Greatest to never hold a World Championship

[Judah's Lion]

Maybe I am the only one on this but I would have liked to see William Regal and Goldust capture the strap mayb just once. Now now now hear me out, Regal is probably one of the best technical wrestlers of all time, while Goldust had one of the best gimmicks of all time. Now this doesn't mean you get titles, but they both had there impact on wrestling and I wish they both could get a little more recognition.

you're not the only one. in fact, in my earlier post, i listed William Regal. this guy is amazing and has held just about every other title made available to him. his mic work and in-ring ability are second to none. plus, he's been around forever and done really incredible things with many memorable feuds and matches.

Goldust is a bit of a longer shot, but he certainly has the pedigree (son of the great Dusty Rhodes), mic work, skills and charisma to have made it to the top at least once. plus, he has one of the most difficult and brightest gimmicks in the history of wrestling and he's pulled it off better than anyone else could given the same gimmick.

besides, many people have voted for Scott Hall as one of the greatest to never hold the world title. if that is true, then Goldie certainly could have at least fought for it since these two had a pretty good feud during Goldie's debut around 96.

so yeah, you're not alone in thinking that they should have or could have held the world title.

as far as Owen and Christian as others have brought up...

i didn't say Christian only because his career is not nearly ended yet. it looks like Regal and Goldust might be closer to done with the WWE and so i listed them. but Christian still has some good time left and so i expect him to win the title one day. or at least i hope he does.

now Owen is a bit more sensitive of a subject. loads of people love this guy both personally and professionally and i can see why. he was fantastic and certainly very talented. he needed some help on the mic, but so did brother Bret and we all know that Bret did pretty okay for himself. i'm kinda torn on this one. Owen was pretty great, but was he great enough for the world title when he was wrestling? i'll toss a coin on it and say maybe. but there is no denying that he was great.

 

[LooseCannon1]

im going with Owen Hart...the man never got that push like Bret did and i acutally think Owen might have been the best wrestler in the mid 90's great mic skills great heel and awesome techinical wrestler/high flyer the man had it all i also think they could of had him head line a wrestlemaina maybe against Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart in a Iron Man match and it would have been more entertaing then the hitman vs hbk at WM 12 dont get me wrong best match ever but still the man deserved alot more than acouple IC reigns and Couple Tag championships

 

[UltimateHitman]

I'd like to add somebody that has been as loyal, if not more loyal, to the WWE than even the Undertaker. This guy has given his all to his company, and never gotten a chance at holding the gold. His work ethic was amazing, too, with the amount of times he put people over and helped out younger talent. I'm talking about the Brooklyn Brawler. You see, Lombardi has been a true legend of.... *mmmph* a true legend in the ring for... *snicker* Ok, ok, I can't do this w/a straight face.

But no, seriously, I wanted to give props to the guys that mentioned Steamboat, Owen, and Magnum T.A. Steamboat definitely had the skills and the popularity to be a top player, that is a good call, and who knows what Owen could have achieved had tragedy not befallen him. Personally I would have loved to have seen a Blue Blazer title run.
Magnum, like the other poster said, was being primed to go over the Nature Boy but his accident brought that to a halt. While watching my Starrcade Essential Collection DVD they were talking to Magnum who went through the whole scenario and showed clips of him in action (I also remember him as a small lad) and thought to myself "If there was ever a guy that could have had Hogan's spot in the 80's it would've been him". I could easily have seen Magnum pulling off the "true American superhero" role that was Hogan's claim to fame. It is a shame we never got to see just how far Magnum really could have gone.

I wanted to throw a quick name of my own out there. Big John Studd. He never held the big belt in the WWF, even though he was almost as big and was easily more mobile than Andre. Like somebody said though, the title didn't change hands all that much back then, but I could've seen Studd as a very dominant heel champion.

 

[jacdnwarrior]

Gotta go with Ted Dibiase. He was the quintessential villain. He could work the mike, and in the ring. Even if it was for three weeks, he would have been the perfect heel champ. Owen would have been good and was far better as a heel than he was as a face. He was better on the mike than Bret, and more athletic, so he would have been a pretty good champ.

 

[mulkeymania]

i have to go with 2 from the NWA title scene--one was already mentioned in magnum ta--great charisma and couldve been very good with a run and david von erich but unfortunately tragedy struck before his time came but i see him as another one who could have been a good champion.
as much of a fan of arn anderson that i am i just never seen him as world champion material--good as a us champ or ic champ as far as roddy piper goes it just shows his greatness that he was never a world champ and is still considered a legend.

 

[LitasRevenge79]

Yeah...I'm going to go with the masses here. I'm going to say Million Dollar Man and Roddy Piper. Let's start with Ted Dibiase Sr. This man epitomized "Shortcuts to Success" and "If you can't win them...buy them." I mean...let's look at his history, he'd pretty much pay off everyone, and his moves were second to none. Back in those days, the glitz and glamour that surrounded Dibiase, was unlike anything anyone had seen. You would have always thought "This guy would BE THE one to beat." He even had ways of getting around different rules, but yet, he still never got that golden ring.

Then Piper...oh man...where do I begin?? After watching the Roddy Piper dvd, man, this guy, he should've been world champ at least a dozen times by the time he retired. All the different interviews he did, would've qualified him ALONE for that!! Some of the stuff he said, I thought was precursor to Scott Steiner frankly. LOL. But seriously, this man always willing to go and make himself look like the evil person, just to make sure that people got the best show ever. He still, to this day, always encourages others in the biz to do anything to get that dream going. Especially to go out and put up with as much as he did, for as long as he did, the threats, and having to be told 'No you can't say that.' All because he wanted to do what he wanted. This man is pure gold. I swear, my respect for him increased threefold after watching that dvd. I mean, I wish I could list more people, but these were the two I immediately thought of, two perfect people, who cares if they are villains, but sometimes, they are the MOST entertaining.

 

[mikeyboy]

Has to be Mr. Perfect or Rick Rude , with Rude probably just bairly edging out Perfect , they had it all, incredible in ring ability and great mic skills , two of my all time favorites that died way before they should have.

 

[Dyno Kid]

Are we just talking about the WWF/WWE title because some guys being mentioned( Hennig, Steamboat, and I think Rude) have won titles before ?

Also, I gotta agree that Magnum would have been a good choice for the NWA title. But at the time of his accident in 1986 he was feuding with Nikita Koloff over the U.S. title and prior to that had been teaming with Dusty and was feuding with the Midnight Express so the accident didn't prevent him from winnnig the title at that time.

 

[Trivia247]

I Look back at the old material and I notice that Don Muroco actually was ahead of his time as a Sports entertainer, he could do solid mic work, he knew how to work an audience be that classic heel or face, and was one of the first in that pre and beginning hulkamania period to do vignettes with Mr.Fuji.

Don Muroco should have had a second run at the IC title, and most definately should have had a World Title Run, make him a significent opponent of Hulk Hogan to bounce the title off of.

There were a bunch of great wrestlers who for whatever reason was unable too rise too world title status back in the 80s 90s.


Ricky Steamboat, Greg Valentine, Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorf.

Also Previous era, the Sammartino/Gramhim/Backlund period of early 70s-80s
George Steele was a regular opponent of Sammartino, perhaps he should have won the title during their years long feud or Jimmy Snuka while he was still an heel....