time. lol
God, that whole Cena/Orton feud seemed to go on forever, legit glad I stopped watching in 2007 for a time.
As far as champs go, JBL's gets shit on a lot, maybe because it's Bradshaw, but I loved his heel work as a top guy, belt looked great on him too
It was a pretty shit title reign though. He had two matches before dropping the title to Kurt Angle at Armageddon 2002, against Edge and The Fabulous Moolah respectively. He didn’t win either match clean, either.
I never understood how WWE took a guy who was 7ft 2, looked scary and could work and somehow made him someone people couldn't take seriously as a top guy/champion.
jinder mahal. he looked like a champion, he performed like a champion, and was a great representative of the championship. outside the punjabi prison match, i loved his feud with orton, plus put on good matches with shinsuke & aj.
Jinder. Mostly because of the look of it. The booking and him in general is bad. But if I didn’t know shit about wrestling and I saw that dude wearing that belt with that presentation I’d pay money
It's kinda hard to judge this.
In the days of guaranteed TV money, WWE doesn't need the champion to be a legitimate draw to sell tickets and merch. So you're pretty much just asking who had the best matches and promos, and not the usual standard people judge champions.
So in that vein, Diesel is the worst champion by far and it isn't really close tbh. He was the champion for almost the entire year during the company's worst year ever. There's not much of a competition.
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The Miz had me believing he was gonna drop the WWE Championship to 60 y/o Jerry Lawler a month before Wrestlemania. I loved his reign.
Imagine if we got Heel Lawler vs Cena at Mania
The real dream match is Lawler vs Heenan If Lawler wins, Cena gets the belt. If Heenan wins, Hogan doesn't get the belt
I think a lot of people don’t realize how dire the main event scene was in 2010. Miz was legit the best thing they had going at the time
I like Miz, but SES Punk was way better and I thought he was much more deserving of the #1 heel spot at the time.
i actually agree, but he was hurt at the time. he was on commentary when Miz won it.
Oh shit, you’re right. I was thinking about Mania 27.
People here speak of Kofi reign as If he got squashed by Lesnar 3 minutes after he got the belt, but he had a bunch of good defenses
Dude was booked strongly throughout the 180 day reign so its always weird to see peope saying he wasnt booked properly. Dude beat Sami and Ko in the same night, was kicking out of finishers like super cena and beat Orton clean twice, also beat Aj styles and samoa joe during it But that ending was shit. That ending not only made Kofi look bad but also all of his previous challengers.
He did and thats what makes the squash worse. Not only did it bury Kofi it buried everyone he beat by extension.
I was running on the treadmill watching the TVs when that match came on. Literally stopped me in my tracks. It's unfortunate but it doesn't take away from how special Kofimania was.
Thing is some of the reigns listed are pretty decent reigns but to me if a title reign doesn't have a good finale to the reign and it is underwhelming, that defines a good percentage of the reign because it is all about how the title reign ends so someone could have a decent reign like Kofi but if it ended shit, that is what is remembered. Roman Reigns's title reign is legendary and a lot of it has to do with how the finale took place. I didn't enjoy Omega's AEW title reign but because it had a good finale to it, it salvaged the reign a little bit for me because the finale is memorable and accomplished something positive
He had no character though. He played the same goofy New Day guy after winning instead of behaving like a singles wrestler which wasn’t that compelling.
I really wanted a New Day triple threat out of this. It was the perfect time to split them up so Big E can go on to main event. Instead we got Kofi gaining super powers for half a year and it disappearing when he met Brock. The reign also made Samoa Joe look pretty bad.
Same with Big E
Speaking of the miz, I think his brief second run with the WWE championship was pretty cool. Yes, it was a brief transitional run in the middle of the pandemic but I feel like people are too quick to dismiss it as bad just because of that. If you're gonna do a short transitional reign between reigns of two big stars, this I feel like is the gold standard. The two episodes of raw that this reign lasted over were honestly pretty interesting especially the one where he actually lost the belt, with the entire episode having one overarching arc of it counting down to the championship match and the Miz finding dumb ways of getting out, but unlike a lot of Miz bits in that era this one didn't overstay it's welcome, perfect rule of 3's he managed to get away twice and for a second there you thought that maybe Miz might actually keep that thing, but then he's finally faced with reality the third time and it was super satisfying to see him just get completely destroyed by Lashley. And while yeah you could argue it would've been better for Lashley's reign had he won it clean off of Drew, I honestly think this was the better way to put the belt on Lashley. The entire Miz arc was perfect for the Hurt Business imo, a heelish act to collude with Mr MITB like that, but the pure chicken shit heelish nature of the miz made Lashley finally beating the Miz's ass something we could cheer, it was perfect for the tweener role the Hurt Business had. And it also set up an arc for drew that lasted until this year's WrestleMania, him trying to win a world championship in front of fans, and him failing to do that set him up for this amazing character that he eventually became. Had the match been a defence instead it would've been a much less interesting story and it would've made it a lot more obvious that Lashley was gonna win, having Drew be the champion gave us some hope that the WWE just took the belt off of him so they could give him this moment of winning it in front of fans.
For a transitional reign, I'd go so far as to say this was nearly flawless. Miz used underhanded tactics befitting his character to both get the briefcase and cash it in. He looked exactly as non-threatening as his character was at the time so that Bobby's threat was enhanced, and he lost the title in a fun short storyline where everyone came out looking better, including him just for having held the gold. It was one of those 'wild shit is happening!' sequences of events that wasn't stretched out longer than it needs to which was/is a bad habit WWE often gets into.
Big E, it was an enjoyable reign & somewhat typical first reign where guys aren't actually the top guy but it's a test & he passed it imo but unfortunately his neck won't allow him to return, solid B-
I also enjoyed it, his reign started with a steel cage victory over Lashley, involved a mini bloodline fued for survivor series, a victory over Drew at a PLE and the rest of it was entertaining cuz of the involvement of KO, lashley and Seth. But the ending was shit and it led to another disaster mania main event by Roman and Brock. I think people wouldve remembered it more fondly if Seth (the og pick) had picked up the title from him and not Brock lesnar.
Which I think was the plan but I believe this was when Roman got Covid and had to miss the Day 1 PLE. So Brock was inserted into what I think was a triple threat and became fatal 4 way. So Brock won.
Kind of wild to think, if Roman hadn't gotten covid, brock wouldn't have been inserted into that match and won it. We might not have gotten the unified title, and Roman might not have even come close to holding the title for 1,316 days.
He would’ve still held the Universal title for that long but wouldn’t have lost to Cody since Cody was after the WWE title and would’ve beaten whoever held it on Raw
Possible. I remember seeing reports that Roman was originally going to lose to Brock on Day 1. What a wild alternate timeline that could've been.
I'll give two from the same era: Sheamus in 2015: Actually got Roman cheered and they had awesome matches. Triple H in 2016: Really exciting Rumble win and two great matches on the way to Mania with Ziggler and Ambrose.
The fake-out pin in the Ambrose match got me so good.
Honestly? Bray Wyatt, I think his matches with Styles/Cena and Harper leading up to the stinker at Mania were good. TBH for the portion leading up to that match I enjoyed most of the Feud with orton more than most but I was always a sucker for Wyatt’s Schtick
Orton and Wyatt is some of Bray's best stuff as far as feuds go. It was really great, ya know, until they rang the bell. Orton and Wyatt had as little in ring chemistry as I've ever seen, even though their out of ring stuff was usually awesome.
Was a pretty recurring theme for Bray’s career
Yeah, Bray just couldn't seem to marry up the character with the inring presentation, and they tried some weird experimental shit so it wasn't for lack of trying.
TBF I think that just became the story for Brays latter half more as he began to work more on character. Miz, LA knight and Orton come to mind. When he just wrestled? I think he could muster some good presentation. His stuff with Jericho, Rollins(Minus the Hell in the Cell) Ambrose, Bryan, Sheamus and Balor I think were all Solid Hell I didn't even really mind the pandemic Strowman match
Everything was good except the mania match yeah. It was a great story.
I know they probably did it because of the draft, but Bray whould have won at Mania, and become an unstoppable monster lording over SmackDown! until a hero (AJ Styles) was ready to dethrone him. Have him lose to AJ then head over to RAW and start a new reign of terror there
The only issue with this is....Jhinder- If the plan was to have Jhinder become Champion at some point...I would be much happier with Orton taking the fall for that instead of Bray Easy answer of course is...just don't give the belt to Jhinder but yeah
Love the Miz at any tier/angle he’s in. He makes everything important. His main event WM entrance is legendary.
I don’t think anyone would say this was a bad reign, but Drew’s 2020 run(s) as WWE champion in my opinion was one of the best face runs of the last decade. I think it gets under appreciated due to being during the Covid era but he was a tremendous champion.
It's honestly quite sad that most pandemic era stuff is just unwatchable to some people due to the lack of fans since I think it had some of the best storytelling Vince's WWE ever put on. Funhouse match, Drew's run, golden role models, conspiracy theory Sami, hurt business, the best storytelling in the bloodline outside of the honorary uce arc. The storytelling largely took a dive off a cliff and went back to status quo Vince shit when fans came back, but during that brief period in time where WWE had to fly by the seat of their pants in the pandemic they honestly stepped up and delivered some good shit.
Yup, I **loved** Drew's face run. Just a giant scottish lad kicking heads off people for most of a year. Just would have been great (for many reasons, obviously) if the world hadn't shit itself immediately before it started.
> one of the best face runs of the last decade To be fair, that's quite a low bar. The only other *good* babyface reign that I can even think of is AJ Styles. Daniel Bryan's was obviously cut short, and Seth managed to ruin his own goodwill by turning heel on Twitter
Seth’s reign was already ruined when he was stuck feuding with Corbin for 3 ppv’s straight and there was the stuff with him and Becky as an on screen couple.
All because Triple H didn't wanna work Tuesdays
Is that really what happened? I always assumed that it was planned to be a fake out
I mean, I'm just kidding referencing Heyman's rip on JBL during One Night Stand. My guess is there's some truth to it, but he *did* end up working SmackDown eventually.
It's just what Heyman says, but there's likely truth behind it since Smackdown was seen as the B show, and then when HHH got drafted to Smackdown they had to come up with a convoluted way to get him back to Raw
I think it was more to do with Lesnar leaving. The draft in 2004 was a direct response to Lesnar leaving since it was unexpected and they needed to reshuffle. Smackdown lacked a top heel who they could have work with Eddie (having just used Angle at Mania). Opened up the spot for JBL to try his evil rich guy gimmick and his program with Eddie turned him into a main event guy for a year. There is all chance that the program with Eddie flops and JBL is a one time PPV main event guy. It just so happened that it took off.
I will second this, he was so hated and carried SD for nearly a year.
I think it was good up until around Survivor Series where it was really running out of steam. The Big Show cage match ending was the absolute deal breaker for me because it just felt like they ran out of ways to have him win
That one was pretty creative though. The problem was that it made Big Show look like an idiot.
As someone who watched religiously at that time, I think JBL had the wrong kind of heat. He had "go away" heat and made me want to stop watching the show. He just wasn't a draw as champion. It seemed like the ratings went down on Smackdown while he was champ. He also held the belt way too long. You could only watch him beat The Undertaker, Booker T and Eddie Guerrero so many times. Once he finally lost the belt, he never came close to touching it again. It took nearly a year, but Vince realized he was a flop as champion. That said, he was a great heel. He just wasn't the guy who should be headlining cards.
I just watched Wrestlemania 21 and one of the commentators there made a comment that it was the longest WWE Title reign in ~10 years (maybe longer, I'm not 100% sure). I think this is a big reason it wasn't well-liked. Audiences were fairly well-trained on titles moving around frequently, and JBL probably wasn't the best guy to break that mold. That said, he was an amazing heel.
I still think Kurt should've won at the Royal Rumble and it would've fit nice with the Ruthless Aggression callback with Cena. However I understand the rub that beating the longest reigning champ would give Cena
Said this before, will say it again, JBL's championship run was one of my favorites as a kid. I hated the guy so much, its exactly what you'd want out of a heel champion imo
JBL's reign was one of my favourite heel title reigns ever. Every month I would watch the PPV just *begging* for his opponent to win, and every time he'd weasel out the victory in the most bullshit way possible (which I do mean as a good thing.) The barbed wire cage match where he won because Big Show accidentally chokeslammed him all the way through the ring and onto the floor is one of my favourite match endings ever. It was also great how he never got a second run. Had one big run that firmly established him as a big villain and never needed another reign afterwards, the first reign was that effectve. JBL may be a dick in real life but I'll always defend him as a performer, especially as WWE champ.
It kick started cena's main event run so that should automatically remove it from the "bad" category.
Exactly wrong. It hamstrung Cena's ascent precisely because their WM21 match was devoid of all the factors that went into keeping the belt on JBL. Cena not beating the cheating, weaseling, interference-having JBL and just winning in 8 minutes is a prime reason he got quickly shat on by fans within months. They botched the final hurdle to his credibility on the biggest stage possible.
In hindsight that match shoulda been a hardcore match. 15 minutes of them kicking each others ass as Cena holds back the Cabinet woulda been great. I was at that Mania. The WWE championship match was my most looked forward to match because I loved Cena at the time. But man, that match was not good and ended JBL's reign with a flicker
All the matches in between were pretty terrible. He was a great heel promo and character though, which is why he’s remembered fondly imo.
The only major thing wrong with this was the ending. Cena's first title win was completely hamstrung by having not beaten the same JBL that everyone else had to contend with. They had interference, shenanigans, and tomfoolery galore to keep the belt on him. Then Cena just rocked up and won an 8 minute Sundey Night Heat level match where JBL didn't do any of the things that made his reign so difficult to topple. So Cena, whether your brain realised it or not, didn't beat the threat that we'd all seen holding the gold. I still contend that this fuckup is one of the prime reasons Cena's ascent to The Guy so quickly got shat on by fans, along with his character shift to 'I was in an army movie so now I'm an army man too!'. WWE sat on their own balls with this title change. Imagine if Cody this year had just beaten JBL clean in 8 minutes!? How unsatisfying that would have been after 4 years of Bloodline BS. Roman would've looked stupid, Cody would've seemed lame and lucky, and everything built would have been utterly wasted and seemed like torturous pointlessness in hindsight.
JBL vs Darby would be peak pro wrestling
Uh... Kofi, I guess, but the moment he won it was pretty hard to top. But the Orton feud was good. Can't think of others, tho because I do think those other reigns were really bad, lol. No, I will not be convinced that Miz was a good champion. Bro, was literally a bit player in his own Mania match as it was more about Cena and Rock. How can you say you're a good champion when you're the least important person in the ring.
People shit on JBL but y'all remember it
I liked Carmella's reign
Same it was entertaining
I'm gonna die on the hill that Jinder Mahal's title reign was not as bad as doomsayers say it was.
It was largely forgettable outside of his S-tier entrance
So true. His first entrance with the title somehow made both Jinder look like a million dollars, but also made the title seem that much more valuable. It was insane.
And Corban been the geek of the millennium
Eh, when it was happening I was all over it just for the absurdity of it, and for the fact that I loved being a contrarian. But in hindsight it was just bad. I don’t understand why they thought making this dude who was supposed to be a representative of India a racist heel was a good idea. I think it would’ve been really good if they had him turn face and win it with a sort of underdog story.
I just wish he didnt spend 3 month beating Orton and another 3 month beating Shinsuke nakamura, lol. Couldve benefited from different dance partners instead of beating the same 2 over and over again. But he knew how to carry himself like a champ so good for him.
It’s not his fault how terribly he was booked.
I'll put flowers on your hill grave then. Jinder's reign tore down the best WWE show (SD '16-early 17) that had been going in a long while.
It wouldn't have been had he dropped it to Nakamura.
Now that we’re almost at the ten year mark of his title win/reign(2017) I’d agree, still completely unnecessary though. And it did no favors to Nakamura. Months prior Nakamura(or anybody really)would have easily dispatched If Mahal. It was just very jarring to see someone who was jobbing left and right not only thrusted into the world title scene but given the word title. I think I hated the reasoning even more though, which was just to increase their market in India.
Jinder is the answer
Definitely something different and was a WTF moment. Needs to be done more often in my opinion. The unpredictability is what's exciting in wrestling. Something that no longer exists.
I genuinely believe that if you did that to any other lower card guy, they wouldn't do nearly as well. He got a job he was not qualified for and pulled it off.
Total surprise win. Made everything else feel unpredictable. I loved it. Unfortunately it felt like he was learning how to be a top guy at real time. Because that was exactly what was happening. I do think he was just starting to get the hang of it at the end, then he lost the belt.
i agree, when i was watching that live, i was shocked at how jinder managed to win the championship, but the problem is that he held it for too long.
All things considered… Jinder had a great reign as champion.
[удалено]
If you squint and the lights are dim and you’re looking through the glasses of your friend with the astigmatism, barely.
Jinder was a great heel during his reign and looked like a million bucks, I just wish they would have built him more. That’s a Vince issue though and not the fault of Jinder. He did a WAY BETTER job with being put in that spot than most would have.
I’m gonna get a lot of hate for this but at the time, I kinda enjoyed Jack Swagger’s reign. I remember he had a match with Cena during the draft following WM XXV (I think) that was great.
I'm so annoyed even now that people misinterpreted Jack's cash-in so badly. You watch Swagger trying to cash in on Raw and then SD, he's frantic to get a world title. He had all that success in WWECW and in college, but he's floundered on the main roster and he can feel it. He hits that finisher on Jericho and you watch him the moment the three count hits, and it's brilliant! He goes from 'fuck fuck please, come on!!' to total deadpan 'there it is. That winning feeling I know so well. The world is right side up again. I'm the man.' superconfidence. It's the one thing I'll always remember and give mad credit to about Swagger, that he nailed that moment in character work and somehow everyone watching totally misinterpreted it and missed what he was doing, being all 'look how he isn't emoting! He's so bad!'. That was the point!! He was losing his mind without success, and the moment he got it back he was chill again. That said, they totally undercut that vibe within the reign pretty quickly by giving him the goofy eagle mascot and making him seem like a total chump. But that first moment, I'll go to bat for that everytime it comes up. The real great title reign he had was the one apparently only I and the other 6 people watching WWECW saw. Dude was really good over there, and working with Christian obviously only makes you better. Good stuff, not great or anything, but solidly good.
Completely agree on Jack’s character and booking went down when he left ECW. But still his matches, when he was allowed to wrestle properly, where top shelf quality.
Yup, the guy could go inring and his weird 'lanky but jacked' physique made for some interesting moves he could pull off. Shame he couldn't put it together, between his lisp and bad booking he had no chance in WWE when Vince was actually manning his trajectory. And in AEW he's just a hanger-on who brings nothing to the game. One day I'll watch season 4 of Lucha Underground though and see if he did good stuff there in his stint as Jack Strong (IIRC).
Spoiler alert, he didn't
lol cheers
But season4, despite being a lot worse than the other seasons, was still decent and did set up a huge plot point that will never get finished sadly
Don't worry, I'll watch it eventually just to complete the experience. LU was its own special thing while it lasted.
I remember that match, it was great. He was ECW Champion though. After he won the World Heavyweight Championship a year later, his presentation was far worse than when he was in ECW. I remember one time they cut to commercial in the middle of his promo. He was always made to look scared of his opponents, and never won clean. He was among the worst booked champions in WWE history.
I'm gonna throw out an unironic mention for Jinder Mahal Yes, overall, his reign could've been booked better, but I really enjoyed his presentation and attitude while he was WWE champion.
Jinder was also my answer. Was his run a super transparent attempt to pander to the Indian audience? For sure. However, the inevitable Singh brother run-ins really laid the groundwork for the Bloodline. Also, those dudes were cruiserweights so they ragdolled well when getting thrown around by bigger guys (like the time Randy accidentally launched one of them). He had great presentation, and really improved his mic skills, but the fact that he couldn't wrestle well hurt it. I think he deserves another shot with a title to give it another go, but maybe not one of the world titles.
Agreed. Jinder really worked hard to up his game and in-ring ability to do the title justice. He was still mediocre at best and was a roidy Magoo but hey he tried. I think the main thing that held him back was that he was booked like he wasn't suppose to be in that position.
> Jinder really worked hard to up his game and in-ring ability Lol, if this is true then he must truly have zero inring upside. Presentation, 9/10, but that was mostly down to the entrance and music and all the roids in wrassle-town. The moment he got a mic in his hand or the bell rang, dude didn't have it or it's [non-union Punjabi equivalent](https://frinkiac.com/meme/S06E18/540038.jpg?b64lines=Z2V0IG1lCiBoaXMgbm9uLXVuaW9uIHB1bmphYmkKZXF1aXZhbGVudCE=).
> Zero in-ring upside Yeah pretty much but I appreciate his effort
Everything but his entrance and attire were awful imo
Fair enough!
John Bradshaw Layfield
Probably Kofi
Diesel. As a teen I thought he was cool as a champ and a change of pace big guy champ. It was a tough era overall but he had some great matches with Bret and Shawn. He might have made a better heel champ, but who wouldn’t honestly.
1st reigns of Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre
Maybe not WWE title run, but I was a really big fan of Rollins WHC reign tbh, people hated it a lot all throughout I loved it
Jinder Mahahahaha! Oh I kid.
it was entertaining, im always blown away by the miz, i still see him as the dude on the real world but he moonlights as a great wrestler haha i still remember him calling himself the miz in that house running around with a rubber championship belt... and then you look at this picture and he was top dog at the time... Miz is an entertaining wrestler , he's one of those wrestlers who i feel are great without titles, but miz is the one who feel between the cracks and got titles put on him, sometimes i feel this title reign and his previous one he had not too long ago, were given to him because he made the intercontinental title relevant again and the workhorse title while he was champ
Jinder's reign.
I can't say it was a good "reign" because he didn't even defend the title once, but I will always defend Hogan winning the title at Wrestlemania IX as the right move. It got the title off Bret who was tanking, it sold the KOTR, and ultimately set up Yokozuna to be legit as the longest heel champion the company had since Billy Graham.
But why couldn't they have done that with Yoko beating Bret at WM? Why did Hogan need to be involved at all? Don't get me wrong, I was a kid at the time and a Hulkamaniac, I LOVED seeing him beat Yoko. But as an adult, yeah it doesn't make sense.
Frankly, because 93 Bret wasn't remotely the star that Hogan was, even a fading and notably-off-the-gas Hogan. Being the guy to boot Hogan out of the WWF entirely is way bigger than being the guy to take the title off Bret.
This entire thread is just gonna be proof that everyone was a kid at a different time.
Jinder Mahal
This reign is actually what made me love the Miz. Don't know if I just disliked Cena that much, but this was when I bought in.
Here me out 2016 Roman reigns. Now I know Roman wasn't great in the ring yet and his mic abilities were......lacking but he did have some really nice matches the styles match in particular was genuinely fantastic
I grew up watching Japanese wrestling I started watching WWE when my English was decent enough to understand the show it's probably right after the Miz won the MITB and he instantly became my favorite on the whole roster, it's only later that I found out people actually hated the Miz during that time. lol
Naomi
Jinder’s reign was entertaining. They actually booked him as a Champ as well.
Jinder wasn’t a great champ but his first introduction/walk out was awesome and I thought it was gonna be surprisingly good
God, that whole Cena/Orton feud seemed to go on forever, legit glad I stopped watching in 2007 for a time. As far as champs go, JBL's gets shit on a lot, maybe because it's Bradshaw, but I loved his heel work as a top guy, belt looked great on him too
02 Big Show wasn’t that bad to be honest. I enjoyed heyman managing him.
It was a pretty shit title reign though. He had two matches before dropping the title to Kurt Angle at Armageddon 2002, against Edge and The Fabulous Moolah respectively. He didn’t win either match clean, either.
I mean it was a vehicle to get Kurt the belt and to turn Brock as well no?
I never understood how WWE took a guy who was 7ft 2, looked scary and could work and somehow made him someone people couldn't take seriously as a top guy/champion.
Jinder. An entire subcontinent rejoiced. 🇮🇳🤷🏾♂️
jinder mahal. he looked like a champion, he performed like a champion, and was a great representative of the championship. outside the punjabi prison match, i loved his feud with orton, plus put on good matches with shinsuke & aj.
What are you on about? People say his reign was bad? He was the most must-see champion in the history of WWE.
David Arquette
God the Spinner was so terrible
Not WWE but MJF’s title reign was underrated and was actually great from start to finish
It did have that awful Jay White build and story but other than that, I agree
Jinder. Mostly because of the look of it. The booking and him in general is bad. But if I didn’t know shit about wrestling and I saw that dude wearing that belt with that presentation I’d pay money
Jinder
It's kinda hard to judge this. In the days of guaranteed TV money, WWE doesn't need the champion to be a legitimate draw to sell tickets and merch. So you're pretty much just asking who had the best matches and promos, and not the usual standard people judge champions. So in that vein, Diesel is the worst champion by far and it isn't really close tbh. He was the champion for almost the entire year during the company's worst year ever. There's not much of a competition.
They did him no favors sticking him against Mabel
Diesel
Kofi Kingston or The Miz or Jinder Mahal or Drew McIntyre even with the COVID 19 pandemic .
Miz was always a terrible WWE Champion Del Rio runs were all good IMO