Best Forgotten Champion

[killcenanow]

X-Pac. I say this because Owen and Bulldog were already mentioned and no one will ever forget Bret Hart. X-pac had the European Championship at a time when the belt mattered. After Shane snagged it away (and later gave it to mideon) that belt had little to no meaning for a long time. The only time it mattered after that was when Jericho, Angle, and Benoit were throwing it around but the IC title was thrown in right along with it almost making them seem to be on the same level. Xpac having that belt and the popularity he had at the time because of it, was huge. You would have thought he was on his way to the IC title and maybe even if just for a month the WWE title bouncing it between himself and HHH but yeah most don't remember that stage in wrestling and since then the Term Xpac heat was invented only added to the "forgotten champ" title. They loved the guy and turned on him around the time of the" x-pac tori christmas story" (someone please post that thing on youtube I can't find it anywhere it was the funniest thing ever) never to be forgiven. that's my guy because he was so loved and now when his name is brought up most people immediate go with the "I hate that F#&kung guy!!!" If he comes back we'll see if this holds up.

 

[sleazy]

rick rude! he was one of the best on the mic. or maybe the best. a great wrester. and i don't know why they have not put in the hof yet.

 

[Bring_Back_Evolution]

Sean "X-Pac" / "6 Pac" Waltman was one of the best 90's wrestlers. DX wouldn't of been what it was without him. I do think that he has coasted on that gimmick all his career tho.. anybody remember when he was bought back to be in the nWo in WWE and he still did the cruch chop? I found that wierd! But I'm glad he got as successfull as he did. because I liked him when he was 'The Kid' before beating Scott Hall and becoming the 1-2-3 Kid.. god I hated that gimmick! Can some one tell me how he went from 1-2-3 to X-Pac? Coz I dont know!
I wish they would bring back the Hardcore and European Belts.
Hardcore - So entertaining.. I wish ECW was more like that but now its WWECW and they dont want to hurt themselves!!
European - well Im English so I liked it! Put it on Harry Smith or something!!

 

[TheRazorReturns]

Three little words to start off....BIG....VAN....VADER. In the late 80's early 90's there was NO one like Vader. He was a monster heel with more heat than the surface of the Sun. He was in his prime, and had all of the tools to be world champion. He had the power. He had the character. He could move with the best of'em, even taking to the top turnbuckle, which most folks know, isn't something all 450lb. men can do as easily as he did.

At that time, heels were in short supply as every wrestler on the scene wanted to be an 'Ultimate Warrior' or a 'Sting'. Heels, honest to God Heels were just hard to find, and WCW had the best heel in the business. They built him into a monster, teamed him with Harley Race and turned him loose on WCW which he tore through like a toddler through tin-foil. Soon he had the belt and there was no one on the horizon that had a hope in Hell of dethroning him as 'The Man'. He remained the company's #1 heel until Hoga showed his face and subsequently buried him in the muck and mire of Hulkamania.

It was a true shame to see Vader buried like that, especially when he had so much more to give and so many more great matches and feuds to sell us. Of course whenever you throw Hogan into the mix, all bets are off, no matter how effective you are with the crowd.

 

[zeus3007]

Jushin Liger - WCW Lightweight Champion - People know Jushin Liger as the great Japanese wrestler, but he once held the WCW Lightweight belt after beating Brian Pillman Most people actually forget that WCW had the Light Heavyweight Championship at all...I don't know many other than myself who can list more than one or two former WCW light heavyweight champs.

Andre the Giant - WWF Champion - Defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF title, then 45 seconds later tried to sell it to Ted DiBiase, which caused Jack Tunney to vacate the belt, making Andre the Giant the shortest reigning WWF/E champion ever. This title reign is not recognized by WWE/F or any "Wrestling Experts", so while it is forgotten, it is because Andre never was officially the WWF Heavyweight Champion.

Sean "X-Pac" / "6 Pac" Waltman was one of the best 90's wrestlers. DX wouldn't of been what it was without him. I do think that he has coasted on that gimmick all his career tho.. anybody remember when he was bought back to be in the nWo in WWE and he still did the cruch chop? I found that wierd! But I'm glad he got as successfull as he did. because I liked him when he was 'The Kid' before beating Scott Hall and becoming the 1-2-3 Kid.. god I hated that gimmick! Can some one tell me how he went from 1-2-3 to X-Pac? Coz I dont know!
I wish they would bring back the Hardcore and European Belts.
Hardcore - So entertaining.. I wish ECW was more like that but now its WWECW and they dont want to hurt themselves!!
European - well Im English so I liked it! Put it on Harry Smith or something!!

X-Pac, one of the best? Are you high? X-Pac was never one of the best, he was a depth character that got tv time because he was friends with Trips. And you liked him before he was the 1-2-3 Kid? So you liked him for the 3 weeks prior to his name change from The Kid to the 1-2-3 Kid? He wrestled 2 or 3 matches and acted as a jobber, then won against Razor. Were you also a fan of Reno Riggins? How about Wayne and Dwayne Gill (before Gillberg)? He didn't even have a gimmick as The Kid, he was just a jobber, so saying you hated his gimmick of the 1-2-3 Kid is saying you liked him as a jobber and hated him as soon as he won his first match in WWE. I think most disagree with you about the Hardcore belt, but I for one do agree that they need to bring back the European belt (or the WCW TV belt...maybe bring back the ECW tv belt).

Lance Storm, he's held the WCW us and cruiserweight titles, and the WWE ic and tag titles.

His push in WCW was great. He had 3 WCW titles at the same time; US, Hardcore and Cruiserweight. He renamed them all. US became Canadian, Hardcore became the Saskatchewan Title (or something similar), and I don't remember what they renamed the cruiserweight title, but I remember he changed the weight requirements into kilograms, so a lot of the guys didn't know if they were still eligible. That was gold.

Everyone makes a deal of Ric Flair being 16 Time World Champ. Have we all forgotten that Jerry Lawler has been aWorld Champion well over 20+ times and has held about 60 or 70 titles total.

The USWA Heavyweight title was never a World Title. Lawler held one World title, the AWA title, on one occasion, when he beat Curt Hennig.

Arn Anderson sadly never held a real belt. The T.V. title in WCW is all I can remember. If he wasn't world championship worthy he was definitely U.S champ worthy.

Arn also held numerous Tag Team titles. I agree, he should have had a run as US champ, but he didn't because they had put him in as the TV champ during the Horseman days, and Tully Blanchard was the US champ then. Arn should've moved up the ladder when blanchard retired, but they decided to keep him as basically the permanent WCW TV champ.

 

[brandogg]

X-Pac did the crotch chop in the nWo back in WCW too, so did Nash, so did Hogan, so did Scott Hall. It wasn't the "same" crotch chop, but it was a crotch chop nonetheless. The crotch chop is more of a Cliq thing than a D-X thing.

 

[Bring_Back_Evolution]

Jushin Liger - WCW Lightweight Champion - People know Jushin Liger as the great Japanese wrestler, but he once held the WCW Lightweight belt after beating Brian Pillman Most people actually forget that WCW had the Light Heavyweight Championship at all...I don't know many other than myself who can list more than one or two former WCW light heavyweight champs.

Andre the Giant - WWF Champion - Defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF title, then 45 seconds later tried to sell it to Ted DiBiase, which caused Jack Tunney to vacate the belt, making Andre the Giant the shortest reigning WWF/E champion ever. This title reign is not recognized by WWE/F or any "Wrestling Experts", so while it is forgotten, it is because Andre never was officially the WWF Heavyweight Champion.



X-Pac, one of the best? Are you high? X-Pac was never one of the best, he was a depth character that got tv time because he was friends with Trips. And you liked him before he was the 1-2-3 Kid? So you liked him for the 3 weeks prior to his name change from The Kid to the 1-2-3 Kid? He wrestled 2 or 3 matches and acted as a jobber, then won against Razor. Were you also a fan of Reno Riggins? How about Wayne and Dwayne Gill (before Gillberg)? He didn't even have a gimmick as The Kid, he was just a jobber, so saying you hated his gimmick of the 1-2-3 Kid is saying you liked him as a jobber and hated him as soon as he won his first match in WWE. I think most disagree with you about the Hardcore belt, but I for one do agree that they need to bring back the European belt (or the WCW TV belt...maybe bring back the ECW tv belt).



His push in WCW was great. He had 3 WCW titles at the same time; US, Hardcore and Cruiserweight. He renamed them all. US became Canadian, Hardcore became the Saskatchewan Title (or something similar), and I don't remember what they renamed the cruiserweight title, but I remember he changed the weight requirements into kilograms, so a lot of the guys didn't know if they were still eligible. That was gold.



The USWA Heavyweight title was never a World Title. Lawler held one World title, the AWA title, on one occasion, when he beat Curt Hennig.



Arn also held numerous Tag Team titles. I agree, he should have had a run as US champ, but he didn't because they had put him in as the TV champ during the Horseman days, and Tully Blanchard was the US champ then. Arn should've moved up the ladder when blanchard retired, but they decided to keep him as basically the permanent WCW TV champ.

Yea I liked him before the win over razor, he may have been a jobber but I saw that he had potential, then wwf gave him a stupid gimmick! You may disagree but he was one of the most entertaining wrestlers of the 90's and is better than most of the current wwe roster. Thats my opinion anyways.

 

[krzkid]

What's interesting is all the naming of the big names that people who've watched wrestling more than the past 7yrs haven't forgotten about... I mean Tazz? We're reminded every frickin week he was a champ....

Antonio Inoki.
Titles:
NWA Texas Heavyweight
NWA World Tag Team (Texas)
NWA World Tag Team (Tennessee)
All Asia Tag Team [4]
NWA International Tag Team [4]
NWA United National Heavyweight
"Real" World Heavyweight
NWF (World) Heavyweight [4]
NWA North American Tag Team [2]
WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight [2]
WWF Heavyweight
UWA World Heavyweight
IWGP Heavyweight

Also inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame in 1995 and International Wrestling Institute and Museum in 2005.

 

[Heartthrob81]

Forgotten Champion?? Here's an easy one...who else remembers that Ron Simmons was the VERY FIRST black man to hold a major singles title in North America? He won the WCW World Championship back in the very early 90's, then moved on to WWE, where he tore every bar in America apart with Bradshaw (JBL)...I miss the old days...

 

[Garrett]

Jerry Lynn as he revolutionised wrestling with Sean Waltman and pioneered the best wrestling in the world today-The X-Division.(Former ECW world champion, X champ and nwa tag champ)

 

[bangsurluna]

Big Van Vader, hands down.

This man is the one of the best powerhouse wrestler of all time.
The man could do a moonsault. Nuff Said!

I also love his shoot style.
This man is one of the stiffest workers in the business.
He’s injured so many people.

And He is also one of the most underrated heels of all time.
Mainly his work in the International Circuit, specifically Japan.
He nearly caused the Japanese fans to riot!

Overall just a great underrated wrestler.

 

[rockofhysteria]

For me its a tie between Rick Martel and Tito Santana

Rick Martel was such a good technician I dont't quite remember all the titles he held so If i miss a few please let me know he was AWA world champ. WWE tag champ. and I think he was IC champ for a real short time and lets not forget Tito Santana one of the most versital wrestlers ever even though he only held the IC and WWE tag titles while he was in WWE. He is truly legendary.

 

[HBK-aholic]

I personally loved Chyna's reign as Intercontinental Champion, and how Eddie got the belt off of her by checking to see if she was okay apparently.

Few people remember this reign, probably because Chyna was a women. But I think this is just a further reason to remember and cherish this time period. She had some good matches, and showed the men that it wasn't all about them and that someone could give them a run for their money. The championship suited her as well. She looked really good carrying it around to and from the ring.

The angle with Eddie was also very entertaining, as no one was quite sure how she was going to react to it, and everyone could kind of see the slightl happiness on Eddie's face, washed with the concern over Chyna.

 

[Total Impact]

I'll go with Haku and Andre the giant. I mean there were tag team champions in the WWE and back in thoses days that was something to be pround and I count Andre twice as is 45seconds as WWF champion was just stupid.

 

[8thwotwATG]

One gentleman whose name doesn't seem to come up anymore on the list of champions is that of Don Muraco, and his run as IC champ during the early eighties. I can still remember the heat he generated in his feuds with Jimmy Snuka and Pedro Morales, i personally couldn't stand him (markwise), and wanted to see him suffer every time he stepped into the ring. His run as IC champ helped make this midcard belt a viable championship, in my book and his skill at selling for his opponents, and gifts on the stick made him an outstanding titleholder. It's just that his name doesn't seem to get mentioned much anymore.

 

[hurrakaingvc]

lance storm, one of the most under appreciated wrestlers ever. had the talent to work both face and heel. also had great in ring performances. and his championships rank up there w/ some of the greats of his era.

ecw world tag team championship 3 times
wcw cruiserweight championship 1 time
wcw hardcore championship 1 time
wcw united states heavyweight championship 3 times
wwe intercontinental championship 1 time
wwe world tag team championship 4 times

 

[ninejayriot]

-I would agree that Vader is under-rated. VERY entertaining in WCW, and did not get treated right in WWF.

-I also think 1-2-3 kid/X-Pac. he was tag champ with 2 partners, carried the european belt for a long time, great feuds with d-lo brown and shane mcmahon, and the FINAL WWE LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION.

 

[Vee Dub Represent]

Raven and Crash Holly, they were the face of the Hardcore division, 49 combined title reigns. Legends . Honorable mention goes to Godfathers Hoe, she was the entire focus of the WWF during her title reign and should never have been forgotten by them!! (seriously RIP crash)

 

[shadowfalcon]

Magnum T.A. he was a 2 time NWA United states hevyweight champion amoung others, His untimly death was a great loss to the wrestling industry. Although he was retired after half of his body was paralized should that not have happened he would have been one of the greatest champs ever.

 

[Father:_Polley]

i no his name has just been said, but lance storm. the man used the fact he was seen as boring to get over both as a heel and face.
trained by stu hart is by no means a guarantee u'l make it big, but its a sign ur a damn good wrestler and lance was.
he just never really got the push he deserved in the major companies above midcard and so isnt remembered for being the champion he was at midcard and should have been in the main event level

 

[V4E]

Lance Storm, because he held so many titles but the WWE didnt push him far enough.

Another would be Rey Mysterio, he would've done good, but they made him look like a horrible champion.

 

[Davi323]

London and Kendrick. They were only a few months away from breaking Demolition's record as Tag Team champs, and as soon as they lost the belts, they have faded into obscurity. They need to win the RAW Tag belts, and do what they did on Smackdown...hold them for well over a year.

 

[d'lo_brown_kurt_angle]

I'm going to go with Val Venis.

He's won the IC title and the European title and we forget about him holding those belts. Only because he doesn't wrestle much these days and when he does he either jobs or wrestlers on the sister show, Heat. I really wish Venis will get a push soon.

 

[Undercurrent]

There have been a lot of valid points made. I'll name one that I believe hasn't been said....Raven. He's had a fantastic career and based on the titles he's held you truly see how much he accomplished within the world of wrestling.


ECW World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
ECW World Tag Team Championship (4 times)
NWA World Heavyweight Champion
WCW Light Heavyweight Champion
WCW United States Heavyweight Champion
WCW World Tag Team Champion
WWF/E Hardcore Championship (27 times) (Most reigns)

 

[Total Impact]

Lance Storm, I mean he made an impact in every promotion he came in during his first months, then the company went and pissed on him. Came into
ECW and won gold, when to WCW and won gold, and then WWE and won gold, but the ECW/WCW/WWE all should of made hima main event heel, but they all screwed up what could of been the next Bret Hart without the crying.

ECW Tag Team Champion(3 Times)
WCW Crusierweight/100 kg and Under Champion
WCW United States/Canadian Heavyweight Champion
WCW Hardcore/Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title
WWE Intercontinental Champion
WWE World Tag Team Champion(4 Times)