1.) Stone Cold Steve Austin
2.) John Cena
3.) The Rock
4.) “Macho Man” Randy Savage
5.) CM Punk
6.) Bret Hart
7.) Bruno Sammartino
8.) The Undertaker
9.) The Ultimate Warrior
10.) Pedro Morales
11.) Ric Flair
12.) Triple H
13.) Eddie Guerrero
14.) Kurt Angle
15.) John “Bradshaw” Layfield
16.) Seth Rollins
17.) “Superstar” Billy Graham
18.) Daniel Bryan
19.) Randy Orton
20.) Edge
21.) Brock Lesnar
22.) Roman Reigns
23.) Mankind
24.) Bob Backlund
25.) Shawn Michaels
26.) Dean Ambrose
27.) AJ Styles
28.) Kofi Kingston
29.) Yokozuna
30.) Andre the Giant
31.) Batista
32.) Rob Van Dam
33.) Jeff Hardy
34.) The Miz
35.) Buddy Rogers
36.) Chris Jericho
37.) The Big Show
38.) The Iron Shiek
39.) Ivan Koloff
40.) Sgt. Slaughter
41.) Sycho Sid
42.) Kane
43.) Sheamus
44.) Stan Stasiak
45.) Rey Mysterio
46.) Diesel
47.) Alberto Del Rio
48.) Jinder Mahal
49.) Vince McMahon
51.) Getting hit with a bus full of sex tapes and lawsuits that in a roundabout kinda way probably led to the death of your favorite sports vertical.
52.) Hulk Hogan
Somehow I knew Terry would be after the bus.
Andre should be higher… as much as I like Brock,** Andre was a GREAT, and deserves to be up *at least* where Lesnar is in the rankings, imo.😉
Also, no JYD, and no Jesse “The Body,” or Rowdy Roddy Piper?
Baron Von Raschke–with “The Claw” (https://youtu.be/25CbPL3r_Ec ), The Crusher (Lisowski), The Blond Bomber Stephens, Nick Bockwinkel, Adrian Adonis, Mad Dog Vachon, Jimmy Snuka, and the Gagnes (Verne & Greg) are all greats, too!😁
I watched a lot more AWA as a kid, than WWF/WWE, because Verne was a Minnesotan, and the AWA was “our” regional wrestling crew–so saw lots of these guys as a kiddo (because it was either Wrestling or “Church TV” shows on Sunday mornings,in the 3 or 4-channels-on-TV era😉):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_American_Wrestling_Association_personnel
(**he was wrestling for the U, back when I was an Athletic Training major, at ‘SU, so I knew of him WAAAAAAAAAY back in ’95-’96,and he was a great college wrestler!)
…and I thought I was showing my age 😐
When was JYD champion?
Apparently it wasn’t (aside from the 6-man tag team one) when he was with WWF/WWE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkyard_Dog
But he was TOTALLY the one of the champions of the cartoon!😉😁https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_Hogan’s_Rock_’n’_Wrestling
Yup, also an AWA watcher as a kid. I remember Da Crusher and how he would throw the Road Warriors around like rag dolls, even though he was like 50 years older than those guys. Hilarious. Mean Gene came out of there.
“Mean Gene came out of there.”
YES HE DID!!😁😉
He was…pretty much alllll of my childhood wrestling memories, I think?
I’m glad he had the chance to become SO beloved,by so many folks.
I stopped caring a VERY long time ago, but man do I ever have a lot of issues with this list…
I’m not up on the Cena era, but Macho Man? He won because Hulk Hogan already had full control of his own likeness, handed it to Randy in Wrestlemania IV by making it all about him and then instead of Randy being a real champion, made the Mega Powers tag team so he could still make Randy’s championship about him until Wrestlemania V for the main event. FUCK THAT!
Bret Hart was known around the inside as the worst champion ever.
The Ultimate Warrior won the most unrealistic match EVER (which says a lot) in Wrestlemania 6 when the best match in that was Demolition against “King” (gotdayam!) Haku and Andre the Giant.
Sargent Slaughter was only champion because Vince wanted to make money off the Gulf War. It was fucking lame AF!
Ric Flair and Iron Sheik are way too far down the list (forget their personal flaws).
…but FUCK HULK HOGAN is something I am completely behind.
Who counts Bret as one of the worst champions ever?
Like, worse than Diesel? Diesel’s reign during the New Generation was so bad it literally almost killed the company.
And Jinder Mahal? Jinder Mahal was a jobber who was only made champion to try and market to India, but instead of making him a good guy, they made him an American hating heel that no one, including Indian people, could cheer, had him lose the title on a random SmackDown! before he could ever defend the belt in India, then had him lose to Triple H in front of India, immediately returning him to jobber status and pretending like the reign never happened.
Jinder Mahal’s last television appearance was beating Austin Theory for the WWE 24/7 Championship, a fall from grace so steep that you didn’t even realize I’m completely lying about it, because Mahal hasn’t been on television in literal, actual months.
k you know way more than me, but I remember getting bored once and watching something with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash saying that everyone thought Bret Hart was a lame champion…and that many thought he was the worst ever.
Now that I see you brought Diesel up, perhaps it wasn’t the best source?