Greatest WWE Champion of ALL time?

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

The WWE Championship. The greatest pro-wrestling Championship. The ultimate prize in the bussines. A lot of great wrestlers have held it, but a few have achieved the "Legend" status. Almost 50 years of history. A number of 43 different Champions. But who is, in your opinion, the greatest WWE Champion?

Here are some stats taken from Wikipedia for our contenders:

1) Bruno Sammartino: Total of 2 Regins, held the title for the overall of 4,040 days

2) Huljk Hogan: Total of 6 Regins, held the title for the overall of 2,185 days

3) Bob Backlund: Total of 2 Regins, held the title for the overall of 2,138 days

4) John Cena: Total of 10 Regins, held the title for the overall of 1,058 days

5) Pedro Morales: Total of 1 Regins, held the title for the overall of 1,027 days

6) Bret "The Hitman" Hart: Total of 5 Regins, held the title for the overall of 654 days

7) Triple H: Total of 8 Regins, held the title for the overall of 539 days

8) Stone Cold Steve Austin: Total of 6 Regins, held the title for the overall of 529 days

9) "Macho Man" Randy Ravage: Total of 2 Regins, held the title for the overall of 520 days

10) "The Heart-Break Kid" Shawn Michaels: Total of 3 Regins, held the title for the overall of 396 days

11) CM Punk: Total of 2 Regins, held the title for the overall of 316 days (and still going)

12) The Rock: Total of 7 Regins, held the title for the overall of 297 days

13) Kurt Angle: Total of 4 Regins, held the title for the overall of 297 days

14) The Ultimate Warrior: Total of 1 Regins, held the title for the overall of 293 days

15) John Bradshaw Layfield: Total of 1 Regins, held the title for the overall of 280 days

Now, taking notice of these stats, superstar name value, impact during their reign(s) and your personal opinion, who, do you think is the greatest WWE Champion of all time?

Please support your opinion.

 

[1C3-M4N]

I personaly liked Shawn Michaels, but he's not on your list. He won his first title in the Iron Man Match with Brett Hart, and had lots of big matches during his Reign against Diesel, Vader, Mankind, Brett Hart, Undertaker, Sid and many others. He became champion again 2 more times for a total of three. Not sure how many days his reigns were but he was a great champion who always put on good matches and was very entertaining on the mic.

 

[Tired0FthePeople]

Stone Cold is credited with taking professional wrestling to its ultimate 'golden era', or atleast, its ultimate golden era as it stands now. If pro wrestling were to end tomorrow, Austin would have been the 'leader' of the era that saw the most prominence and popularity. His merch sales, ratings and PPV buys not only are tops on the list, BUT tops on the list during the time that wrestling was at its most proliphik period. It terms of 'greatness', he's easily the greatest champ of all time so far.

 

[Final Form Snyper.]

I don't believe that length has anything to do with quality of tenure. The guys like Triple H, The Rock, Stone Cold and Kurt Angle were excellent as champions. The problem though was the seemingly endless problem of switching the belt at every second PPV. The reason was because each were stars at the time and each deserved to hold it. The length of time shouldn't matter because they were all champions in the Wrestling Boom and at that time the quality of wrestling was tremendous.

 

[xavyer]

I'm surprised that Edge is not on that list, he held it a lot of times and had a lot of memorable matches, but as for the people on that list, i know there are several others that had the title longer, but as for quality in my opinion is Triple H, every time he was the champion, as oppose to now, it meant a lot, it was prestigious, and when someone beat him for it, it was like the greatest acomplishment to whoever took it from him, he did everything to defend the title, he had the ultimate attitude as a heel champion, he practicly defended the belt with his life, and he was very credible, and when he was a face champion, he was a very fighting champion, and as a face or as a heel, he truly delivered, and made believe that whoever win the championship, truly earned it.......

 

[Mustang Sally]

1) Bruno Sammartino: Total of 2 Regins, held the title for the overall of 4,040 days

That's a total of over 11 years. Plus, it all came in an era before gimmick matches in which there are more than two guys in the ring. From my understanding, they didn't interrupt these title matches with run-ins or other outside interference that tainted the result, either. Instead, it was one-on-one with Bruno facing the #1 contender once a month.....a gallery that included the best wrestlers in the world.

Every month, Bruno headlined the card, usually held at the sold-out Felt Forum of Madison Square Garden. Sure, there were "un-clean" endings: disqualifications, count-outs, etc. Usually, though, it was grind-it-out mat wrestling against the best the sport had to offer, with Bruno winning by submission or pinfall.

I say Bruno was unquestionably the best champion of all time. Just because he's become an old jerk doesn't negate what he accomplished. He was kept as the champion for so long because he was the guy the people wanted to see. Little old grandmothers in Brooklyn knew who Bruno Sammartino was.

Just because we haven't seen him perform live doesn't diminish who he was as WWWF champion.

 

[mikde_]

I'd personally have to go with Hulk Hogan.

As much as we like to hate on old Terry, there is just no denying that he is and will always be the guy that helped launch Wrestling on a global scene. He is the guy i and millions if not billions of other people think of when it comes to Wrestling. His look is everything that comes to mind when you think of a "Wrestler" so to speak. It just has to be him in my book. A lot of people mention just how big Austin was a champ but imagine if WWF had the marketing system and production they had for austin back when Hogan was about? He would easily top austin.

Now if we are talking about quality title runs? I'd personally have to choose Triple H. He was everything a heel champion should be and always produced top notch matches that still entertain to this very day.

 

[mulvey187]

My favourite Wwf/e champion is either the big show or brock lesnar they are both extremely atlethic big men who brought a real sense of competition in there respective two and three runs as Wwe champion.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

I'm just gonna go ahead and say Shawn Michaels. I am one of his biggest fans EVER! And between the emotional win with the Iron Man, the Montreal Screw Job, & the casket/HiaC matches with Undertaker, he had some of the most memorable title reigns IMO. Not to mention he never put on a bad match & always elevated the Main Event, no matter who was already in it!

That's a total of over 11 years. Plus, it all came in an era before gimmick matches in which there are more than two guys in the ring. From my understanding, they didn't interrupt these title matches with run-ins or other outside interference that tainted the result, either. Instead, it was one-on-one with Bruno facing the #1 contender once a month.....a gallery that included the best wrestlers in the world.

Every month, Bruno headlined the card, usually held at the sold-out Felt Forum of Madison Square Garden. Sure, there were "un-clean" endings: disqualifications, count-outs, etc. Usually, though, it was grind-it-out mat wrestling against the best the sport had to offer, with Bruno winning by submission or pinfall.

I say Bruno was unquestionably the best champion of all time. Just because he's become an old jerk doesn't negate what he accomplished. He was kept as the champion for so long because he was the guy the people wanted to see. Little old grandmothers in Brooklyn knew who Bruno Sammartino was.

Just because we haven't seen him perform live doesn't diminish who he was as WWWF champion.

It is hard to deny this logic & I have great respect for Bruno's accomplishments & titles reigns.

But I think this statement above somewhat proves why I think CM Punk is on his way to being of THEE TOP WWE CHAMPIONS EVER!

Not only does he constantly have GREAT matches & is entertaining out of the ring, I haven't even gotten CLOSE to being tired of him as WWE Champion. Which in these days to go almost a full year as champion and not bore most people, is a HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT!

I think back in the days of Bruno & Hogan people were used to a long reigning champion & someone finally breaking that streak. But these days the audience as well as WWE itself IMO, has a VERY short attention span. To stay a certain character or gimmick, hold a title for a long time, not change from heel to face or vica versa, etc. seems to automatically make you become boring to just about everyone. Don't get me wrong, everyone has to evolve but it seems these days no one wants to wait for anything to evolve. That's what made alot of people hate Cena IMO, was forcing his title reign and forcing his (slight) change of character. (besides those who didn't care for him before).

That's why I think in 2012, for CM Punk to have held the WWE title for almost a year, have consistent grade A matches & mic work, stay relevant outside the ring, not get boring with the title, and still evolve, is a pretty big accomplishment and should put him in the top 10 wwe champions of all time. (As well as his Summer of Punk 2.0 with him walking out WWE Champion will go down in the history books! Which was his first WWE Title! And everyone know that first WWE Title win is a BIGGIE!)

 

[Ethelion]

I've only gained access to wrestling in my country during Kurt Angle's fourth and last run as the WWE Champion, so I'm only basing my decision starting from this reign.

Despite Cena carrying the WWE Title through most of the 2000's, you'll never get me to say that he's the Greatest WWE Champion of All Time. I just don't see him as a wrestler. I see him more as an entertainer.

Therefore, I'll go and say Triple H. Being the first guy to beat The Rock's Record-Setting Seven-Time WWE Champion says a lot. Sure, lengthy reigns mean more than the number of reigns, but surely, Hunter's got his fair shares of long reigns, right?

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Hogan was not only dominant during his era, he is perhaps the most recognizable wrestler ever. (I'd argue that only Andre The Giant could match him here).

He brought the WWF into the global spotlight, and helped it stay there. He was clearly one of the best merchandise sellers for the company ever...I've still seen nothing to compare Austin, Rock or Cena to Hogan in an assessment that also adjusted for inflation. As far as big money matches are concerned, they may have not been classics technically, but they were instantly recognizable to hardcore and casual fans: The first WrestleMania, WrestleMania 3, WrestleMania 6, etc.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

But I think this statement above somewhat proves why I think CM Punk is on his way to being of THEE TOP WWE CHAMPIONS EVER!

Punk won't even get close to the top three and probably even the top five. Sammartino, Hogan, Austin, Cena, Hart, Rock, and HHH are all ahead of him in my opinion.

I'm torn between Sammartino and Hogan. Both had long reigns and they had huge impact in their respective eras. They were big draws everywhere they went and sold out show after show.

I'm going with Sammartino because of what happened when he lost the title. The crowd was stunned beyond belief and people were crying and even the announcer was afraid that there was going to be a riot.

 

[obamartins]

Put aside who is your favourite & look at it logically with no bias.

There is only one option...Hulk Hogan. I don't need to explain because it is obvious.

Bruno Sammartino id put 2nd.

To show just how f**ked up the poll is, four people voted for HBK who's Title run was a dissapointment while zero people voted for Macho Man Randy Savage...

 

[burtHART]

tough to say since i wasn't aware of wwe/wwf during hulk hogan's reign or bruno's...but i do remember enjoying stone cold, rock, and kurt angle reigns...

cm punk shouldn't even be on this list...john cena shouldn't count since he was only a "commercial" champion

 

[HBKistheHOF]

Punk won't even get close to the top three and probably even the top five. Sammartino, Hogan, Austin, Cena, Hart, Rock, and HHH are all ahead of him in my opinion.

I didn't say top 3 or 5, I just said in the top because alot of people act like he shouldn't even be considered. He has had a pretty big impact in this moden era and has been the top WWE Champion of this recent era (2005-Present) IMO.

Especially his first title win was the most memorbale thing in years! Off the top of my head I can't remember the first time Bruno, HHH or Bret won the title. Rocky's first title was kinda a fluke. And Cena beat JBL (which shoudln't be anywhere near this list) in a sub-par match half way through the night.

My point is for what he has done in this day and age compared to others, he deserves atleast to be around #10.

 

[Pedigree1]

This one is easy for me the living legend Bruno Sammartino! The man at one point had damn there a 8 year reign as champion 8 YEARS ! That is unheard of and never ever will be surpassed! Bruno was a athlete way ahead of his time. He Feuded back then with a whos who! Giant Baba,Gorilla Monsoon,The Shiek,Freddie Blassie,etc. Yes i was not born when bruno was champion but my dad used to tell me about him and he is far from a wrestling fan.

Bruno sold out MSG every chance he could get. Kids Moms grandmas grandpas back then knew who Bruno was and thats who they came to see and no one else. Name another athlete that when the champion finally loses the crowd goes into a dead silence and everyone starts to cry their eyes out.

Thats how important Bruno was and still is. Yah is he cranky a little bit i think maybe he has good reason to be. Bruno worked for Vince Sr not vinnie mac Jr! But that shouldnt take away from his accomplishments now should it?

 

[Arhan_P]

I would go with Kurt Angle...
A great techni wrestler and gt all what it takes to a champ...

He's matches wid Lesnar were outstanding...

SecOndly,Austin and Punk..
Both have great wrestling skills and best on mic...both are bad*** and that's what make superstars interesting...
moreover,punk can fit into any gimmick and that's a huge plus point..

 

[Wald]

Oh come on, take into account the criteria:

Now, taking notice of these stats, superstar name value, impact during their reign(s) and your personal opinion, who, do you think is the greatest WWE Champion of all time?

How are people voting for guys like the Hitman, Punk, Angle and Michaels ahead of Hogan, Austin and the Rock. Only Sammartino can touch those three for the overall package, everyone else is a non-runner.

Hogan gets my vote.

His reigns were long and he faced everyone from Macho to the Million Dollar Man to Slaughter to Warrior to Shiek to Piper to just about any other name you could throw at him.

Superstar name value, only the Rock can compete with him here, not even Austin comes close.

Impact is probably, I think definitely but some might argue, the greatest on a company of any wrestler ever. Vince used to like to say that he could have chosen anyone to be his guy but the truth is he couldn't. In that era only Macho would have had a chance of doing Hogan's numbers, and I still think he wouldn't have come close.

Personal opinion I think Hogan did the most for the belt and placed it firmly as the number one title in the world. Bret is my favourite wrestler of all time, but he didn't anywhere close to what Hogan did for the WWF (despite me thinking Bret's run at the top is criminally under-rated).

 

[RJJ]

Hulk Hogan. I don't even need to get into details, but that guy brought a lot of prestige to the WWE title. It doesn't matter how many times you've won the title, the only thing that matter is how you carried that belt, like him or hate him, Hogan's run as the champion was the best run in the history of this business.

 

[hrod42186]

its obviously hulk hogan, putting aside bruce sammartino because i wasnt around to watch him. but to be honest, theres no one that carried the belt with more dignity and honor than bret the hitman hart. bret gave so much more prestige to that winged eagle belt.

 

[IT Factor]

As far as champions who built wrestling, Hulk Hogan has to be the number one guy to do it. He was wrestling's first major worldwide superstar and even non-wrestling fans knew who he was. Every champion on that poll list added their respective contributions to the overall prestiege of the WWF/WWE Title. If we are going with more modern champions, Stone Cold Steve Austin has to be the odds-on favorite. He revolutionized the WWF during the "Attitude Era" and was the poster boy for what that era meant to most fans.

As for more current champions, I'm going with CM Punk. He is the longest reigning since the reigns of Cena & HHH, which is a compliment to how great Punk is as a performer.

The reigns of guys like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Macho Man, and Bruno Sammartino cannot be overlooked either. They all had their own accomplishments and connections with the title belt and had their own way of carrying themselves as the man. The Rock was another great champion and one of the guys who carried the title during and after the attitude era. I'm just surprized that The Undertaker wasn't on that list. He's been numerous time WWE Champion and World Champion.

 

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

There are a few ways to answer this question so I will do that. Also, being an 80's child I have no recollection of WWF or WWWF before my time so I will only speak towards the wrestlers that I'm familiar with.

As I see it there are two different ways to measure the greatest champion. Either they were the best drawer for the company and got the most out of the fans and the most money for their owner. Or, they had the best matches and were the best wrestlers of all time.

Biggest Draw

For me this comes down to a 3 man race. You have Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. In Hogan's favor is that he carried his era whereas Rock and Austin split theirs. Also, Hogan's era lasted longer then Austin's or Rock's. However, Rock had the most crossover ability as witnessed by him becoming a major Hollwood action star and even before that his work on various tv shows and movies while still an active competitor was bigger and better than anything Hogan and certaintly Austin did.

While that crossover ability was sure to bring in new fans, Rock comes in third compared to Hogan and Austin as they no doubt brought in more money for the company then Rock did. Now between Austin and Hogan is a tough one. While Hogan had a longer reign, I would say Austin was bigger because he brought in high weekly raitings and a new demographic that Hogan probably couldn't do in the 80's.

Honorable mention Cena. While I hate the guy, he no doubt is a big money earner in the same way Hogan was in the 80's with the lengthy reign to match. While Cena does bring in money in the same fashion that Hogan did, it is Cen's lack of bringing up WWE's numbers like Hogan did in the day that keep Cena out of the discussion, and rather give him an honorable mention.

Best Matches

As there were three guys I could make a case for as best drawer, there are also three guys I can make a case for, for best wrestler/matches. Those would be Bret Hart, Shawn Michales and Kurt Angle. It would be silly for me to sit here and type how one man was better in the ring than the other. Truth is all these guys had different styles, but they were all as close to perfection in the ring. Now thre has to be one who was better and to me I would say Angle. The difference for me is there level of competiton. Angle was in consistent fueds with guys like Rock, Austin, HHH, Undertaker and Benoit. These are guys who always assured Angle had someone in the ring who could keep up with him and allow Angle to shine. Bret and Shawn weren't so lucky. While they had great opponents, they didn't have them with the consistency that Angle did and thus couldn't shine as bright as Angle did. Another drawback for Shawn and Bret is that they never had the epic fued over the title that they should have. While 97 was great because of how real it was with Bret and Shaw's personal feelings affecting there work, it also kept them from having a truly great fued like Angle had with Austin, HHH, Rock, Benoit and even Brock.

In conclusion:

Greatest Champ as a drawer: Austin
Greatest Champ as a wrestler: Angle

 

[Domamania]

Well I am going to answer it this way and it will be by era then over all,in My opinion.


The first era will be the foundation era,I will say the best ever champion in that time will be The living Legend Bruno Sammartino. He was and still is today the logest champion in wwe history, he held the title with both reigns combined at almost 12 years. with that length in time thats almost 3/4 or a generation of being a world champion. Bruno was the frist in wrestling histroy to be in sports illustrated, and he was in the top 5 highest paid athelete in the 1960s. He sold out every where he went including the USA, Canada, Japan, South America, Australia, and in Europe. Bruno Sammartino was also saved the wwwf from going out of business in 1963 when buddy rodgers almost sent it out of business. He meaning Bruno was so popular that they meaning the WWF and the NWA wanted Lou Thez to drop the nwa title to Bruno to make a one REAL undesputed Champion because bruno was extremely popular with ppl of all ages and colores.. Bruno was a class act and still to this day when he says something he keeps his word...

Now with the WWF extension era( 80s) and early (90s) I wold say Hulk Hogan, Hulk Hogan had the 3rd logest title reign. He was the poster guy that helped the wwf at the time take over the wrestling business and started the merchandising as it is today. Hulk Hogan is the guy who also transended the wwf in the mass media and brought the wwf back on top after almost 10 yeear dead between the Bruno era and the hulkamania era. Hulk Hogan was also responsable for the big ppvs like Wrestlemania, summerslam, royal rumble, survivor series and also responsible for the formation of monday night Raw..


Last but not least the transition era( late 90s to 2000s) I would have to give it to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. He was the flag ship pole that started to revitalize a stale wwf that injected it with a thing called the attitude era. with that injection he put the wwf back on top and made the company beat and buy its major competitor WCW out of business. He sold large amounts of merchandise and transended how the wreestling business is today...

Now with that being said, the over all greatest would have to be The Living Legend Bruno Sammartino....

 

[FlairFan2003]

WWE has had it's share of guys who were very good champions, Cena, HHH, Hart ammg them. They've only had 3 GREAT champions however.

Bruno Sammartino is the greatest. To dominate the title for 11 years is impressive. The most important thing is the company was built around him, literally. There was no WWE before him. They built a profitable touring company from the ground up with him as the main draw. You can argue about his in ring skills, but some of the best skilled wrestlers worked primarily in down times and saw business decline (Brett Hart). That's not totally their fault, certainly not an indication of their work quality or skill, but there is no doubt that if Sammartino didnt succeed WWE would have suffered a huge setback, maybe permanent.

Hulk Hogan is 2nd. Again, not the greatest strictly in terms of in ring ability (though better than he gets credit for, very good matches with Savage, Flair, Piper on his resume) but the whole national expansion was centered around Hogan as champ. His popularity, much like Sammartino before him, was the driving force behind the company's unprecedented success. I believe McMahon still would have expanded nationally without Hogan, he still would have had a dog fight with Jim Crockett Jr for national dominance, and if Crockett still made the bad business decissions (the UWF purchase, spending too much time on expensive cross coast travel instead of focussing their house show business in their core areas where travel was cheaper and gates were higher) then Vince still would have won. However, Hogan's charisma helped him become a national cultural phenom. It was and is still the biggest, most successful period in company history, bigger and longer lasting than the Attitude height 98-00, and Hogan was the epicenter.

Bob Backlund is 3rd. After Sammartino WWE had a variety of champions, Morales, Kolloff, Graham, all had varying levels of success, but Backlund was the only one between Sammartino & Hogan that was dominant. Champions typically had longer reigns back then because the abscence of monthly PPV and main event caliber matches on TV meant slower moving storylines, longer lasting feuds, played out on the house show circuit. For someone to dominate as long as Backlund you had to be a big draw, if the crowds lost interest you had to be replaced. It was the same in the NWA where Harley Race & Ric Flair dominated for two decades with long title runs interupted only briefly by occassional upsets followed by another long run. Backlund was a dominant, popular champ for an extremely long time. Unlike Sammartino, who the fledgling company was built around and Hogan who the national expansion was built around, Backlund kept an established entity successful, maybe elevating a bit, he did a great job driving the car, but Bruno helped build the car & Hulk re built and improved it, that keeps him a notch below them in terms of relevance.

HBK gets props for ultimately establishing Austin as the true #1 guy but he never clearly established himself as #1 himself for a long run. Hart & Cena were great champions but during business downturns. Austin himself never had a dominant title run, although he was extremely popular. Savage was always overshadowed by Hogan, although his two reigns were fairly dominant, HHH was maybe the best pure heel champ, but his mark on the company's success during his heyday as champ was not as significant as Sammartino, Backlund, & Hogan.

 

[EastCoastFan]

For their eras, Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan and John Cena were the best. Steve Austin was also a great champion and spearheaded WWF's overtaking and destroying WCW, but he was top dog for a much shorter period of time than the others.

If I had to pick one of them, I'd have to go with Hogan. Pro wrestling was a much smaller market before WrestleMania 1 and Hogan (and Vince McMahon) sold wrestling to a new breed of fans, ones that might not have gotten into wrestling otherwise. I know Vince supposedly had a list of ten possible guys to build the WWF around, but Hogan was the one who got the nod - and the rest, is history.