Your Most Hated World Title Reign in History

[Lenin]

I agree Bryan is in a different league. Might just be my memory, but it was the first time I remember the forums and fans really clamouring for Benoit to get the belt and it happened. I'm sure I remember it was in some doubt him actually winning? Hated his reign because it sucked though. I thought if this guy is so good, why is it such a poor run? Poor run, poor feuds, poor matches. One of those where I think it might have been better if he hadn't won it. His reign is how I imagine a Mr Perfect or Ted DiBiasie reign. The fact they didn't means we can pretend they would have been great.

[Carbomb]

Benoit's reign was shit because, like most shit title reigns, they didn't give him anything interesting to do. His road to the title wasn't just matches, like everyone remembers; there was a clear "man on a mission for the big one he never held" theme they were building up to for a big moment at the biggest WM thus far. That's a fine storyline for a wrestler to have until he wins the thing, then he needs something else to do - just holding on to it is nothing, as it's what most champions do. Given that everyone knew Benoit could've been owned on the mike by Mr. Muzlamic Ray Guns, it was pretty obvious he was the kind of guy that needed booking support.

 

Prime example was when he was feuding with The Rock in '99. He was awesome to watch as a psycho heel back then, because the main way of building him up was keeping him from speaking too much and having him attacking people out of the blue backstage, because he had the intensity to make such attacks look really nasty and personal.

 

It's a difficult one, when you think about it; his best trait character-wise was that he was pro-active, not reactive - something that's usually reserved for heels. The "man on a mission" character was probably one of the few occasions where a face could be pro-active, but once he became a face champion, he became a reactive face who had nothing to go for, which doesn't work for a guy whose performances are based on being a bad-ass. Maybe there were things Creative could've done to keep him pro-active, like get involved in heel-on-face attacks, but that would've lowered him as champ. Maybe an open challenge gimmick? But that still ultimately makes him reactive.

 

In the final analysis, it seems to me the only chance of stopping Benoit's reign from going to shit would've been to turn him heel, but (if I remember correctly) they just had too many heels at the time.

[Linus]

When I came back to wrestling a little over a year ago, I watched NXT and then gradually got back into the main WWE roster stuff. By that time Brock Lesnar had won the title from John Cena at Night Of Champions, and the WWE had - pretty much - an absentee champion. From that point in September, through the Royal Rumble (although not after, for reasons I'll detail later), I considered Lesnar's reign to be everything I dislike about professional wrestling.

 

When the wrestling business was built around weekly TV that featured nothing but squash matches and promos to build to monthly or quarterly shows, an absentee champion wasn't a terrible thing. Indeed, for much of its history, the NWA was built around this model, its World Champion flying/driving from territory to territory, appearances and defences rare (which made them special).

 

But since wrestling moved to the weekly big show model, brought in by Nitro in 1995, it's no longer been enough to have a champion appear sparingly. If anything, it's gone too far the other way, and there are too many appearances by champions on TV, but that's not entirely relevant.

 

Lesnar, as an absentee champion, robbed the WWE of forward momentum with its belt. The period between Night Of Champions and the Royal Rumble featured zero title defences and only a handful of appearances by the champion. Worse still, when he did appear, he didn't look like a champion, and scarcely seemed interested in being there. That's probably part of the character, and definitely lifts him apart from the rest of the roster, but to someone coming back to the sport after so many years out it was stark and disappointing.

 

A promotion - and its TV - are only as strong as the champion, and the chase for the belt, and so I pretty much hated Lesnar's title reign.

 

UNTIL...

 

Roman Reigns won the Royal Rumble match and it became clear that, bar a last minute change of plan, Vince was intent on putting the belt on him. It looked for all the world that the WWE would go from having an absentee champion who rarely appeared to one who did too much, in the hope that some of it would stick, so desperate were they for Reigns to succeed. At that point, Lesnar's reign didn't seem so bad after all.

 

Of course, Reigns didn't win the title, and Seth Rollins dethroned Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania, and that has led to its own issues, with a weakly-booked champion over-exposed and under-protected. I'm hating this title reign more than Lesnar's, but since it's not finished yet it wouldn't be fair or prudent to nominate it.

[Liam O'Rourke]

I want to thank everybody for the contributions, we got to read many of them on the show, which is now available at the following link:

 

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/fumvra/SCGRadio58-TheMostHatedWorldTitleReignsEver.mp3

 

Join us as we take your nominations for this tremendous distinction, talking all the trials and tribulations involved in the World Title reigns of individuals such as JBL, The Miz, Shane Douglas, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Ronnie Garvin, Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarrett, Hulk Hogan, Big Show, Kurt Angle, Seth Rollins, Triple H (of course) and many more, debating what made these runs as utterly hateable as they were. A very fun show this week, check it out and let us know what you think!

[Cobra1000]

Great show. You all pissing yourself at that post about Shane Douglas was fab.

[Egg Shen]

Surely the whole point of Backlund getting the belt in 94 was to just be obliterated by Diesel as they were pushing "the new generation".

makes sense but why did they switch the belt on a house show?

[Tommy!]

I'm looking at listening to some of the older ones, I suspect I've posted in many threads but only recently started listening to the podcast.

Have you always followed the same concept of putting a topic out there an discussing the bile that spews forth, or is there a point midway through them that started where I should dip in?

[King Pitcos]

 

Surely the whole point of Backlund getting the belt in 94 was to just be obliterated by Diesel as they were pushing "the new generation".

makes sense but why did they switch the belt on a house show?

 

In 1994, MSG shows were a bigger deal than a bog-standard Raw.

[tiger_rick]

I'm looking at listening to some of the older ones, I suspect I've posted in many threads but only recently started listening to the podcast.

Have you always followed the same concept of putting a topic out there an discussing the bile that spews forth, or is there a point midway through them that started where I should dip in?

The Monday Night War series are worth listening to chronologically but most of the other shows are stand alone. I just pick whatever takes my fancy. Listened to one from about a year ago where they read my feedback that I can't even remember posting!

 

The trial shows are good. The booking ones require the most concentration. They're hard to follow if you dip in and out like I tend to.

[Wrasslin]

 

 

Surely the whole point of Backlund getting the belt in 94 was to just be obliterated by Diesel as they were pushing "the new generation".

makes sense but why did they switch the belt on a house show?

 

In 1994, MSG shows were a bigger deal than a bog-standard Raw.

 

Plus it held 29,000 people. 

[Statto]

Well it did that night.

[Max Power]

Another fantastic listen, although the unintentional highlight for me was whoever used the term "damp squid". Listened at work today and pissed myself.