The UKFF Top Five Champions Ever

[A Screen Up]

I apologise in advance to Ian for starting a thread so similar to his ongoing countdown, but I'm hoping that this can create a good level of discussion also.

 

What I am looking for here is to see who the UKFF deem as being the top five holders of each major wrestling championship over the years. Please note that you should only consider the wrestlers' performances whilst they were holding the respective championships. For example, just because you believe that Triple H was the greatest World Heavyweight champion ever does not necessarily mean that you think that he was the greatest Intercontinental champion there has ever been. Likewise, though JBL may not rank in your top ten wrestlers of all time, his outstanding WWE Championship run may merit him being placed within your top five 'WWE Champions' list, etcetera.

 

To vote, please rank your top five holders of the following championships in the order that you believe they should be placed (#1 being the best). Don't let it put you off if there are a couple of titles that you wouldn't know about; simply vote for the ones that you do. Please can you send your votes either via email to a_screen_up@hotmail.com or just by PMing me. (I would appreciate it if you could email me rather than PM if possible, thanks.)

 

Sorry if I've not explained this too well, if you're unsure about anything then please ask.

 

The cut-off date for this is THIS THURSDAY (24th NOV), so please get your votes across as soon as you can.

 

The following championships are eligible to vote for:

 

Bracket A:

WWE Championship

WWE World Heavyweight Championship (2002-)

WCW World Championship (-2001)

TNA World Championship

 

Bracket B:

WWE Intercontinental

WWE United States

ECW Television

WWE tag team championship (All WWE tag titles combined for this category)

ECW World Championship (-2001)

TNA X-Division

TNA tag team

AWA World

NWA World Heavyweight

 

Bracket C:

WCW tag team

ECW tag team

ROH World

WWE European

WWE Hardcore

WWE Light Heavyweight

WWE Women's/Divas

WCW Hardcore

 

The results for Bracket C will be on Friday 25th, Bracket B on Saturday 26th and Bracket A on Sunday 27th.

 

Please feel free to ask any questions or to nominate any other championships.

[PepperPlunge]

Can't be bothered to name all of them. Also, there's no NWA champ option.

[Magnum Milano]

Can't be bothered to name all of them. Also, there's no NWA champ option.

Yeah, you include ROH and TNA but no NWA or AWA?

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I'd saw the ECW TV title was more important than the ROH belt. When Rob Van Dam, Shane Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow, Taz and Rhino had it, it wouldnt be out of the question to see that belt headlining house shows and pay-per-views. Also, no WCW Hardcore champion, puts a guarentee on this thread that there will be no Screamin' Norman.

[A Screen Up]

I've edited the original post to include those; for some reason I'd completely forgotten to the list the AWA and NWA titles.

 

And the WCW Hardcore title has been added for you, Ian!

 

Cheers for the input anyway guys.

[Rosler28]

The following championships are eligible to vote for:

 

Bracket A:

WWE Championship - Hulk Hogan . Bret Hart . Triple H . Steve Austin . Shawn Michaels

WWE World Heavyweight Championship (2002-) Triple H . Edge . Batista . Undertaker . Mark Henry

WCW World Championship (-2001) Ric Flair . Sting . Vader . Goldberg . Hulk Hogan

TNA World Championship - Jeff Jarrett . AJ Styles . Kurt Angle . Christian Cage . Samoa Joe

 

Bracket B:

WWE Intercontinental - Shawn Michaels . Mr Perfect . Bret Hart . Kurt Angle . Edge

WWE United States - Chris Benoit . Rick Rude . Steve Austin . Dolph Ziggler . Dustin Rhodes

ECW Television - Rhino . Shane Douglas . Kid Kash . RVD . Tazz

WWE tag team championship (All WWE tag titles combined for this category) LOD . New Age Outlaws . Quebecers . Steiner Bros . Hart Foundation

ECW World Championship (-2001) Raven . Tommy Dreamer . Rhino . Terry Funk . Tazz

TNA X-Division - AJ Styles . Kazarian . Daniels . Samoa Joe . Amazing Red

TNA tag team - Americas most wanted . Beer Money . Team 3D . Motor city machine guns . LAX

AWA World

NWA World Heavyweight - Ric Flair . Dusty Rhodes . Harley Race

 

Bracket C:

WCW tag team - Steiner bros . Fabolous freebirds . Roadwarriors . Outsiders . Harlem heat

ECW tag team- Dudley boyz .

ROH World- Bryan Danielson . Davey Richards . Nigel Mguinness . Samoa Joe

WWE European - British Bulldog . Kurt Angle . Eddy Gurerro . Shane Mcmahon

WWE Hardcore - Crash Holly . Al Snow .

WWE Light Heavyweight - Dean Malenko . Rey Mysterio .

WWE Women's/Divas - Trish Stratus . Victoria . Faboulous Moolah . Aluandra Blaze . kelly kelly

WCW Hardcore- Norman Smiley

 

The results for Bracket C will be on Friday 25th, Bracket B on Saturday 26th and Bracket A on Sunday 27th.

 

Please feel free to ask any questions or to nominate any other championships.

[PunkStep]

Email or pm them, you dribbler

[TheBigBoot]

Please feel free to ask any questions or to nominate any other championships.

 

NWA Tag Team

AWA Tag Team

WCW US Tag Team

 

WCW US

WCW TV

WCW Cruiserweight

 

I'd put all of those either on the same level or above TNA/ROH/ECW's belts. WCW TV Title in particular might be my favourite 'division' ever.

[PunkStep]

Please feel free to ask any questions or to nominate any other championships.

 

NWA Tag Team

I second this, all day long. Some of the greatest ever tag teams were gone before the tag titles became WCW tag titles.

[ShortOrderCook]

I think this could be a grand thread just based on the WWE championship alone.

 

Actually i tried to do a similar thread years ago based on a PWI Issue that graded all WWE/World champions A-D, doing the thread on how you'd grade all the WWE/World champions since that issue (which was like 2002 or something). It didn't really catch on, so maybe not.

[A Screen Up]

Thank you for all the contributions so far. I will edit in a couple more belts when I get chance, it's a nightmare to edit posts on this phone.

 

A recurring message I am getting from people is just how little credible holders of the TNA World title there has been.

 

If anybody does read this post and would like to add any of the titles that other posters have added then please feel free to do so.

 

Thanks.

[A Screen Up]

Please remember that the cut off for voting is tonight, so please get yours across if you've yet to do so. Thanks.

[Jaffa]

I remember RAW magazine running a Greatest WWF Champion Of All Time article back in the early 2000s and being shocked that apart from his June 2000 - October 2000 title run, The Rock never held the WWF Championship for more than a few weeks.

 

Reign One: 5 weeks

Reign Two: 1/2 weeks

Reign Three: 4 weeks

Reign Four: 3/4 weeks

Reign Five: 4 months

Reign Six: 4 weeks

Reign Seven: 4 weeks

 

Did anyone consider length of reign when voting?

 

Apologies if this sidetracks the thread, but what is the difference between this and today's champions having one month reigns? Purely the talent of The Rock?

[Prince Nana]

I think a lot of this list may be nased on perception rather than reality. I think I voted of a couple of short reign champions which impacted me strongly in some way.

 

and a lot would depend on what you know/remeber and the era's you are most acustomed with ext.

 

saying that I don't think I voted for The Rock for anything.

[air_raid]

Probably TMI;DNR for some, but fuck it.

 

I'd have sent you my lists for the World title brackets, but because they're divided up by the individual titles themselves with split lineages, it kind of ruins the write ups I would have wanted to write. I wouldn't want to write about why Ric Flair was the greatest World Champion of all time, for example, without writing about his runs as both "NWA World Champion" and "WcW World Champion" as the eras follow on/crossover and are contested within the same setting. Similarly my case for Triple H (were I to have made one) would rest on how good a champion he has been with both the WWF/E title and the Big Gold Belt and his longevity as a champion for ten years in the company.

 

But hell, just because I want to, the five greatest World Champions in the history of American wrestling to me are, for a variety of statistical (number of reigns, years on top, length of reigns), business (buy rates, being "the main event"/drawing the house, selling merchandise, being "the face of the company") and artistic (quality of defences, elevating the challengers) - baring in mind some of these are in on balance and might not tick all three boxes -

 

Ric Flair

Hulk Hogan

Steve Austin

Triple H

John Cena

 

Yes, there are a couple of notable ommissions. Shawn Michaels isn't there, even though I admit that I believe him to be the greatest performer in the history of American wrestling. There is a marked difference between a great performer and a great champion. I consider three out of four of Shawn's reigns to be unremarkable aside from some of the circumstances around winning (Montreal) or losing a title (losing his smile, heh), and while his first reign had some good matches in it, it is reported to have done little to turn business around, and the only challenger he had that came out the other side looking any stronger than when they went in was Sid, who did so because he won the title.

 

I also didn't include The Rock. The bulk of his reigns came as the filling in the "Austin Era" sandwich, which while an incredibly satisfying 12 months, I'll still always consider the Attitude Era to be Stone Cold's time. The Rock could have maintained top spot when Austin came back, but his movie commitments were already reducing his number of appearances. Looking at the PPV calendar for 2001, it's all about Steve for me. Also Rock's reigns were all brief, and he racked up five of them playing hot potato with Mankind and then Triple H. In terms of making challengers look good, it's hard to say as during the three stages of Rocky as champion, he worked almost entirely with Mankind, Austin, Hunter and Angle. By the criteria I have judged by, thinking about who made the real differences or defined the era as face of the company, I put the five I have listed ahead of Rock, much as I loved him.

 

Yes, many will disagree with my selection of Triple H using the same criteria, but as a holder of the Big Gold Belt five times and the WWF/E title eight times (currently the most crowned World Champion in company history) over a ten year period who has had great matches with almost all of the top names in that same period, I find it impossible not to include him. No one has said "main event" for a longer uniterrupted period in WWF/E history, and while he wasn't always a personal favourite, for most of that period it was justified.

 

 

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