Who should have been WWE champion?

[stavros241000]

This question is pretty straight forward but i'll give just a brief explanation anyway. Who, during any era of WWE should have been champion and why? Obviously they have to have never been WWE champ before. There are many good choices such as Rowdy Roddy Piper, Harley Race, Shelton Benjamin, and Mr.Perfect, but my choice is Razor Ramon/Scott Hall. I would have chosen Razor in WWE because he was extremely over and was great on the mic and in the ring. He had the total package and a feud between him and HBK or Bret Hart over the title would have been AWESOME. I also say Scott Hall(yes I know they're the same guy) while he was in WCW because when deciding weather he should join nWo Hollywood or Wolfpac, it would be perfect if he were champion because it would be extremely momentous for whom ever he chose. 2nd place I award to Ted Dibiase but im too lazy to explain why .

 

[Albert T]

Jerry The King Lawler. He would have been a great heel champion during the nineties and been the perfect foil for Bret during that time. This would have made for a very believable storyline as Lawler could cut the necessary promos to make Bret look like the babyface the company needed while having great chemistry with Bret in the ring.

 

[CM Steel]

Booker T. Yeah he was the WWE World Heavyweight Champion back in 2006 as King Booker. But Booker has never been the WWE champion on either Raw or Smackdown. Sure Booker T is the former 5 time, 5 time, 5 time, 5 time, 5 time WCW champion. But being a former WWE champion would have been a nice feather in his cap.

 

[thebarber]

this old chestnut/.........

To properly answer this fantasy scenario, one has to take into account the roster at the time, how business was, and the storylines at the time.
To me, Ultimate Warriors title reign was a shambles and culminated in one of the worst title switches in history by putting the title on Sgt Slaughter. With Vince knowing Hogan was leaving and scaling back after Mania 6, Mr Perfect would have been a great heel champion. Super over and was feuding with Hulk up until Rumble 1990 and there abouts, dropping the title to Perfect at Mania 6 and having IC Champ Ultimate Warrior chasing the WWE Championship would have made business worth watching. WWE had virtually no heel champion since 1983-1984( four week reign by Iron Sheik) Perfect woud have put on great techical matches, could have had a great series with Warrior, Duggan, Bossman. With this in mind and Hogan's return, the rematch at Wrestlemania 7 Mr Perfect vs Hulk Hogan would have rated much better that the embarrassment Mania 7 became after moving from a 100,000 seat outdoor venue to a 17000 capacity venue due to disgraceful ticket sales. Perfect vs Hogan with Warrior vs Savage undercard would have been far superior/
Piper taking the belt from Hogan would not have worked, Bundy though winning the belt from Hogan after injuring him instead of that being Muraco in the match before Manaia 2,the cage match would have been even grander. Hogan coming back from injuries to reclaim the gold and slam Bundy would have been epic.
The only other guy who was in a position to be WWE champion and did not get the opportunity was Rick Rude, who I believe was originally supposed to win the WWE Title from Warrior at Summerslam 90 but Warrior refused to do the job, thus why Rude left the company immediately after Summerlsam. He even had a make over, was in the peakest condition of his career and a solid worker, Vince and Warrior renegging on the title switch was poor business also. Either way, Rude or Perfect feuding with a returning Hogan would have done far greater business in WWE.

 

[Baldy42179]

In my mind the greatest travesty that the WWF/E has ever done is not giving Curt Henning a run with the big built. He proved he was a great IC Champ and could work a great match with anyone. I do think that he back injuries kind of limited him but he was still able to work some great matches and would have been a tremendous draw back in the day.

 

[dtroppe]

Rick Rude- he had one of the best looks in wrestling history and his mic skill were some of the best of his time and probably rank in the top 20 mic guys to ever wrestler. I think he would have made a great heel champ and probably a great baby face champ down the line.

Also Mr. Perfect would have been a good choice.

 

[Wald]

Rick Rude to my mind should have held the title from Summerslam 1990 until Royal Rumble 1991. With a lot of guys the stars just never alligned properly. Perfect, Owen and Razor being three examples, I'd argue DiBiase and Roberts never needed the title for their characters too.

But back to Rude. Warrior winning the title at Wrestlemania 6 was the right business move, and Vince was right to look to someone beyond Hogan to carry the ball. Putting him back in a feud with Rude was a good call, as Rude was one of two guys to get greatness out of the Warrior in the ring (more on that later). The problem with Warrior as champion though is that he was a better contender for the title. His journey really ended with beating Hogan at Wrestlemania and you could tell that they didn't really know what to do with him afterwards. He was still getting the cheers but the fans needed something to keep them interested.

Having Rude win the belt, and the guy was obviously more than capable of carrying the title, and having Warrior look for revenge could have taken them through a Survivor Series 8 man and into the Rumble, where Warrior would retake the gold having had a new journey and some sympathy placed on him. Plus we would then know that he was defeatable, although obviously Heenan would have had a hand in costing the belt if you were scripting it.

From there you could have either had your Hogan rematch at Wrestlemania 7 or, my preference, have Warrior fight Macho for the belt (the second guy to get greatness out of the Warrior) and move towards the Warrior vs Hogan rematch at Summerslam 1991.

I only mention that because often on these lists people will throw out names without looking at the WWF landscape at the time, or factoring into account injuries or recent angles. With Rude he had it al, the look, the mic skills, the Brain, the heat and the ability and the stars had come together to give him his opening in a historically face dominated WWF title landscape. He should have got the belt for a few months at least.

 

[nbkush]

I feel like this thread has been done before and the same names always come up...Perfect, Rude, ect.
anyways...I nominate Carly Colon aka Carlito. This second generation wrestler was the full package. Unique look, good mic skills, and more than competant in the ring. Supposedly his bad attitude stunted his push and ultimate success in the WWE.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

It's been a while since I've seen one of these threats. As usual, some good choices and some flat out terrible. Somebody actually thought Carlito should've been WWE Champion?? Wow.

The two that most spring to mind for me are Curt Hennig and The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. Hennig was someone that I thought pretty much had it all. He had a good look, he had personality, had solid mic skills and was literally one of the best in the world inside the ring during the late 90s through the early 90s. He had the stuff to be a great heel or babyface champion.

The Million Dollar Man was my favorite heel during the late 80s. In my opinion, there wasn't a better heel in wrestling during that time than Ted DiBiase. He was someone that was very easy to hate. He didn't have an especially great look about him, but he was flat out loaded with charisma and in-ring ability. His promos were great and he had the stuff to be a fantastic heel WWE Champion.

 

[sdelfin]

Rick Rude to my mind should have held the title from Summerslam 1990 until Royal Rumble 1991. With a lot of guys the stars just never alligned properly. Perfect, Owen and Razor being three examples, I'd argue DiBiase and Roberts never needed the title for their characters too.

But back to Rude. Warrior winning the title at Wrestlemania 6 was the right business move, and Vince was right to look to someone beyond Hogan to carry the ball. Putting him back in a feud with Rude was a good call, as Rude was one of two guys to get greatness out of the Warrior in the ring (more on that later). The problem with Warrior as champion though is that he was a better contender for the title. His journey really ended with beating Hogan at Wrestlemania and you could tell that they didn't really know what to do with him afterwards. He was still getting the cheers but the fans needed something to keep them interested.

Having Rude win the belt, and the guy was obviously more than capable of carrying the title, and having Warrior look for revenge could have taken them through a Survivor Series 8 man and into the Rumble, where Warrior would retake the gold having had a new journey and some sympathy placed on him. Plus we would then know that he was defeatable, although obviously Heenan would have had a hand in costing the belt if you were scripting it.

From there you could have either had your Hogan rematch at Wrestlemania 7 or, my preference, have Warrior fight Macho for the belt (the second guy to get greatness out of the Warrior) and move towards the Warrior vs Hogan rematch at Summerslam 1991.

I only mention that because often on these lists people will throw out names without looking at the WWF landscape at the time, or factoring into account injuries or recent angles. With Rude he had it al, the look, the mic skills, the Brain, the heat and the ability and the stars had come together to give him his opening in a historically face dominated WWF title landscape. He should have got the belt for a few months at least.

No dispute from me that Rude had it all and is on my list of guys who could have been world champ. But the IC belt was around for a reason, considered to go to the best workers, so guys like Rude and Perfect were recognized. From an in-ring standpoint, Rude vs. Warrior in 90 is a good idea. One problem was, and I'm sure you are well aware, they did that very thing between Rude and Warrior in 89 over the IC belt. Heenan helps Rude take the belt, Warrior chases for a few months, and the big blow off. I think Vince was reluctant to do that again, and I wonder if the fans were ready for a repeat of Warrior and Rude from the previous year. It might have worked, but that's not certain. I believe Warrior's run was ruined from the start as they didn't prepare good challengers for him. Rude vs. Warrior had been done the previous year. Warlord and Barbarian were new singles wrestlers and had believable looks to perhaps draw money at that moment with Warrior(not many other options). I suspect Warrior was supposed to feud with Earthquake whose debut at the end of 89 involved him beating up Warrior. That went nowhere, and Earthquake was diverted to Hogan, perhaps Hogan's own idea.

 

[legendkiller1979]

I'm going to go at this from a different direction. The question isn't who deserved to be champion but who should have been champion. From a business standpoint the answer is Rowdy Roddy Piper. There may not have been anyone more hated than Piper was in 1985. It could have drawn huge numbers having Piper win the belt and drop it back to Hogan.

I agree with every person mentioned by others. But of the ones mentioned, Piper would have drawn the most money. I know he wouldn't have had a very long reign. He would have won it just to drop it back to Hogan. But what a good way to get him even more heat at the height of wrestling popularity.

With that said, it would have been interesting. By Wrestlemania 2, Piper was still a top heel in the company, but he was being cheered. Putting the belt on him may have backfired. But if they would have done it soon after Wrestlemania 1, it could have been huge.

 

[bobdoorag]

Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase. He had the Million Dollar Belt so they didn't have to put the strap on him. He was worthy with the great career that he had. He had all of the componets that made him a great superstar, he could talk, he could shoot, he simply knew how to work. Ravishing Rick Rude, Curt Henning, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes, hell even the Funks, Terry or Dory Jr, Kerry Von Erich and many others could have been the man if they were given the chance.

 

[Da Solo]

There is no good reason why Booker T wasn't WWE champion. He had the look, was legendary in the ring, versatile as a character and great on the mic. The only thing against him was that 1. He was a WCW guy, which Vince can't stand, and 2. Most of his WWE title shots involved HHH, and I'm not even going to begin to rant on WM 19. They kind of owned up to it by giving King Booker the WHC, but it will never amount to being the same.

Ricky Steamboat also should have been the WWE champion and, just like Booker's case, there really is no good reason why he never got it.

 

[HBsam31]

When this thread comes up The Million Dollar Man is always the first person to come to my mind. He was a guy that was really easy to hate. I loved the skits he would do, and in the one he kicked the ball away from the kid who was dribbling it for money. I believe a young RVD even participated in one of those segments. He even tried to buy the title. He just played the heel role perfectly, and I always thought he and Savage should have feuded after Savage beat him in the finals of the Wrestlemania 4 tournament. I think he easily could have had a short run in that time. Mr. Perfect is a very very close second for me.

 

[duxdelrio]

I believe Mr. Perfect should have been WWE champion. He was a much better wrestler than Hogan or the Warrior, and almost as good as Savage. Also, with impressive victories over the Red Rooster, Hillbilly Jim, Tito Santana and Hercules, he was more than deserving of a title run.