Top 10 WWE World Heavyweight Champions

[#BabyFace]

WWE. com has posted a new article pointing out the "Top 10 World Champions of the 21st Century. Now in this article it is including the WWE and World Heavy Weight Champion so of course they put number 1 as John Cena.

I want to know what is your guys Top 10 World Heavy Weight Champion?

Make sure to post your reasons for your choices to prevent being flagged for spam.

NOTE: Only include the World Heavyweight Champion from WWE. NOT the WCW World champions. STRICTLY THE TITLE HOLDERS FROM 2002-PRESENT .

Here is my list...

10. Chris Benoit- It was a magical moment when Chris Benoit won that title in New York City. The crowd was amazing. Hardcore wrestling fans around the world were on their feet. Chris Benoit defined technical wrestling and held the WHC with pride.

9. Mark Henry- I just could not leave him out. I for one loved Mark Henry's reign as champion last year. Henry proved to the world that he could be a main star in the WWE. His heel run was dominant!

8. Randy Orton- This one is debatable. Some may say that he should be lower. Some also may say he should be higher. Although it may have been too early, but Orton has grown since becoming the youngest World Champion. Randy Orton had an amazing fued with Christian last year and since has become the face of Smackdown .

7. Jeff Hardy- He was ready. The time was right for Jeff Hardy to become a top star in the WWE. Jeff Hardy was major over with the crowd and had some amazing matches for the WHC and had one very memorable fued with the man who comes next...

6. CM Punk- Before CM Punk became the "Voice of the Voiceless" he was simply the Straight Edge C M PUNK . Punk was an internet darling. He held the World Heavy Weight Championship 3 times. The first one being not so memorable in 2008. The reason he is on this list is for his reign in 2009. This was when I really started getting intereseted in Punk. Specifically for his reign against Jeff Hardy. Hardy and Punk would trade the title back and forth several times in '09 . Punk's reign in 2009 would start to show how good CM Punk really is .

5. Chris Jericho- The first Undisputed Champion has also had some very memorable World title reigns. The long-worded Chris Jericho that we have all came to love hasn't been given the WWE title since his return in 2007. But we have seen him win the WHC 3 times, with each reign as impressive as the last .

4. Batista- Batista's World Heavyweight titile reigns have always been much better than his WWE title reign . Batista won the title 4 times (feels like more) Love him or Hate, Batista owned the World Heavy Weight Title for a while and was often in the mix of a rivalry between Edge and Undertaker .

3. Triple H- Triple H was the very first WWE World Heavy Weight Champion . Since that, he held the title 5 times. Triple H was the face of Monday Night Raw at a time that many thought Smackdown was the better show. Triple H was the bright spot of Raw with some great heel work. He ran a very memorable stable known as Evolution . Both Orton and Batista would turn on Hunter and grab the title, but of course, "The Game" would usually get it back. Triple H defined the World Title for a while.

2. Undertaker- The phenom, The deadman, arguably the greatest WWE superstar in history. He is also a 3 time World Heavyweight Champion. Undertaker's best fued for the title was with Batista and Edge. The three would dominate Smackdown. All of them trying to be "the man" of Smackdown which ment being World Heavyweight Champion. Taker would beat both Edge and Batista at WrestleMania for the title. Just when it seemed like Undertaker's title reign days were over, he would beat CM Punk in a Hell in the Cell match for the WHC in 2009 . Undertaker to many may be THE best World Heavyweight Champion, but in my eyes, it is this man...

1. EDGE- The rated R superstar . Straight down to the point, Edge is a 7 time World Heavyweight Champion . Edge held that title with pride . He fueded with the likes Undertaker, Batista, CM Punk, Jeff Hardy, John Cena, Big Show, Alberto Del Rio and at some point beat ALL of them to keep his precious gold. Edge would put on a fantastic match with the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 24 to steal the show . Although Edge would lose, this would prove to ANY doubters that were left, that Edge belonged where he was. After years of busting his ass off to get there, Edge was finally THE MAN on Friday Night Smackdown. Most people that tuned in on Friday Nights, tuned in to see him . Edge was World Champion when he was tradgically forced to retire . And there are few that would argue, Smackdown would be drastically different if The Ultimate Opportunist was still around. In my eyes EDGE was the greatest World Heavyweight Champion of the 21st Century.

Honorable Mentions- Daniel Bryan, Booker T, Kurt Angle

Ok, you have heard me ramble on with my list. Now I want to hear yours ! What is your Top 10 WWE World Heavyweight Champions?

 

[BizzarroNavarro]

cool thread man well I never really did watch Smackdown so I never really followed what was goin on with the WHC but I did see bits a pieces such as in PPVs or when it was defended on RAW. So anywho for the most part though I agree with your list. Maybe though id swtich up HHH and Taker, maybe cause though im more familiar with HHH's reign, but what I gotta say about that though is for as miuch hate as he gets IMO he really did make the Title seem important, like in all his reigns he just makes the title feel like the most important thing to him and to everyone fighting for it.

Also I do agree with Edge at #1 I mean I cant ever hear the word WHC without thinking of Edge it just seemed like he carried and owned smackdown along with the title.

 

[Teddy Irving]

Just a quick question before I start thinking about making a list. Do we only use the WHC or can the WWE title/undisputed title be used?

Also I do agree that your list is very good once I make a good thought into this I might end up with 1 or 2 changes but I reckon it will be close.

 

[Raptor93]

Its hard to put together a list of guys with contrasting styles and the like but I have to say "FUCK NO!" batista is no where near this list. Every single guy you have behind batista has had far more character and Charisma then batista ever had. Alright towards then end batista's heel character may have been better then henery but thats it. Oh and may I ask where in the fuck is D-bry?

 

[HBKistheHOF]

10.) Kane - His reign in summer 2010 was great! Anytime I ranks champions or reigns I fell like you HAVE to look at their feuds and with a list like Mysterio, Undertaker, Alberto Del Rio and Edge and then only loosing in an awesome TLC match, great reign. Also probably the belt most associated w/Kane now.

9.) Jeff Hardy - Short reigns due to leaving but some AMAZING matches with Edge and CM Punk, only two names and still impressive.

8.) Goldberg - I might get some grief for this one but I thought his program w/Evolution and Triple H in 2003 was brilliant! So Simple. So Easy. The face is big and strong, so cheat and gang up on him. Also the Elimination Chamber at Summerslam 2003 was one of my favorite matches. Even w/ a shorter title reign, he had such good story, matches, and the fact that Goldberg is an imposing and good champion I think made for a great title run, should have been ALOT longer reign in WWE.

7.) CM Punk - Mulitple world champ in 21st century which is good. Feuds with Batista, JBL, Taker and Hardy were all pretty good. His first reign was obviously derailed due to politics in WWE.

6.) Batista - Along with Edge, just screams WHC to me. Only reason I put him lower is besides Triple H, all his other feuds kinda fell flat. His Taker feud was spaced out and kinda had wierd timing after their Mania 23 match(that fell low on the card). And he never got a really good feud with Edge. I'd consider him a better WWE champion just cause of feuds, character development, and relevance at the time.

5.) Chris Jericho - Basically carried RAW and brought back relevance to the WHC after WWE lost a bunch of star power and was getting even weaker in late 2000's. Great feuds w/ Batista and Cena, the two Biggest faces at the time! And then and AMAZING program with Edge that led to, IMO, match of the night at Mania 26 AND Extreme Rules 2010.

4.) Shawn Michaels - Talk about dream story!!!!!! Coming back only to have a five star match w/HHH at Summerslam and then decide to return to world title pic, only to take part in, which IMO is the coolest stipulation match ever, The Elimination Chamber and have ANOTHER FIVE STAR match and WIN THE WORLD TITLE after being gone for nearly 4 YEARS! Then lose it in ANOTHER FIVE STAR MATCH! Even though it only lasted a month, great story and HBK's last reign ever, CLASSIC!

3.) Triple H - First WHC in WWE. Said it in Goldberg section, HHH basically owned, RAW, WHC, and WWE in the early 21st century.

2.) Edge - You said it ALL! Just SCREAMS WHC! Cena, Batista, Mysterio, Undertaker, Jericho, Del Rio, Big Show, Jeff Hardy, Kane, CM Punk(for .5 seconds), the list goes on and on!!

1.) The Undertaker - Only 2 reason I put Taker first! Taker has ONLY competed for the WHC since they split the titles in 2002! He also has left mania w/ more WHC's than anyone! He never had a short title reign either as WHC. All he carried was WHC gold in 21st century. And LASTLY! Taker made the WHC relevant!!!!! If edge won it before Taker it would have been ALOT LESS MEANINGFULL!! Taker legitimized the WHC for WWE by giving it pretige and being that "unstoppable" champion.He is a LEGEND and still faced Edge for the belt at Mania and made the belt seem meaningfull! Everyone always says "No Stone Cold, No Rock" right? Well I say "No Taker as Stong WHC, No Edge as Strong WHC!"

 

[asiatic7]

Why isn't Great Khali on anyone's list? Seriously though, #Babyface's list is good give or take a few names and spots. I personally would have had Booker T and Rey Mysterio on there. I think these two guys mean more to the buisness than they are given credit for...but overall, good list my man. I guess Triple H would top off my list. Not a huge fan of Hunter, but he definitely brought legitimacy to the title when it was re-introduced to us in 2002. He was the ultimate heel who brought flashes of Harley Race and Ric Flair to his persona as WHC. I really hated him more than, but that's because his character was clicking and his "by all means approach" to keeping the title was very reminisent of the legends mentioned above...

As far as WWE having Cena as #1, it's all politics. No one even remembers that run. It was for a couple of months and I don't even remember who he dropped it to. Was it Edge? Anyway, Cena at number 1 is just WWE's way of insulting our intelligence...again. Just like with their 50 superstars list, 20 toughest list and so on.

 

[#BabyFace]

Just a quick question before I start thinking about making a list. Do we only use the WHC or can the WWE title/undisputed title be used?

Also I do agree that your list is very good once I make a good thought into this I might end up with 1 or 2 changes but I reckon it will be close.

I'd like to stick strictly to World Heavyweight champions. No WWE or Undisputed Champs .

 

[ProWrestlingFan]

10 .The Undertaker : After winning the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 23 Undertaker had some great matches with Batista and Edge.

9. Kurt Angle : Kurt Angle World Heavyweight Championship reign in 200 was great and he put on some amazing matches. His match with Undertaker at No Way Out 2006 was classic.

8. Shawn Michaels :Shawn Michales won the World Heavyweight Championship in the Elimination Chamber at Survivor Series 2002 and put on some classic matches one after another.

7. Batista : Batista is a 4 Time World Heavyweight Champion .Batista is also the Longest reigning World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history who won the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 21 and carried the title for nearly 9 months.

6. Randy Orton : The Youngest World Heavyweight Champion in history. Randy Orton's title reign was short but memorable.

5.Chris Benoit : It was a great moment when Benoit won the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 20. Benoit's title reign was good and carried the title with pride. He had some amazing matches as the World Heavyweight Champion.

4. Goldberg : Goldberg's World Heavyweight Championship reign in 2003 was great. Goldberg's title reign was short but memorable.

3.Chris Jericho : Chris Jericho has won the World Heavyweight Championship 3 times. His 2008 reign was the best when he won the World Heavyweight Championship in the Championship Scramble match at Unforgiven. After that he had many classic match with Shawn Michaels including their match at Judgement Day, Unsanctioned match at Unforgiven and Ladder match at No Mercy 2008.

2. Edge : After Triple-H comes Edge who has won the World Heavyweight Championship 7 Times. Edge carried Smackdown for 5 years winning the World Heavyweight Championship more times than anyone else in the WWE.

1. Triple-H : Greatest World Heavyweight Champion. When HHH was the World Heavyweight Champion he held it with so much passion that lacks so much in wrestlers nowadays. HHH was the first World Heavyweight Champion in the WWE.

 

[SickJames]

I couldnt give you a definate order of ten right now, but what I can do is say that if Triple H isnt your number 1 pick, I dont know where you've been at since 2002.

Triple H was the first World Heavyweight Champion and has gone onto dominate the World title scene damn near holding it over a year or a year at one point. When I think of that belt, I think Triple H. It's almost like they had that belt just for him at the time as the WWE title changed hands, but that belt at the start, was the HHH title.

The image of HHH holding the belt folded in his hands as he shows it off comes to mind as he says the words "My heart, my thought, my sweat, my blood, made this business what it is today" in a video package.

He is the greatest to hold that World Heavyweight Championship, and that's what WWE was going for. Well, they got it, and only didnt acknowledge it because by their own law they have to make it seem like Cena's the best of everything, but everyone knows (who really knows anything) that number 2 on that list, was really number 1.


Edge is number 2 in reality, not 1 as a poster stated, but atleast they put number 2 as 1 unlike some here. Edge has also dominated the World title scene and I take nothing away from him as I have him at number 2, but the way he dominated vs the way HHH did are two different types of domination over a belt.

Also, longer title reigns are more impressive than the amount of times you hold a title. Funny I'm using this to back up a guy who's been built around the number of titles he's won, but so has Edge and most of his reigns were short, still impressive because it was his gimmick, The Ultimate Opportunist, but realistically, he's number 2 behind HHH.


Cena's only held it twice and shouldnt even be on the list because his reigns werent as impressive as others and if he was on the list at all, he'd be a ten at best. They let him run wild with the WWE belt.

And people are stupid as fuck here for whatever reason, Jericho's Undisputed title reign was with the WWE and WCW Championship NOT the fucking World title. They are two seperate title reigns, no one gives a shit if YOU think they're the same because it's the same big gold belt, you cant argue with the facts and the fact is it's a different belt. It isnt a matter of opinion. He has won the World title twice. And yes that goes out to WWE too who fuck up their own shit themselves (also evident from calling Bret Hart and Attitude Era star/legend, even though I know why they did it for WWE '13), though they clearly split the title history in their history section.



Number 3 would have to be Undertaker who has held that belt and made it special at two seperate Manias and then one aside from Mania. The feud with Kane was a nice trip back in time. He is always a great champion, moreso now than ever before with his legend getting bigger by the second. That man adds meaning to anything he touches.

Kane (had an awesome fucking run after not getting a WWE based World title since that 24 hour reign and he made the most of it for 1 reign and I was so impressed with that I think he's a decent number 4)

Batista (number 5) Batista held the belt four times and was a badass champion every time. Having decent sized reigns each time save for one, but one lasted damn near a year! He did dominate and was truly The Animal on top of the mountain.

Mark Henry (number 6) improved much, anyone? this guy had to wait so long and even though he doesnt have the charisma of guys below him on this list, he was a great champion and made the most of his one run.

Y2J (number 7) Y2J has to be next as he just is Y2J with the belt, what else can I say, his feuds with the title were incredible and that's highly needed when you're a champion. You must be interesting and make people care about the feud, match, and who doesnt care about Chris Jericho?

King Booker (number 8) decent sized reign, and a big gold belt fit for a king, who played his part well, had his best title run ever and made you like him while hating him all at the same time and wanting to see him lose.

CM Punk (number 9) Punk was an awesome champion for the same reasons as Jericho. He's a great personality to carry a title. No one else can come close to Punk on this spot except Orton, but again Orton didnt have better reigns than Punk for this title.

Randy Orton (10) (he comes just below Punk by a little bit, but he deserves to just make this list over guys like Cena, Benoit who had a nice reign, but wasnt all that in personality to really carry the company as well as a feud. Shawn is awesome but his reign wasnt long enough to make it awesome enough to make the list. Daniel Bryan could be on the ten mark in a few years. For right now that list is the most credible list out there.




I cant add Rey because his first reign meant nothing and will forever be tarnished and unrespectable because he only got it for being a Mexican... and because Eddie died. which had to do with him being the next biggest Mexican star and his friend, that wasnt a racist comment. We all know why he won the RR and World title though, let's get serious. Cena does not belong on the fucking list with those sorry as reigns. One of Jeff's reigns was a joke, lasted seconds. Same for Bigshow's.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I'm doing 6 because the rest aren't worthy to mention based on my criteria.

Coming in at #6 is Kane. Sure everyone wet themselves in 2010 because he beat Undertaker three straight times. That doesn't mean the matches were great. They were boring as is the usual with these two. After that, it was a pathetic feud with Edge that reduced Kane into a little boy scared for his father.

HHH has the honor of being #5. Everybody is going to say that he brought prestige to the title and that he cared about the title and he was champion for so long. The man had terrible matches as champion. Horrible. Horrendous. Egregious. Awful. I'm running out of synonyms. The only matches I will give him credit for as champion was his Raw match against HBK at the end of 2003 and Wrestlemania 20. Other than that, I was subjected to shit matches PPV after PPV.

I bestow #4 upon Batista. His first stint was a little rough due to the competition and the second reign was terrible but my man got better in a hurry. He had arguably two of the top three of four HIAC matches ever with HHH and Undertaker. He also had a great match with him at Cyber Sunday and pinned him clean. Those feats alone put him over Kane and HHH.

The World's Strongest Man, Mark Henry, muscles his way into my #3 spot. Henry showed an intensity that I didn't think he had in him. He was fun to watch on the mic and in the ring. He made Orton his bitch twice when Orton was coming off a great feud with Christian. Sadly, I can't rank him higher because he then feuded with The Big Show. My rule of thumb is that The Big Show decreases any momentum you have and just sucks the life out of everything.

Slithering into #2 is Randy Orton. I was bored of Orton from 2005-2010. He put me to sleep. I dozed off routinely during his matches. 2011 was a breath of fresh air that I think I will never feel again. His bouts with Christian were amazing and he showed a little bit of personality during that time. He also put Henry over which I didn't think they were going to do at the time. Kudos, Randall.

We now come down to #1, Chris Benoit. The man was fighting two different battles at the same time. Trying to remain World Heavyweight Champion and trying to fight being held down from the bullshit that was HHH vs. HBK. He made HHH tap out like a bitch at Wrestlemania and made my year and did the same to HBK at Backlash. He had a great Raw match with HBK and got the best match I've ever seen out of Kane at Bad Blood. Of course, we had to have the snoozefest that was Hell in a Cell after that. Benoit and HHH had another great bout at Vengeance and one with Orton at Summerslam. When you thought of Benoit as champion, you thought of someone who was going to put 100% effort into everything he did and never cheated you in the ring.