10 Title Reigns In WWE So Bad You Forgot They Even Happened

On the excellent CM Punk: Best In The World documentary, Triple H had said something to the effect of the title sometimes makes the man, and sometimes the man makes the title. There was a period of time where, more often than not, the WWE tried to make the man by giving them the title.

Even if it’s a bigger star, there are plenty of championship reigns that were just terrible. For whatever the reason, here are 10 title reigns in WWE so bad that most fans forgot they even happened.

10 Jack Swagger: World Heavyweight Champion

Physically, Jack Swagger had all of the looks of a champion. Athletically, he had a similar pedigree to fellow Okies like Dr. Death and Danny Hodge. WWE decided that 2010 was going to be the year that they went with Jack Swagger. He won Money In The Bank at WrestleMania XXVI, and, at that time, he was the fastest person to cash in—less than a week later against Chris Jericho on Smackdown to win the World Championship. He would hold the title for less than three months.

9 Rey Mysterio: WWE Championship

CM Punk has one of the most prolific championship victories at Money In The Bank. He beat John Cena on his last day and headed home with the WWE title. The company had to soldier on without its WWE Champion.

Several weeks later, the Legendary Luchador Rey Mysterio would win the WWE title. He held it for less than an hour and after successfully winning the title, and he would quickly lose it to John Cena, who heelishly enacted his rematch clause.

8 Ezekiel Jackson: ECW Champion

The ECW championship had a pretty decent lineage since the day Shane Douglas tossed down the NWA title and picked up the ECW title. Wrestlers like Raven, Sandman, Sabu, and guys like RVD and Christian during the WWECW company run too. But, when it comes to the last ECW Champion, that dubious honor would go to Ezekiel Jackson after defeating Christian at Extreme Rules.

7 Rene Dupree And Kenzo Suzuki: Smackdown Tag Champions

During the early aughts, the tag team titles meant just about less than nothing. With the exception of a few tag teams holding the title for a good long time, most teams just passed the gold around like a game of hot potato.

One of those tag teams was the amazingly forgettable duo of Renee Dupree and Kenzō Suzuki. They defeated Paul London and Brian Kendrick of all teams and actually held the belts for three months before losing it to the underrated team of RVD and Rey Mysterio.

6 Vince McMahon: WWE And ECW Champion

Sure, the guy owns the greatest wrestling industry in the known world and therefore owns much of the industry. Yet, he booked himself as champion not once, but twice! Over the course of his career, Vinnie Mac won not only WWE title, but the ECW title, too. For all the flack Arquette gets, his victory was used to help promote a movie. Vince promoted his own ego, and it just felt ridiculous.

5 Big Show: WWE Champion

It’s not that The Big Show isn’t worthy of being the WWE Champion, but this victory back in 2002 was completely out of nowhere. At this point in his career, the legendary giant had been on a career downturn.

He was overweight and had been sent to OVW to learn some humility and basics that WCW hadn’t shown him, but Brock had wanted to work with him. Even back then, what Brock wanted, Brock got.

4 Sheamus: WWE Champion

For whatever reason, Sheamus debuted like a house of fire, and the WWE strapped the rocket to his back. Once he fell off, he hadn’t been heated up since. Until 2015, that is, when he won the Money In The Bank briefcase. All plans changed in 2015 when then-champion Seth Rollins went down with an injury. Roman Reigns would win the tournament at Survivor Series to capture his first title, only for Sheamus to cash in moments later.

3 Roman Reigns: Three-Time Champion

The natural progression of Roman Reigns in The Shield is what initially got him over with the fans. Then he got shoved down the gullet of the WWE Universe. It didn’t help him at all when he became a three-time WWE Champion in less than six months. He won his first title at Survivor Series, and, after losing it to Sheamus, he defeated him on Raw after TLC.

This reign only lasted until the Royal Rumble and The Big Dog would topple Triple H at WrestleMania 32. But, despite the WWE’s best efforts, the reaction to Reigns finally defeating The Authority was met with a lackluster reception.

2 Randy Orton: World Heavyweight Champion

Forget who Randy Orton defeated to win his first-ever world title. Other than the iconic thumbs up, thumbs down beat down that ensued the next night, Orton’s first-ever title reign was ended not a month later by Triple H. The whole ordeal made the then-rising star Orton look lesser than to a lot of fans.

1 Alberto Del Rio: WWE Champion

Alberto Del Rio never seemed to achieve anywhere near the hype that surrounded him. Making him the big spoiler in the middle of The Summer Of Punk didn’t help either. Right after the Straight Edge Superstar defeated Cena to cement his place as WWE champion, a quick boot from Kevin Nash and Del Rio came out to cash in his briefcase.

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