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Any more title reigns and these guys will be on later versions of this listTitles are one of the most integral parts of pro-wrestling. All promotions function most of their major storylines around these belts that are (attempted to be) portrayed as extremely important pieces of gold that everyone on the roster desires.Just look at the WWE. The promotion is built around the WWE world heavyweight title. On an average, the Royal Rumble gets you a title shot, Money in the Bank does the same and more often than not, WrestleMania is main-evented by the world title. Just because title belts are important doesn’t mean that they are immune from being involved in horrible booking by their respective promotions. The list will focus on some of the most prestigious belts in Wrestling and look at their worst champions. Without further ado, let’s get started:
#5 World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)
The World title in WWE or the ‘big gold belt’ saw illustrious champions such as Triple H, Undertaker, Edge, Batista and... The Great Khali!? No points for guessing the odd one out. Khali may have been popular in India, but he was rejected by most fans because he could barely walk, let alone wrestle. He is one of the foremost examples of Vince’s obsession with big men as the lumbering giant won the world title in a battle royal on an episode of smackdown, holding it for two months.
When Batista mercifully ended Khali’s reign, it was greeted by relief from most in the business as Khali had bombed as champion. Thankfully, his title reign was forgotten as The Animal moved on to a far more interesting and entertaining story involving Edge and the Undertaker.
It was rather shocking that the WWE booked Khali as an independent character when he could have worked infinitely better in a bodyguard/heavy role for a performer who wasn’t a charisma vacuum. He probably would have drawn in the 1980’s but times have changed and hopefully WWE has learnt from its mistakes and changed too.
#4 Intercontinental Championship
Nowadays, the Intercontinental championship doesn’t mean as much as it used to. Due to WWE’s inconsistent booking, the title has lost its prestige. However, there was a time when the belt was considered almost on par with the WWF title.
Unfortunately, even then, WWE had some questionable champions which is where we get the worst Intercontinental Champion in the form of Dean Douglas. The character portrayed by the man was useless as he played a school dean and yet somehow ended up in a feud with Shawn Michaels.
Michaels would get injured and forfeit the title which the intellectual Dean would hold for a grand total of eleven minutes as Razor Ramon ended his lone IC title reign in a rather unceremonious way. This entry has more to do with the title reign of the performer and not the performer himself (Unlike Khali) as Douglas actually showed great potential in ECW as their inaugural world champion under the Extreme banner.
#3 NWA heavyweight championship
The NWA world title is arguably the oldest belt in wrestling with its lineage being traced all the way back to George Hackenschmidt in 1905. The title was held by luminaries of professional wrestling; the likes of Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair and Lou Thez amongst many others.
Unfortunately, with WWF dominance in the 1980’s the NWA would decline, reaching new lows when it parted ways with WCW in the early nineties. It was in 1994 that the decision was made to make Eastern Championship Wrestling the NWA’s finest promotion. So, a tournament was held and Shane Douglas (of Dean Douglas and the IC title flame) won the title in a tournament beating 2 Cold Scorpio in the finals.
Then, Shane threw the belt to the ground, said he didn’t want to be NWA champ and that the NWA Eastern Championship (which he already held) was the true world title. This served to be the final nail in the coffin for the NWA as it struggles for recognition nowadays.
Eastern Championship Wrestling then withdrew from the NWA and became Extreme Championship Wrestling. Douglas went on to hold the ECW Heavyweight title longer than anyone else. He was undoubtedly a pioneer for the organization and a face for the new school of wrestling. As an NWA Champion though? It’s hard to be any worse than this.
#2 WWF/E Championship
Ah Vincent Kennedy Mcmahon.. you egotistical fool.
On a 1999 episode of SmackDown, Vince (with his son Shane as guest referee), won the legendary strap by his typical nefarious means. Due to a storyline contractual clause which prevented McMahon from appearing on WWE television, Vince opted to vacate the title.
Not surprisingly, the entire fiasco was designed to build a rivalry between Vince and Triple H that would allow Trips and Stephanie McMahon to become a powerful management team who ultimately took control of the WWE. This happened after Triple H defeated Vince at Armageddon in a No Holds Barred match.
McMahon’s only WWE Heavyweight Championship reign lasted six days before it was self-terminated. Kane, Andre The Giant and Rey Mysterio all had only one WWE Heavyweight title run, lasting one day each.
Regardless, Mr. McMahon wins as the worst because, quite frankly, he had the creative in his hands and more importantly, Vincent Kennedy Mcmahon was not a wrestler, no, he was the boss. Unbelievably, he would repeat the offence as he booked himself to win the WWE/ECW championship from Bobby Lashley taking away whatever little credibility the belt had left.
#1 WCW world championship
There were two names in the running for this, Vince Russo and the man who ultimately won- ‘C’ list actor and ‘star’ of the movie ‘Ready to Rumble’, David Arquette. An actor won the biggest title in WCW to promote a film....’THANK YOU RUSSO’ chants! *standing slow clap*.
What made this win extra special was that David Arquette won the World Championship of the second largest American Wrestling promotion in its boom era, WCW, in a tag team match when he pinned, *drum roll please* Eric Bischoff. WHAT? Eric Bischoff was not even the champion which was WCW’s way of making the champion look strong I think.
Here’s the problem with that. It doesn’t matter if The Rock was champion afterwards, the belt was shot of all its credibility and in what was surely not a coincidence, WCW was bought by WWE for less than 3 million dollars in a year or so.
