I'm watching Bam Bam Bigelow v. Shane Douglas for the ECW World title and I was a big fan of Bam Bam being champion. I actually forgot he was WORLD champion. I saw that Ringside has a new Bigelow coming out with the ECW TV title and he was a great TV champ. But the World title run was so short I forgot it happened.
Who were some of your favorite forgotten World champions?
Not sure of best but these were the reigns that popped in my head:
Curt Hennig's and Rick Martel's AWA Championship runs. Both guy's runs seem to be forgotten. Same with Jerry Lawler's AWA title reign. Curt's especially though. People sometimes put him in that greatest to never be World Champion but the AWA counts!
Kerry Von Erich had a short go with the NWA title that doesn't get talked about a lot.
Rick Rude sported the Big Gold belt as WCW International World Champion but that gets swept aside too it seems.
Lex Luger's 97 run after beating Hogan. Great moment that gets lost in the NWO storyline shuffle.
Didn’t Luger only hold it for a week?
Kerry’s was incredibly short too. I vaguely remember NWA not being sure they could trust him do to drug issues, and I think that was a factor in why he lost it so quick. I could be mistaken though.
Ronnie Garvin beat Flair for the NWA title. People def forget that.
Last edited by Caito; April 13th, 2021 at 5:17 PM.
Yup. Great moment that gets lost to time. He did hold the WCW title with Harley Race as his manager too in the early 90s that never gets mentioned either.
Originally Posted by Jarrod1983
This I remember. Was a great heel champ. Lost it to Sting at SuperBrawl right before he went back to WWF.
Technically he didn't go "back" to WWF as he hadn't been there yet. This was right before he went to the WWF though.
Yup. You are correct. My mistake.
This gets lost in time too I feel like. Harley as a manager is more remembered for his time with Vader and Luger left after like you said.
Originally beat Windham for the title I think. That’s when Race came out as his manager......
I’ll have to go back and check/watch.
Jack Swagger.
Lol.
Dolph Ziggler.
The Rock as WCW champion?
Zack Ryder
Zach Ryder wasn't a world champion, was he? I thought the highest he got was the IC title.
Were any of the Big Show's world title reigns memorable?
A lot those TNA NWA reigns get forgotten about. It's a little weird to think about R-Truth as NWA champion, but he was a 2-time champ and is still the only black NWA champion ever.
I probably should have read this thread was for World titles haha.
Only Big Show reign I remember is when he feuded with the Bossman.
He beat Lesnar at Survivor Series 02 after Paul E turned. Any times after that? Must be but my heads gone
Besides the 02 run, Show beat HHH and Rock at Survivor Series 99 replacing Austin in the match.
Show held the ECW World title beating RVD after his traffic stop a couple days prior.
He held the World Championship twice beating Mark Henry at TLC 11 and Sheamus at Hell In a Cell 12.
Big shows ecw title run was fucking awesome. Just 500 pounds of sweaty giant fat man smashing people for months. It was easily his best work ever.
That's when he started using the cobra clutch backbreaker which was dope.
Yes and Tony Mamaluke took it wonderfully at One Night Stand 06.
Mark Henry's championship run in 2011, hell his entire Hall of Pain gimmick, was absolutely fantastic and it seems like no one remembers it actually happened.
I disagree about Mark Henry. It seems to me that many people remember the Hall of Pain world title run quite well, but it was overshadowed by his salmon jacket retirement speech. We only wish he had been booked that strongly most of his career - he spent too much time being the "threat to win" the rumble.
Christian had a world title run that gave us some great stuff with Randy Orton, but he will never be remembered as a world title champ.
The definitive answer to this thread has to be Stan Stasiak, who won the world title from Pedro Morales, and lost it to the best of all time, Bruno, a week or so later. Stan is a Hall of Famer, but he has been forgotten by most.
Stan fathered Planet Stasiak and for that reason alone won't be forgotten by me.
Dolph had that amazing MITB cash-in win against Del Rio then soon after got a concussion. Cut off before he really got going.
All of Sheamus WT runs. I cannot remember anything from any of them.
Jeff Jarrett in WCW obviously.
Rey Mysterios WT run.
Funny thing is, when I listed him, I was thinking of his first 11 minute reign where he was given the title by Vickie and lost it to Edge by the end of the night. I didn't even remember the MITB cash-in until after i made the post. So, there you go...
Ezekiel Jackson as the final ECW Champion ever.
Tadao Yasuda
Swagger, if he had the eagle when he was champ. Eagle was great.
Interesting choice. So memorable for the cash-in (count me among the people jumping out of their seat), but I couldn't tell you how long he was champ, who he lost to, or any match he had.
I only remember he had to relinquish the title because he was concussed in a match against Swagger
How many of us even remember that he's a 2-time World champion? I always forget about that 1-2 week reign he had where he beat Edge by DQ or something weird like that.
He lost it back to del Rio a few months later when he was medically cleared. They pulled a double turn in the match. Was actually very well done.
I just mentioned it a few posts up. He was awarded it and lost it in the same night.
Of course, my point simply being how many of us in general even remember he's a 2-time champ? Not many. It's too bad. Dolph had a few moments where I thought he had THE GUY potential but they never changed his name and they never gave him a meaningful World title reign.
A lot of folks had him pegged for very big things and while he was definitely on the cusp a few times feuding with Edge and Cena, he never really broke through and stayed on the other side. And while he's expressed dissatisfaction and frustration pretty passionately on occasion, it doesn't seem like it's been recently and he seems pretty happy/comfortable in the midcard for life.
WCW had just started drug testing, but Luger already knew he was going to the WWF so he showed up to that match gassed out of his mind and slept walked through that match and no sold the finish.
Personally I think some of the injuries came at the worst time especially the concussion. He said he felt like the WWE didn't trust him to maintain that top level spot. When he slid into Roman's spot for Survivor Series when Sting returned, I felt like that was a missed opportunity. They weren't able to sustain his momentum going into Mania. I remember he said he wanted to wrestle Daniel Bryan 1-on-1 for the IC championship and they turned into the ladder match DB won. Which was incredible btw.
Dolph is basically Christian. Someone that we look back on going damn, he could've been something bigger with the machine behind him a little more. Or even older names like Jake the Snake, Tito Santana, guys who for whatever reason never won the World title and/or didn't get big main event runs.
To tie into this a bit, Johnny Nitro/Morrison winning the title the weekend Benoit's heinous act happened.
Crazy. I remember Morrison being champion I just don't remember if he held it more than once.
I think that was when he held it forever and beat Punk like 200 times in a row until Punk won it in a match where if he lost he couldn't challenge for it again which is a terrible stipulation
How about Chavo Guerrero, Jr. winning the world title to make it shared between Smackdown and ECW?
That one was a weird one because he lost it to Kane in a squash at Mania
Well Daniel Bryan lost a World Title to Sheamus in 18seconds at WM.
I do remember the Bryan reign though
I remember every single WWE-ECW champion. If that brand was called anything else it would've been great and wouldn't have been boxed in to where even top tier talent frowned upon going there. Chavo was easily the worst because I felt like it solidified the brand was nowhere near the other 2. Tommy Dreamer's reign was probably my favorite. Funny thing is, despite Vince treating it like a ghetto pass, I didn't think he was the worst champion because honestly it wasn't horrible. He wasn't even the worst ECW champion in general, for me that award is a tie between Chavo and Corino.
Dolph is not as good as Jake nor Tito, but Christian is probably fair. When it comes to ringwork, Tito was better by a lot, and he was always so smooth. Jake always told a better story, but he and Dolph both understand the importance of making the opponent look strong too. The huge black mark on Dolph is that his promos are far below average, especially when he is interviewed. I know Tito was never all that great on the mic, but as a face his whole career, he could always express his motivation in his promos. Dolph rarely "gets it", and he's had so many face-heel-face-heel turns, plus he's taken so many losses over the years, it has hurt him to the point he not only won't be taken seriously, his whole character screams "transition feud" or "filler time"
Even in his current run as tag champs with Roode, he's just kind of there. The tag division on SD stinks, and it stinks from the top. So it won't mean much when the Dirty Dawgs lose the belts. Rey and Dominik should probably take the titles to become the first father-son champs. If they want to make it mean something, the Dirty Dawgs should get an intentional DQ at Backlash, a la Miz's recent first defense against Lashley, allowing Pearce to show some balls and threaten them if they get DQ'd again they forfeit the betls. Forfeiting the belts won't mean Mysterios win them, they just becomes vacant. Then they can do a ladder match for the belts, inviting Usos', TeamAlpha, Mysterios, Street Profits. Heck, even continue the dissension storyline with Sonya Devillle and Pearce, by having Sonya allow Dirty Dawgs to get a shot in the match. Usos can come up short and Jimmy can complain that Roman didn't have their backs the way Jey had helped Roman.
That’s because they still brought that match up like years later. They should have done that with Chavo and Kane
The reign itself was still memorable, as it's when Bryan first started doing the "yes" chant and the momentum built up around him and AJ Lee.
bryan's world title reign was a real highlight of Smackdown at the time.
It's not about Dolph being as good as Jake, Tito, Christian, but the utility position those wrestlers found themselves in despite being IMHO good enough to be constant main eventers.
Dolph is a victim of booking and bad timing. We saw back at Survivor Series 2014, we saw during his stint with AJ Lee and Big E by his side that he can be a top player if they put him in that position to thrive. Especially in the last 20 years where it's almost like Vince and co. have it already engrained where everyone is going to be the majority of their career. Kofi Kingston is a prime example.
Justin Credible as ECW champion.
Mr. Saito as the AWA World Champion.
The guy himself is never mentioned anywhere.
Terry Funk was the JCW champ for a day
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