Greatest wrestler to have won the WWE Championship or World title once

[matty256]

lets look at the list:


WWE-
Buddy Rogers
Ivan Koloff
Pedro Morales
Stan Stasiak
Billy Graham
The Iron Shiek
Andre The Giant
Ultimate Warrior
Sgt Slaughter
Diesel (not counting WCW)
Kane
Mr Mcmahon (haha please)
Eddie Guerrero
JBL
Rob Van Damn
and Jeff Hardy

World-
Goldberg(same as Kevin Nash)
Chris Benoit
Rey Mysterio
Booker T (same as Bill and Kevin)
The Great Khali
and CM Punk.

Imo the one who got the biggest draw from his title win was The Ultimate Warrior. He was the first man to beat Hogan clean for the belt in a match that was amazingly hyped and was his best match no doubt and held it for a good while before losing it to Slaughter at Royal Rumble the year after.

But the one who had the best wrestling skills from that list has to be Chris Benoit. Benoit second to Kurt Angle is the best technical wrestler ever imo.

so who do others think was the greatest one time champ?

 

[Decarow]

That's hard to say, really. RVD pretty much only won it to help promote the new ECW. Rey won it due to Eddie's death (RIP). Khali won it for god knows why. Kane only had it for a day. I would probably say JBL though.

 

[tnarage2]

man there is alot of great people i would ave top pick my top five number 5 would be jbl even though he maybe a bad guy he can sure defended it and he was and is the longest reinning wwe champion in smackdown history. my number 4 pick would be the late great eddie guererro even though hed lied cheat and steal but he is by far the greatest latin wrestler in wwe history RIP . my number 3 pick would be rey mysterio the reason why picked rey rey is because even though every body doubted him he sure had a great run as champ some people say that his reign wasnt tghat long i beg to differ he lasted about 4 months and that is better than john cenas last title reign. my number 2 pick is non other than rvd the reason is that if it wasnt for rob van dam we wouldnt have an ecw championship. and my number one pick is chris jericho and i know hes a 3 0r five time world champion but he is the first undisputed champion and he held the wwe title once for about five months with the world title so i consider y2j having the wwe title once

 

[RendarSelin]

I'm going to have to go with Rob...Van...DAM! The man is one of four men on the list to complete the Grand Slam (other 3 being JBL, Jeff Hardy, and Eddie Guerrero). RVD held two championships together (granted he was given the ECW Championship...). 2 time Tag Team champion (I believe twice: Kane & Booker T), multiple time IC Champion. ECW TV Champ for 23 months. RVD's WWE title reign was cut short due to his own doing, but he was one of the best!

 

[gers09]

hmmm there is soo many but i have to go with Eddie Guerrero he is one of the last guys to hold the belt that had it all he was a great wrestler he was also great on the mic and all the fans love him where the current wwe champ cena he is a good wrestler he is good on the mic but not all the fans love him he does get a lot of heat

 

[avi01]

No doubt Benoit comes to mind. One of the very best one the ring and only once champion. But it did make it very special.
Eddie too comes to mind. Why I`m not sure Benoit would have had another world title reign, looked to me Eddie might have been on the top again.
Kane too. Back in 98-99-00, he would have made a very credible heel champ (for more that 1 day i mean).

 

[mr.davidson]

Lol

Seems like this was put up because people are tired of Hogan being named the best champion ever.....

But if I had to pick out of those individuals... I would go with the Warrior.. The fans seemed to enjoy him the best N during his time when he won that tittle no one could stand close to him at all...... where alot of the other guys named on this list, though they are great when they held the tittle they were not considered by the company as being the best. meaning that they were not considered to be the one to carry the WWE.. Most of these people were just people the WWE gave the belt to just to seee how it would go, and also to see what exactly the hype would be with them.

Then if i had to pick second... would be Sgt Slaughter he was a great champion that played his role perfect..... also when you talk about a good tech wrestler, if you really watch a slaughter match you really can see what a great tech wrestler he really is.

Then if I went for one more choice being third it would be Superstar Billy Graham... I just liked the guy and i think alot of people forget what a great champion he truly was.....

 

[Miko]

I am torn between Ultimate Warrior and JBL, both guys had a pretty lengthy run but I think when considering the time period the length of JBL's is more impressive than that of The Ultimate Warrior.

Warrior was the definition of a face champion at the time, and maybe even now, that is he was better than all of his opponents, the only way to take the title off of him was to cheat, which Slaughter did well. I'd say I enjoyed his time when he wasnt champion more.

JBL on the other hand, I mean who didnt want to see this guy lose the title? He was hated, all the time Jibbles went in there with the faces seemingly looking dominant and everytime he managed to escape with the title. He somehow managed to survive some of the best names on Smackdown until Cena finally snatched it from him.

I think I might go with JBL, Warrior drew better no doubt, but nobody was drawing in 2004 and JBL did a fucking good job with what he had.

 

[matty256]

No doubt Benoit comes to mind. One of the very best one the ring and only once champion. But it did make it very special.
Eddie too comes to mind. Why I`m not sure Benoit would have had another world title reign, looked to me Eddie might have been on the top again.
Kane too. Back in 98-99-00, he would have made a very credible heel champ (for more that 1 day i mean).

Benoit was supposedly going to win the ECW title so yeah i doubt he would have won The World Title or WWE title again. And i'm not sure if this was true i just read it from somewhere but there were rumors that Batista was going to drop the belt to Eddie in a triple threat match on smackdown the week he died so he could take time off. I would have loved to see Eddie on top again but i guess we'll never know

 

[LokiCobain]

Andre the Giant was undefeated for 15 years, with one title reign. JBL? Besides Warrior, none of these names come close to what should've came out of Andre. I'm not a big fan but when you're going to have someone undefeated for a decade and a half you'd think at some point a title match is in order.

 

[Tim_Seraphim]

This is indeed a tough one. If going by skill, you'd have to consider Benoit, Guerrero, or Rogers. If you went by drawing you'd have to consider Warrior, Graham, Andre, & sadly McMahon. He was the top heel during the Attitude era, but we will exclude him. I was a big Warrior fan during my youth, & Chris Benoit is definitely one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, but I'm going to go with the original nature boy. His influence on wrestling, though not so much discussed, was too tremondous to be ignored. If I had to choose one from a modern era, I'd go with Guerrero. He had every tool necessary except the height, which he showed didn't matter.

 

[gers09]

Andre the Giant was undefeated for 15 years, with one title reign. JBL? Besides Warrior, none of these names come close to what should've came out of Andre. I'm not a big fan but when you're going to have someone undefeated for a decade and a half you'd think at some point a title match is in order.

i didnt think of Andre in 15 year undeafted he should of had a few title matchs in there of all the real big men or giants the 8th wonder of the world was the best never lost a battle royal he was in i didnt like what they did though him when he did win the belt he gave it to million dollar man wasnt fair on Andre

still got to go with eddie

 

[Captain Bean]

possibly andre. 15 years undefeated and only one title reign? warrior and jbl provived good long title reigns.

however i will go for benoit. one of the greatest technical wrestlers ever! he was unfortunate in a way not to get more title reigns as he was in the era of the rock, austin. HHH, lesnar, goldber, taker etc

 

[JJYanks121]

Back then, Andre was an attraction, kind of the way a circus or something is. He would go from territory to territory and wrestle matches just long enough so the people would still stare at him in aw. It wasn't like today where there's 1 company and he was in a Khali role but never losing. It wasn't until later in his career that he signed on with the WWE and became a TV commodity with them.

As for one time champs, it's sometimes hard to argue their greatness because if that reign fails, it sort of proves their worth. It is for that reason I go with Sgt. Slaughter. This is a guy who was a great face but never a title contender due to Hulkamania, but he put his actual life on the line to play an Iraqi sympathizer and basically singlehandedly help make WM7 with the buildup. This was actually the only time I truly went nuts for the Hulkster as a kid. As much as I liked to root for other guys, you couldn't help but want Hulk to win. Slaughter "got it" and sold it well. That is what holding the belt is all about. JBL is a close second because his long reign towards the end of his career was to put over an up and coming star and he did that to absolute perfection. Well played by JBL.

 

[Sasori]

Hmmm its either the Late Great Eddie Guerrero or the Rabid Wolverine Chris Benoit hmmmmmm I'll go with Benoit! He's amazing on the mic and can cut some REALLY tense and emotional promos! He's also one of the greatest technical wrestlers TO LIVE (only second to Bret The Hitman Hart) and did you hear J.R on the broadcast table when he won the WHC at WM 20!?! my god the dude went WILD! and his win just like Eddie's was like a FINALLY IT HAPPENED moment in history! Benoit worked his ass of in WCW to win the WCW cahmpionship only to quit and go to WWE and work his ass off there for about 9 YEARS and than winning the WHC!
So anyways Benoit is my choice!

P.S. Bret "The Hitman" Hart is a better wrestler technically and in every other way than Kurt Angle!

 

[Dave]

Everyone chant it with me:

EDDIE, EDDIE, EDDIE...

Yeah my vote is for Eddie most definitely. The guy was just a supreme athlete and a good guy. It was tragic that he died just when he was finally hitting the heights in the WWE. The guy could have went so much further and most likely would have. Rob Van Dam were not even close to being in the same league as Eddie G. I'm sorry but it's true. You ask half of the guys on those lists and they will tell you so.