Last week on Monday Night RAW, the WWE officially ushered in a new era of WWE as they introduced the brand new WWE title belt, cementing its change with the WWE Network firmly planted on the belt. The illustrious Big Gold Belt was dropped, and I believe a little reminiscing is in order. Hailing from 2002, Eric Bischoff brought over the WCW Heavyweight Title and was officially renamed simply as the World Heavyweight Championship. That belt signified such prestige, with its simplistic but iconic display. There have been great men who have held this belt (separate article coming soon), and then again there have been utterly awful people who have held the title. Some wrestlers made the WHC look prestigious, while others made it look like a novelty toy. With that said, let’s run down the five most awful champions since Eric Bischoff awarded the title to Triple H in 2002. My criterion is based on the culmination of number of days held, match quality, feud intrigue and personality.
5. Rey Mysterio
Rey Mysterio initially won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 22 by defeating Randy Orton and the World Champion at the time, Kurt Angle. Now any moderate fan knows how this went down. One of Mysterio’s closest friends, and one of the most entertaining wrestlers of all time, Eddie Guerrerro, tragically passed the previous year, and needless to say, Mysterio was very distraught. Then came the Royal Rumble, where Rey Mysterio not only won, but set the record for the longest time lasting in the ring during that match. He finished off this historic night by eliminating Triple H and Randy Orton in subsequent succession, and thereby making his tribute to Eddie complete. Orton did not believe the match was valid and did not believe Mysterio could beat him one on one. Randy had to resort to getting into Rey’s head by paying no respect to Eddie in order to get a singles match for his title shot at WrestleMania. Mysterio accepted, and at No Way Out, he lost. But leave it to Theodore Long to re-insert Mysterio in the match and make it a Triple Threat. Now Mysterio winning the title was a feel good moment as he was the ultimate underdog. But that’s just the issue with Mysterio. His underdog persona which lasted on Smackdown for a few months was getting rather tedious. Rey was far from an untalented wrestler, but the gimmick he portrayed just started to get more and more repetitive as time went on. His promos became very obnoxious, similar to The Miz when he was a face. Also, facing men like JBL and Orton made them look weak as well just to the fact of Mysterio’s size. Rey is one of the greatest Cruiserweight champions of all time, but being World Champion is a tall order. Rey Mysterio is a veteran that I profoundly respect as he was actually one of my favorite wrestlers as a kid playing video games. But as World Heavyweight Champion, needless to say, he was a flop in my opinion. But to each his own.
4. Jack Swagger
Jack Swagger had his first taste of World Champion gold when he cashed in his MITB contract against Chris Jericho after WrestleMania 26. Swagger is a great athlete as we are constantly reminded of his college amateur wrestling success. But as World Champion, Swagger wasn’t exactly setting any one on fire. His promos were lousy, his character was cliche, and not to mention we had some horrible comic relief when he introduced that big bird mascot thingy. It was just all a mess. His feud with the Big Show was absolutely horrible as well. Now, to his credit, Swagger held a clean victory over Randy Orton at the Extreme Rules PPV for the World Title, and while it was supposed to make him vicious, it did nothing for his character. Let’s just say he didn’t have “it”. It’s kind of appropriate that Swagger dropped the title in a Fatal Four Way match to number 5 on this list.
3. Dolph Ziggler
Okay, I know I’m going to get some heat for this as people will claim that this is all WWE’s fault. Now while WWE was awful at booking him, Ziggler did himself no favors. His first reign lasted all of less than half a day when he dropped it to Edge and his second reign wasn’t any better. I completely marked out when he cashed in on another bad World Champion (SPOILER), and celebrated with the raucous WWE crowd in New York. But while he held the title, he was knocked out by Swagger, got pinned by Swagger and tapped out to Del Rio in tag and singles action. Now, let’s be honest with ourselves. Ziggler has the talent, the look and charisma. But at the end of the day, his failures as champion need to be acknowledged. We can’t let our liking for Ziggler become a reason to be oblivious for his horrible reigns. And I mean come on, is Ziggler really that talented on the mic, if he is at all. If given extended time, he can be promising, but he showed none of that. Ziggler is the show-off indeed, but I think Ziggler is better suited for a mid-card title. I have no problem with him as being World Champion again, but he just needs to shapen up his character. Once again, whether its him or WWE, I can’t see any reason to replace him with another guy. Sorry, Ziggles.
2. Alberto Del Rio
Put this in perspective. When your personal ring announcer who announces your name in Spanish gets more heat than you, a spot on this list is all but guaranteed. Del Rio was an absolutely bland champion. Defeating Big Show in a Last Man Standing Match on Smackdown was something that I actually welcomed. But there was absolutely nothing exciting about him. The dude was an elite wrestler, let’s not even get into that. But his promos, his personality, and his intrigue just did not click. After Big Show, Jack Swagger entered the fray and we had a feud that centered around YouTube parodies and a cliche problem in illegal immigration. Not to mention this feud was culminating at WrestleMania of all places. The thing that gets me most about Del Rio, though, is the fact that he seems to try too hard to get fans to like him, especially when he was a face. That whole “SI, SI, SI” thing looked more like a desperate ploy to get fans to cheer him. But at the end of the day he was just very bland and not very interesting to watch. Far be it from me to critique his wrestling acumen, but his persona was just beyond floundering and needless to say he should never be World Champion again. Good thing we won’t have to worry about that now due to his release.
1. The Great Khali
Having an international star holding your World Championship may not always be a good idea. Especially if his name is The Great Khali. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that he is one of only a few wrestlers who defeated John Cena and Undertaker clean. I mean, look at where he is now in WWE. Can you honestly believe that this man won the World Title? Khali was an absolute disgrace of a champion. A walking abomination of the highest order. The man was barely mobile in the ring. He couldn’t add to a moveset that only consisted of a few chops, a big boot every now and again, a few corner elbows, the Punjabi clutch, and that was it. Hell, the Big Show is a big guy too, but if given the right opponent, he can produce a great match (like Sheamus at Hell In A Cell 2012). Let’s not forget that he couldn’t speak English! Vince must have satiated himself in exploiting that fact about him as well. It’s good to know that WWE wanted to push him as an unstoppable monster, but some people just aren’t meant to hold world title gold. The only good attribute that Khali had to his name was his theme song. And not even the theme song he had while he was champion. I mean the song he had after. You can catch me dancing to that music without blinking. But at the end of the day, Khali being champion was one of the worst decisions that I can think of in WWE history. He was not deserving, had nothing unique about him save his height and was just all around a mess of an athlete. Ladies and gentlemen, the worst World Heavywight Champion in WWE history, The Great Khali.
So with that, did I miss anybody? Should any of these five men be taken off the list? Comment below and as always, thanks for reading. Keep your eye open as I name the five best World Champions of all time.
