The 411 Wrestling Top 5 2.15.12: Week 161 – Top (WWE) World Champions

TOP 5 (WWE) WORLD CHAMPIONS

We’re talking the BIG GOLD BELT WWE introduced when they gave it to Triple H.

TJ Hawke
Researching this topic made me realize how poorly this title has been booked, and as a result, this title has no really great reigns to speak of. These were the best 5 I could find though.

5. Triple H – Triple H’s reigns with the Big Gold Belt are probably the times in his career that have gotten him the most hate from wrestling fans. He held onto this title seemingly for dear life, and somehow always managed to get the belt back after putting someone over. While his reigns were filled with problems, Hunter did two important things for this belt. First, his continued presence with or around the belt helped establish the belt as equal to the WWE Championship which had a much more storied lineage. Second, Hunter put over Benoit and Batista in consecutive Wrestlemania main events that made both men into main eventers (Batista stayed in the main event and Benoit obviously didn’t).

4. Randy Orton – Randy Orton’s reigns have always had some negatives but overall he has been a part of a lot great matches as Champion without any of the crap defenses and feuds that HHH had. He won the title for the first time in 2004 against Benoit in a fantastic match. While that reign went terribly after that, his 2011 reigns balanced it out with a fantastic series of matches with Christian that elevated both men (at the time; Christian has fallen back to Earth). Like a true champion, Orton dutifully put over Henry clean twice on PPV for the belt.

3. Chris Benoit – Benoit’s title reign in 2004 never amounted to much more than a transitional reign, but it still had some great moments and matches without the creative valleys in the reigns of HHH, Batista, King Booker, and more. The Wrestlemania main event where he won the title was one of the more emotional world title wins in the last 20 years, and he went on to have good-to-great defenses against Kane, HBK, and HHH before putting over Randy Orton clean at Summerslam 2004 in a fantastic match.

2. Undertaker – I never think of Taker as being a great world champion, but when I looked at Taker’s various Big Gold Belt reigns, it was undeniable how many quality World Title matches he was involved in. Perhaps the best parts of all his reigns were his two excellent title victories (that happened at Wrestlemania no less) against Batista and Edge. I don’t know if any one of his reigns was especially great, but they added up to be quite good overall.

1. Edge – Edge has won this title an astounding 7 times, but he gets the top spot for the incredible matches he won or defended the title in. Edge carried Smackdown on his back with this title for large chunks of time from 2007 until his retirement. He had great defenses against the likes of The Undertaker, Batista, Jeff Hardy, Alberto Del Rio, Dolph Ziggler, and more. More than anyone else in the last 5 years, he has been the face associated with that title and he carried it extremely well when called upon.

Francisco Ramirez
5. Randy Orton – While Cena commandeered the Raw boat and it’s spinner belt, Randy Orton was left in charge with Smackdown following Edge’s departure. Orton has done very well with “the big gold belt”. Having a great feud with Christian and not to mention helping Mark Henry attain his greatest success. His first reign, like the person he won the belt from the first time, we probably shouldn’t mention!

4. Batista – Batista became a huge deal during his feud with Triple H, he did the unthinkable, removing the belt AND keeping it off of Hunter. He went on to Smackdown where he held on to the title, only relinquishing after an injury. He returned and eventually regained the belt, taking it from King Booker in the same arena he had originally forfeited the World Championship. He would go on to lose the title at Wrestlemania in possibly one of, if not his best match, against the Undertaker. He would have a few more, yet less memorable reigns after this, defeating the Great Khali, and then Chris Jericho. Batista to me is on this list because he took the WWE World Heavyweight Championship off of Triple H’s hands, going over the one hurdle that many simply couldn’t. If Triple H gave the belt credibility, Batista gave it a bigger name feel.

3. The Undertaker – The Undertaker has been champion multiples times, honestly his reigns aren’t as memorable as the actual road to the title. Regardless, the belt itself has had some rather lackluster history, making the case for the Undertaker as a top 5 easier. He’s won the title at Wrestlemania twice, putting on a hell of a match against Batista, and then an even better one with Edge. He gained the title for a third time with a win over CM Punk. While Taker retaining the belt isn’t as good, Taker chasing and winning the belt is usually highly entertaining.

2. Triple H – The WWE World Heavyweight Championships biggest gift and its biggest curse. Triple H becoming the inaugural champion gave the belt instant credibility. Nobody else having a good run with it, until Batista, was it’s biggest crutch. Shawn Michaels, Goldberg, Benoit, and Randy Orton, those men held the big gold belt and three of those four eventually dropped it back to him. Regardless of how much damage Triple H might have done, it can be argued that Triple H kept the damn thing going when there was no one else that could have.

1. Edge – Edge defined this championship. He held it more times than any other man, has gone through a who’s who list of challengers. More importantly, he never became stale while doing so. It doesn’t matter if it was the babyface Edge or the easily more entertaining heel version, when Edge was champion people paid attention, and more importantly paid good money to see the man either win or lose the title.

Wes Kirk
5. Randy Orton – Orton was one of the first men to run with the world championship as part of the Class of 2002 that saw himself and Cena become main eventers by the year 2006. Orton’s title run at first was mostly horribly booked with him losing in a month to HHH and nearly losing his career in the process, but he got his gimmick together and became a force to be reckoned with after his feud with the Undertaker in 2005. As the world champion in the last few years on Smackdown, he reinvented his more boring heel persona into a faster paced “Viper” that simply attacked anybody he wanted much like Steve Austin and didn’t prove to play well with others. The last few years helped solidify Orton as the second top face behind Cena in the WWE today.

4. CM Punk – Does anybody remember the night Punk cashed in on Edge to become World Champion for the first time on Monday Night RAW? Punk wasn’t as popular then as he is now in most places, but after Batista left Edge laying Punk cashed in his briefcase for the first time and became champion over the man who paved the way for people to cash in their MITB briefcases and become instant champions. Punk’s title run wasn’t viewed as much of a success at first, although his next title win over Jeff Hardy was the stuff that made the modern day Punk so famous as a straight edge heel. The title victory propelled CM Punk into the main events and although he’d drop down briefly during his Straight Edge Society days he’d come back and become the most talked about champion in 2011.

3. The Undertaker – The most dominant World Champion in history is probably The Undertaker, who brings an aura of invincibility with him to nearly every match he competes in. As the champion, Undertaker pretty much was able to run through everybody and destroy competitor after competitor, usually only losing the title because of scheming heels, MITB cashing in for Edge after the man was already beaten up by two guys, and other cheap victories. Undertaker faced some of the biggest names, toughest competitors, and best up and coming stars as champion and decisively beat them one by one, although he hardly needs the title to stay over.

2. Edge – Edge’s career was raised the day he beat John Cena for the WWE Title, but it was his runs with the World championship that helped cement his main event legacy in the company. From 1998 until that fateful day in early 2006, Edge was mostly a midcarder with a push here and there and a lot of tag title reigns as well as secondary championship reigns, but nothing truly separating him from the pack. He was given a transitional title run with the WWE Title, and when he won the World Championship he was able to pick things up and prove his worth in the ring and on the microphone. Edge’s time with La Familia on Smackdown and his manipulation of Vickie Guerrero to keep his title kept people tuning in and wanting to see somebody finally beat him, and Smackdown as a whole had better ratings during Edge’s time on top compared to now. Edge is the best example of a homegrown WWE talent who got stuck in the midcard for years but then the World Title brought him to permanent main event status.

1. John Cena – Yes, you heard me right! I’m picking John Cena as our top world champion. The main reason for this has to do with the fact Cena sells merchandise and when he has the title, the ratings generally have gone up or at least steadied and kids spend millions on his t-shirts and all the other crap that flies out of the merchandise stands. During the time when the world title was on RAW and the WWE title was on Smackdown, Cena made this title as important by being the face of the company since late 2005 and showing that the WWE and World titles were on par, as he would ultimately win both of them in the past seven years. My choice here is solely due to financial benefits of this particular wrestler, as I don’t think he’s anything special on promos or in the ring. He can sell merchandise and get a crowd reaction, though, and to a promoter that’s what really counts.

James Wright
5. Daniel Bryan – This might be a little premature but what can I say, I have enjoyed the man’s work. Bryan already feels like less of a transitional champion than half the guys on that list when it comes to the world title. Looking at that list there are a bunch of guys on their that are great performers, who have had fantastic feuds and storylines, the only problem is that barely any happened while they were world champions. I think having the world title as being the championship of the B-show for most of the span of its career has really hurt the title and given it a lot less notoriety than it really deserves, at least Bryan acts like it’s a big deal that he won the thing.

4. Randy Orton – Now here’s a guy whose first win really seemed to mean something to him. Orton’s first title reign, no matter how short or how poorly booked, or what happened to him afterwards, was one of the most enjoyable and surprising reigns that I can remember. Maybe that is because of my age and the fact that I only got into wrestling as the Attitude Era was dying out. But to me Orton had just recently proved himself as a great IC champion and his shot against Benoit at Summerslam seemed like a random encounter that would be just another notch in the belt of a man who had burnt through Raw’s top title contenders during his reign. Instead the man-boy who claimed that it was his destiny to win the world title actually did what he said he would and managed to beat Benoit for the title clean, in the middle of the ring. His reaction on the night and following two Raws were great television, then of course it all went downhill. Fast forward to now and Orton is the established star he is today, in part thanks to his other reigns where he feuded with Christian in what would have no doubt been ‘feud of the year’ if not for the sensationalism of Punk vs. Cena. Orton is clearly a main stay on Smackdown and I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t holding the big gold belt again before too long.

3. Chris Benoit – Regardless of what happened after this reign it cannot be denied that at the time Benoit’s tenure as champion was a great, legitimate, underdog story. Benoit had sacrificed for twenty years in the business and was finally rewarded with a world title belt at Wrestlemania and a run that lasted up to that year’s Summerslam. Say what you want but that scene at Wrestlemania XX of Benoit and Guerrero celebrating with their respective belts is enough alone to put Benoit on the list.

2. Edge – Before Randy Orton took the helm of the Blue Brand there was the Rated-R Superstar, whose seven world title reigns were what kept the Smackdown main event scene interesting, for at least some of the time. Edge really took over from Triple H in being the dominant heel on a brand who just kept on getting their hands back on the belt no matter who they had to go through and what they came up against. Edge faced a myriad of great opponents and capitalized on his name as the Ultimate Opportunist to make sure that every time you turned your back it would somehow be Edge who was holding up the gold before you knew it.

1. Triple H – Before there was Edge to monopolize the big gold belt there was Triple H, and while his reigns might not have been the most sensational it is hard to say that for the better part of two years all you would see on Raw was Triple H with the World Heavyweight Championship. What’s more he managed to take on WCW’s finest and come out on top every time, now perhaps this was because of backstage politics and maybe all the pose-offs and stare downs were far too homoerotic in nature, but the guy is the closest thing to an old school champion that you will get in this day and age. At that time on Raw you knew who the man was, and he always either had the gold, or was going after it. I think the main reason he tops the chart is because while this was the case, unlike Cena I didn’t hate his guts for always being in the title picture, because quite frankly Triple H deserved to be there at that time. Triple H was the first guy to hold the big gold belt in the WWE and he made the belt synonymous with his image, something that no one else has been able to do since.

YOUR TURN KNOW IT ALLS
List your Top Five for this week’s topic on the comment section using the following format:

5. CHOICE: Explanation
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1. CHOICE: Explanation

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