Top 10 WORST Wrestling Champions

Yes, we promise this actually happened.

WWE’s ECW Brand was the drink that got weaker throughout the night. Starting off as a strong concoction of Extreme Rules, Debauchery and ECW Originals, the brand’s four year run got less extreme as time went on.

The Main Event Scene began to filter out the likes of The Sandman and Sabu for more WWE-friendly names like Kurt Angle and Matt Hardy, but as they approached their final episode, it didn’t look like violence was on the menu.

On February 16th 2010, Ezekiel Jackson defeated Christian to become the ECW Champion, and went on to hold it for all of 30 seconds. Jackson might have raised the Championship and got himself in the history books, only for the screen to fade to black and weeks later, show up on Smackdown with no mention of it whatsoever.

What was the point in a Championship match where neither person gets to be Champion afterward? And what benefit is it to Jackson when we pretend like nothing happened? Should have given to Zombie.

While Wrestling’s always been a friend to the Red Carpet, Celebrities find themselves in fans good books by putting on a brave face and getting involved. Stars like Steve-O or Jeremy Piven won over fans by rolling up their sleeves and taking a move or two, but not everybody on our list needed the post-match ice pack.

In August of 2007, TNA Wrestling announced they’d made a deal with Tenesse Titans Cornerman, Adam “Pacman” Jones. Celebrity crossovers can be a bit hit or miss, but at least he’s an athlete, right?

That was until the Titans slapped a restraining order on Jones and TNA, stating Jones couldn’t touch, be touched, or risked injury in any way at all. So how did Jones make this list? That’s thanks to Tag Partner R-Truth, who did the lions share of their work in their Tag Title Victory over nuts combo of Kurt Angle and Sting. Pacman got the pin over the Hall of Famers but otherwise, never laid a finger, or ever took a bump.

The newly dubbed Team Pacman kept the Titles for a month and a half, until Pacman subbed himself out for Consequences Creed, now known as Xavier Woods, to eventually lose the Championships.

Surely if this stunt was to bring in new viewers, anyone who tuned in surely wouldn’t stay long when they saw Pacman not even wrestle, right?

In 2007, Finlay’s small irish friend won the Cruiserweight Championship, in a match that nobody knew he was in. That’s strike one. Pinning Jamie Noble in the Cruiserweight Open at the Great American Bash, many fans saw this as a sign of the Championship’s decline from the likes of Rey Mysterio or Billy Kidman.

Hornswoggle spent weeks avoiding Noble at all costs, embarrassing this technically superior performer and keeping the Championship hostage, but things took a left turn on September 10th, when Hornswoggle was named as the illegitimate child of WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon. Suddenly, Hornswoggle’s Title escapades became one storyline too many.

Sweeping things under the rug, then General Manager Vickie Guerrero pressured Hornswoggle into retiring the Championship, seemingly for his own safety, which kept the Title on the shelf for the next nine years.

Productive reign then yeah?

Now don’t get me wrong, Kane is one of the most accomplished and beloved performers in WWE History. Legendary rivalries and a plethora of Championships that any performer, myself included, would be honoured to achieve. But Kane finds himself on this list for his first accolade, and how exactly this history making moment went down.

A Performers first Championship is usually a special moment, but Kane’s inaugural WWE Championship win came in a match he was borderline unable to lose. At King of the Ring 1998, Kane defeated then-champion Stone Cold Steve Austin…in a First Blood Match. How the Referee was able to tell if a masked man was bleeding, I don’t know, but being the only person in the match with an exposed face, Austin lost the Title.

To make matters worse, Kane lost the Title back to Austin just 24 hours later on Raw. What a way to prove it was a fluke, although thankfully, Kane still had time to get himself back in the history books.

Similarly to our last entry, this one isn’t necessarily a knock on the performer, but moreso the circumstances that they won. In February of 2020, Goldberg challenged “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt, for a shot at his Universal Championship. Being via Satellite, the challenge felt somewhat underwhelming, but little did fans know, the worst was yet to come.

When Goldberg knocked off Wyatt, fans were outraged to see a part timer dethrone a younger talent that’d worked so hard to get there. Be it as it may, WWE pressed on with their idea of Goldberg vs Roman Reigns, Spear vs Spear at Wrestlemania. Unfortunately, the universe had other ideas.

While Goldberg was brought in to stir up attendance heading into Wrestlemania, the covid-19 pandemic sent crowds packing, and WWE behind closed doors. To make matters worse, Reigns pulled out due to covid concerns, so now Goldberg didn’t draw, didn’t get the dream match, and sent former Champion Wyatt down the card for no reason. Thanks Bill.

Nobody can argue that The Chairman isn’t a heat machine. A legend in the business and ridiculously aesthetic for a man over 60, but there’s many that see Vince’s spin as ECW Champion as a major misstep for the brand.

Fallout from the Battle of the Billionaires, Vince’s sights turned to ECW Champion Bobby Lashley, who’s win for Donald Trump in their WrestleMania encounter resulted in Vince’s shaved head. Anti-authority storylines have worked 100 times before in WWE, so what went wrong here?

Vince won the ECW Championship in a 3 on 1 Handicap match at Backlash 2007, with thanks to his son Shane and the vicious Umaga. Lashley thought he won the Championship back in a 3 on 1 rematch at Judgement Day, but Vince declared it didn’t count, as he wasn’t the one that was pinned.

Eventually, Lashley won his Championship back at One Night Stand, and while neither were ECW Originals or necessary hardcore, fans were happy to at least see it back on an active wrestler, and one who can defend it on their own.

OK, now this one is truly baffling.

So far on this list we’ve talked Wrestlers in the wrong place at the wrong time, as well as people in positions they shouldn’t have been in. But this next entry was both intentional, and a little misguided.

In January of 2018, Matt Sydal cut a promo on Impact, declaring none other than Josh Matthews as his “spiritual guiide”, whatever that means. In doing so, Sydal handed his manager the Impact Grand Championship…despite not being a wrestler.

Two weeks later, Sydal defended the Title on his behalf, and lost it, meaning Matthews both won and lost a Championship, without ever stepping foot in the ring. That’s even less than Pacman Jones did.

The point of this? I don’t know, but hey, at least they got it over with quickly?

You know those moments that make you feel cool to be a wrestling fan? Yeah, this isn’t one of them.

Harvey Wippleman was a well respected Manager in the early 1990’s, handling the ringside business of names such as Kamala and Giant Gonzales. But Wippleman found himself in the history books for a Championship, he unfortunately, shouldn’t have even qualified for.

On a January episode of Raw in 2000, Wippleman defeated The Kat for the WWE Womens Championship, while dressed in drag, and creatively calling himself “Hervina”. This was during the first, and thankfully last, Lumberjill Snow Bunny match. After the match, Hervina was interviewed by Michael Cole where Wippleman eventually spillled the beans.

Wippleman lost the Championship just a day later to Jacquelline, thankfully, so at least somebody looked strong out of the interaction, but why? Just why?

Perhaps the most infamous Title change on our list, David Arquette’s WCW Championship could have possibly changed the wrestling industry, forever.

Known for his roles in films like Scream and Never Been Kissed, long time wrestling fan David Arquette was living the dream when he was cast as the lead in Wrestling-centric comedy film, “Ready to Rumble”. The film’s partnership with WCW, just adding to the authenticity.

But it’s WCW’s decision to blur the lines that possibly spelt the end for the company itself.

In an April 2000 episode of Thunder, Arquette teamed with Diamond Dallas Page to take on Jeff Jerett and Eric Bischoff, with the stipulation being that whoever scored the pinfall would become Champion. After taking out Bischoff, Arquette found himself holding one of the country’s top Championships and leaving wrestling fans everywhere confused and dissapointed.

As much as celebrity involvement can be fun, it felt like the storyline had turned the title picture into one long commercial, and performers backstage had felt like their hard work was being ignored in place of an advertisement. Ric Flair instructed Arquette to take the locker room out for drinks to keep them all onside.

Weeks later, Arquette dropped the Championship to Jerrett in a three tiered cage match also featuring Page. By this point though, the damage had been done, and WCW barely had the chance to recover.


Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honourable mentions:

The Great Khali as Heavyweight Champion. A sea of odd promos, and worse matches.

Yokozuna wins the WWE Championship. When the only reason you won, was to transition it back to Hulk Hogan.

Dolph Ziggler wins the Heavyweight Championship. Nobody wants their first reign to just be handed to them, especially when the performer’s THAT good.


Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel, and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified about occasional videos, or all of them. If you’re on your phone, make sure to go into your settings, and switch on notifications.

And you thought it couldn’t get worse than Arquette.

Vince Russo played a large part in WWE’s dominance over WCW, working as head writer during some of the Attitude Era’s greatest moments, including the McMahon vs Austin Storyline, D-Ggeneration-X and the Three faces of Foley. With this in mind, you’d start to think Russo’s contribution to the business was wholly positive.

But it’s during his time as Booker for WCW did the monster start to take over. Russo became an on-screen character, blurring the lines for audiences knowing who he was, and astonishingly, winning the WCW Championship from then-Champion Booker T, after being speared through the side of the cage by the interfering Goldberg.

Promoters have won their own Championships before, but even with performers like Dusty Rhodes or Ric Flair, their talent was evident enough that performers and and fans alike found them credible. This couldn’t be said for Russo, as audiences saw it as a vanity project, and the locker room found it a slap in the face.

Russo vacated the Championship the following week, making it the seventh time it’d be vacated THAT YEAR ALONE. It was then won back by Booker T, just to prove to everyone involved, there wasn’t a point in this at all.

Rest in Peace, WCW.


Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from watchmojo, and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.