The 10 Last WCW Champions, Ranked From Worst To Best
When WCW shut its doors in 2001, it closed the book on a huge part of professional wrestling's history. Part of that history was the lineage of their World Championship. For over a decade, the WCW World Championship was at minimum the 2nd most important championship in the sport. For a couple of years in the mid-'90s, it can even be argued that WCW had the most important World Championship in all of wrestling.
RELATED: 10 WCW Superstars Who Became World Champions In WWE
When WWE purchased WCW, they inherited its World Championship and even put it on a few WWE performers before re-dubbing it simply as the "World Heavyweight Championship." WWE performers aside, the last ten wrestlers to claim the WCW World Championship were fascinating, to say the least.
10 Vince Russo
Vince Russo is the target of a lot of hate from the internet wrestling community. Some of it is unwarranted, but a lot of it is residual damage from a controversial career. One of Russo's most questionable decisions was booking himself to win the WCW Championship. On the September 25, 2000, edition of WCW Monday Nitro, WCW arguably reached its lowest point when Vince Russo defeated Booker T for the WCW Championship.
Russo's feat was accomplished via a technicality when Goldberg inserted himself into the match and Speared Russo out of the cage. Russo would never defend the Championship and ended up vacating it just one week later. Much like his mentor Vince McMahon, Russo is in the conversation for worst World Champion ever.
9 David Arquette
By the middle of 2000, the writing was on the wall for WCW and they began taking some big risks in an attempt to right the ship. One of those big risks was Vince Russo's decision to put the once prestigious WCW Championship on Hollywood actor, David Arquette. Arquette had been written into the storyline as Diamond Dallas Page's buddy, eventually making him a target of Eric Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett.
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On the April 25, 2000, edition of WCW Thunder, Arquette would team with WCW Champion, Diamond Dallas Page to face Eric Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett. Page's WCW Championship was on the line and would be awarded to whoever earned the pin. In total Vince Russo fashion, the entire wrestling world was swerved when Arquette pinned Bischoff to win the WCW Championship. This remains one of the most questionable decisions ever in wrestling.
8 Chris Benoit
When Bret "The Hitman" Hart's legendary career was unfortunately cut short, his WCW Championship was vacated. At Souled Out 2000, Sid Justice and Chris Benoit competed for the vacated championship. After a hard-fought match, Benoit emerged victorious, claiming the first World Championship of his career. Unfortunately, Benoit's title reign was short-lived. The night after winning the championship, Benoit would vacate the title.
Benoit had been clashing with WCW management before and after his title win and the relationship was deemed beyond repair. Benoit would leave WCW and sign with WWE very shortly after. Benoit's decision would prove to be the correct choice.
7 Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious is a lightning rod for controversy within the pro wrestling world. Despite his less than stellar reputation, Sid was so physically gifted that he was crowned World Champion on multiple occasions in both WWE and WCW. In the early part of 2000, Sid was thrust into the main event picture in WCW. A babyface Sid would defeat Kevin Nash twice in January of 2000, claiming the WCW Championship on both occasions.
Sid would turn heel on a returning Hulk Hogan soon after, seemingly setting up a match between the two at Spring Stampede, but the match would never materialize. Sid was stripped of the WCW Championship in April of 2000 when Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo attempted a WCW reboot. The reboot, much like WCW, would not last very long.
6 Ric Flair
"Nature Boy" Ric Flair has been to the mountain top on 16 different occasions. In May of 2000, Flair embarked on his 15th and 16th World Championship reigns. The dirty little secret that not many wrestling fans bring up is that the last title reign of his legendary career was simply handed to him. After defeating Jeff Jarrett to win the WCW Championship, Flair was stripped of the title by Vince Russo. Jarrett would go on to win the vacated championship in a match with Kevin Nash. Nash would then defeat Jarrett two days later to win the WCW Championship.
After winning the title, Nash surrendered the championship to Flair claiming he never lost it. Flair would then lose the title back to Jarrett. Needless to say, the last year of WCW's existence was hard to keep up with.
5 Jeff Jarrett
The year 2000 is when WCW decided to throw a bunch of ideas at the wall to see what would stick. One of the ideas that surprisingly stuck was Jeff Jarrett as World Champion. Jeff Jarret has always been undoubtedly talented. However, many pro wrestling fans cringe at the mere mention of his name. That sentiment was especially true during the last days of WCW. To the dismay of some fans, Jarrett won the WCW Championship on four different occasions in WCW's last calendar year.
RELATED: Jeff Jarrett: 5 Best Matches In WCW (& 5 In WWE)
Perhaps the most memorable moment of Jarrett's four champion reigns came at Bash At The Beach 2000 when he laid down for Hulk Hogan and later dropped the WCW Championship to Booker T in an impromptu match. Unsurprisingly, Jarrett is one of the least popular WCW Champions ever.
4 Kevin Nash
It took Kevin Nash two-plus years to win his first WCW Championship. In the year 2000 alone, Nash won the title three separate times. That should speak to the disorganized mess that WCW had become by that point. At one point in 2000, Nash was the on-screen Commissioner of WCW and simply awarded himself the WCW Championship. He'd go on to lose it to Sid Vicious the same night.
Later in the year, Nash would win the WCW Championship and simply surrender it to Ric Flair. Nash's last reign as WCW Champion only lasted two weeks before he dropped it to Booker T. Nash is undoubtedly a pro wrestling legend, but his championship wins in the last year of WCW served no other purpose than to pad his resume.
3 Diamond Dallas Page
Diamond Dallas Page is a true success story in pro wrestling. The man has been the poster boy for hard work and perseverance. During WCW's final year of existence, Page only held the WCW Championship once. The title reign only lasted two days but Page was a huge part of one of the biggest, yet controversial, storylines of the year. When David Arquette was booked to win the WCW Championship, he was booked to do so from Page, albeit without pinning him.
Page would go on to challenge for the WCW Championship on a few more occasions but unfortunately never recaptured WCW's top prize before the company's closing in March of 2001.
2 Scott Steiner
WCW's final year was a chaotic mess, but the unique performer that is Scott Steiner seemingly thrived in that chaos. After years of unfulfilled potential, Scott Steiner finally won the big one, becoming WCW Champion at Mayhem 2000. In what should come as no surprise considering what WCW's final year was like, Steiner won the title from Booker T in a Straight Jacket Steel Cage Match.
In a move that was out of character for WCW's final year, Steiner would hold on to the WCW Championship for four months before dropping it to Booker T on the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro.
1 Booker T
Amidst all the controversy at Bash At The Beach 2000, the silver lining was the crowning of perhaps the most deserving WCW Champion ever, Booker T. After nearly a decade of paying his dues in the mid-card, Booker T's moment came unexpectedly. After the originally planned WCW Championship match between Hulk Hogan and Jeff Jarret ended in controversy, Booker was booked in an impromptu championship match against Jarrett.
Booker defeated Jarrett to win his first World Championship and would remain in the main event scene until WCW's closed its doors. He would defeat Scott Steiner to be the promotion's final World Champion.
