Do we really want to call Seth Rollins THE champion?
Even if we can all be satisfied with Kofi Kingston at the top of the game, there have definitely been times where the WWE offers us no one worthy to hold the top belts in their company (Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar after Wrestlemania 33). During the Monday Night Wars we could have the argument of who was the best in the business based on waist wear. The fun of going to the magazine aisle of a pharmacy was to see how Bill Apter ranked grapplers based on hardware.
Working night audit on week nights at a hotel that was overstaffed and to scrutinizing about bettering oneself (the owner at the I Hotel “allegedly” fired a kid for doing Big Ten schoolwork on the clock), jotting down notes in regards to the concept of which championship was the championship helped keep me sane for a few weeks. In other words, I tried to also determine which title was the one to claim in the tag team and women’s divisions.
This brings me to my biggest issue with working for a biker for Trump (no allegedly on that) or some asset a conglomerate is trying to sell while leaving everyone with unrelenting repetitive tasks with no encouragement or benefits. You can be creative with those moments that allow you to breathe, but how are you going to find the strength to regurgitate those moments on to the keyboard?
On top of all those questions, I have to determine how to address the title history I developed in the most reader friendly way. Do I start back at Starrcade 1983 or work backward from me cancelling the incredibly sexist Network (it was not NJPW World)? The easy thing to do would be to start at Royal Rumble 1992 when the recently fired NWA champion won the WWF title, but that throws away all my effort to tell the story of the real world champion.
If I am going to do that, I might as well find somebody to podcast about it with. Hey Jake Lloyd (@liquidjake), you may need another podcast on Dragon Wagon Radio if listeners get sick of the WWE-centric podcast you have right now. You can find me @maineventzombie on Twitter and Instagram.
Ground rules probably need to be laid out, and they will not make much sense if I do not start at the beginning. This is the time when the 10 Pounds of Gold was the only gold that mattered.
There Was Only the 10 Pounds of Gold:
Verne Gagne is the first booker to try and put himself on TOP. This was pretty blatant, so the American Wrestling Association’s heavyweight championship cannot be called the world’s belt. The National Wrestling Alliance still maintained authority over everything outside the Midwest, so his claim could obviously be disputed.
Vince McMahon Sr. may have disagreed with Lou Thesz’s single-fall title victory over Buddy Rogers, hence Rogers becoming the World Wide Wrestling Federation Champion seemed reasonable. Except, Rogers was only given the belt to drop it to Bruno Sammartino, someone who only represented the world because of the attitude that New York City was the WORLD. After Trump’s win, I do not like to give the flyover states much credit, but the NWA represented the greater masses and it is common knowledge that Bruno could not do a 60-minute broadway. This means the WWWF title would never be the world title.
Once Hulkamania was born, the national and international credibility to the World Wrestling Federation was undeniable, but Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik. Ric Flair was the NWA champ at the time of Hogan’s victory, so the WWF title still was not the title. Once Flair started swapping the title with Harley Race and the Kerry Von Erich, the unbeatable Hulk could claim the title.
1st Real World Heavyweight Champion - NWA’s Ric Flair (3) - 11/24/1983 - 3/20/84
2nd World Champion - WWF’s Hulk Hogan - 3/20/84 - 2/5/88
3rd World Champion - WWF’s Andre the Giant - 2/5/88
4th World Champion - NWA’s Ric Flair (4) - 2/5/88 - 2/20/89
Andre the Giant treated the WWF championship like it a bed in a Japanese hotel room. We cannot have a vacancy in this championship lineage. The NWA never had a vacated world championship to this point, so it is only fitting to return it to them. Sorry Randy Savage.
5th World Champion - NWA’s Ricky Steamboat - 2/20/89 - 5/7/89
6th World Champion - NWA’s Ric Flair (5) - 5/7/89 - 7/7/90
7th World Champion - NWA’s Sting - 7/7/90 - 1/11/91
I know this has totally ignored the Ultimate Warrior’s sole reign on top. But, he lost it to a propaganda angle in Sgt. Slaughter. Sting lost it back to Flair after a lengthy reign. To paraphrase The Nature Boy, “To be the man, you got to beat the man…not the gimmick.”
8th World Champion - NWA’s Ric Flair (6) - 1/11/91 - 3/21/91
9th World Champion - NWA’s Tatsumi Fujinami - 3/21/91 - 5/19/91
10th World Champ - NWA’s and WWF’s Ric Flair (7) - 5/19/91 - 4/5/1992
This title reign was when Flair left NWA as champion, claimed he was the REAL World Champion, and he didn’t want to say he “told us so,” but he “told us so.”
The Seeds of War:
With Flair’s departure from the World Championship Wrestling, they wasted no time in determining their own champion. If the NWA would have surrendered the concept of integrity, they may have kept the territories alive a little longer. They soon set the precedent for how to bury a concept in wrestling.
11th World Champ - WWF’s Randy Savage - 4/5/1992 - 9/1/92
12th World Champ - WWF’s Ric Flair (8) - 9/1/92 - 10/12/92
13th World Champ - WWF’s Bret Hart - 10/12/92 - 4/4/93
14th World Champ - WCW’s Big Van Vader - 4/4/93 - 12/27/93
Yokozuna was wasted on Vince McMahon wanting to tell a tale of patriotism. He could move very well for a big man, but not nearly as well as Vader. To make matters worse for WWF, they were thinking Lex Luger was the way to go. Ric Flair told WCW that was a mistake, and he may have a better idea on who is best suited for the title.
15th World Champ - WCW’s Ric Flair (9) - 12/27/93 - 7/17/94
16th World Champ - WWF’s Bret Hart (2) - 7/17/94 - 11/23/94
Bret Hart was constantly being denied the championship by Hogan, and that was well known. If anyone is going to take a title from Flair, it will be Hart before Hogan. Also, the Owen/Bret feud needs greater documentation than the Hulkster on Baywatch.
17th World Champ - WCW’s Hulk Hogan (2) - 11/23/94 - 10/29/95
But, Hogan’s reign bringing eyes on WCW is more important than Bob Backlund’s last run as Champion and his loss of the belt in 17 seconds at Madison Square Garden. Did Vince McMahon think Diesel was the second coming of Bruno?
18th World Champ - WWF’s Diesel - 10/25/95 - 11/19/95
Diesel’s WWF reign was the longest since Hogan’s first, so it deserves more recognition than Paul Wight’s in ring debut. This is also when Eric Bischoff determined the title did not matter, which Vince Russo would seem to further embrace under Bischoff’s watch.
19th World Champ - WWF’s Bret Hart (3) - 11/19/95 - 3/31/96
20th World Champ - WWF’s Shawn Michaels - 3/31/96 - 11/17/96
21st World Champ - WCW/nWo’s Hollywood Hogan (3) - 11/17/96 - 8/4/97
Sid in WWF was usually a disaster, so putting him over the greatest faction in American wrestling is not going to happen. If you want to argue nWo versus DX, when did DX share the title of a video game with WWF/WWE?
22nd World Champ - WWF’s Bret Hart (4) - 8/4/97 - 11/9/97
Lex Luger is just not cut out to be a world champ.
23rd World Champ - WCW/nWo’s Hollywood Hogan (4) - 11/9/97 - 12/28/97
The screw job obviously disqualifies Shawn Michaels from a second reign.
24th World Champ - ECW’s Shane Douglas - 12/28/97 to 1/10/99
Michaels (unless it was a work) was an illegitimate champion. Sting would have to vacate the title because Bischoff tried to pay homage to Hart’s title loss. Shane Douglas had to beat two legends (Sabu and Terry Funk [a former Real World Champ]) in one night to earn the title. It seems fitting that a man who the NWA thought would turn their business around was prepared to be a real world champion.
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