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The WWE Championship came into existence as the WWWF Championship back in April 1963. 55 years later and 50 men have reigned as WWE Champion. However, not all are as revered or as well remembered as it's greatest title holders such as Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels and John Cena.
In fact, many WWE Champions are lost to history such was the brevity or insignificance of their title runs.
This slideshow counts down 10 reigns which you may not know about.
#10 Rob Van Dam
The man most famous for his two-year ECW World Television Championship run actually won a great number of titles in WWE as well, including the big one.
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RVD finally won the WWE Championship years after most observers expected him to, when he defeated John Cena in an unforgettable bout at ECW One Night Stand 2006, before an incredibly partisan crowd.
However, the reign was terminated just a few weeks later when RVD was stopped by police for possession of Marijuana and other pills. RVD was later found not guilty of all charges, but the negative publicity gave WWE no choice but to truncate his reign and he lost the title to Edge in a triple threat match also involving Cena on Raw.
RVD then alternated between featured performer and also ran for the remainder of his WWE run.
RVD, strangely is rarely mentioned on WWE television these days and is not as revered as he should be. He has faded into obscurity and his famous title victory is largely lost to history.
#9 The Iron Sheik
Nowadays most people know The Iron Sheik for his very public, expletive-laden tirades at just about everybody in wrestling.
It is easy to forget then, that Sheik was once WWF Champion and the man that Hulk Hogan defeated to win his first WWF title in January 1984.
Sheik had defeated long-time champion, Bob Backlund, when Backlund's manager, Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel for his charge, which was a source of dissension from that point on between himself and Backlund.
Sheik was the very definition of a transitional champion and was never close to a second reign with the title.
#8 Andre the Giant
Despite being one of the most famous wrestlers in history, Andre the Giant doesn't have much of a relationship with the most prestigious championship in wrestling history.
Andre "defeated" Hulk Hogan on an NBC television special in February 1988 to terminate Hogan's four-year Championship reign. Long before the Bella Twins "twin magic", referee twins, Dave and Earl Hebner swopped places, and "evil referee" Earl, counted Hogan's shoulders down to the mat, despite the fact he clearly kicked out.
A colossal screwjob made even more controversial when post-match, Ted Dibiase bought the title from Andre.
This led to Jack Tunney stripping Andre of the title, ruling that championships must be won or lost in the ring.
That was as far as Andre's legacy with the belt ever went.
#7 Kane
In his 21 year WWE career, Kane only spent one day as WWF Champion. That occurred 20 years ago when he defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin with a big assist from his brother, The Undertaker.
Kane who had threatened to set himself on fire if he lost his "First Blood" WWF Championship match with Stone Cold, thankfully won when Undertaker smashed Austin with a chair when he had ostensibly been aiming for Kane.
It was later revealed however that Undertaker and Kane were in cahoots all along.
Not one to back down from a challenge, the Big Red Machine agreed to face Austin in a rematch on Raw the very next night wherein Stone Cold stunned him to regain the title.
Although Kane would win the ECW World Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship, he would never again hold the WWF/E Championship. Many current fans don't realize that he ever did.
#6 Sergeant Slaughter
Had Sergeant Slaughter won the WWF Championship a decade earlier, there is a strong chance he could have had a successful reign.
However, in 1991 the veteran was broken down to the point he could do very little in the ring. Hampering him further was the fact that he was playing an exploitative Iraqi sympathiser gimmick whilst the Gulf War was in progress.
Hurting Slaughter's credibility still further was the fact that he only won the belt due to Macho King Randy Savage walloping his opponent, Ultimate Warrior with a scepter leaving him a sitting duck for the challenger.
Warrior was beaten and Slaughter would reign as Champion for two months before predictably dropping the strap to American hero, Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania VII.
Slaughter's reign was a disaster at the box office and forced the WWF to relocate Wrestlemania VII from the 100,000 seater Los Angeles Coliseum to the 17,000 seater Los Angeles Sports Arena due to poor ticket sales. Needless to say, Slaughter was never considered for another World title run and would retire as a full-time performer the following year.
#5 Sycho Sid
Sycho Sid had the look, the size and the charisma of a main event superstar. However, he lacked the in-ring skills to properly wrestle headline length matches.
Therefore his two reigns as WWF Champion were extremely brief. His first title win came in a very good match against Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 1996, where Sid, the villain was vociferously cheered against babyface Michaels, with the hardcore fans tiring of Michaels's goody-two-shoes character.
Sid's victory existed solely for the purpose of Michaels regaining the belt at the 1997 Royal Rumble event which hailed from his hometown of San Antonio, Texas in the massive Alamodome which the WWF managed to pull over 60,000 fans into.
Sid surprisingly enjoyed a second transitional reign when he beat Bret "Hitman" Hart on Raw, just weeks prior to Wrestlemania 13. That event saw Sid drop the title for the final time to The Undertaker. Sid would soon leave the company and enjoy greater success as World Champion in WCW.
#4 Bray Wyatt
Had Bray Wyatt won the WWE Championship in 2013 or 2014, chances are it would have been a success. However, when Wyatt finally won the big one, it came in 2017, much too late for his character.
By that point in time, Wyatt had been irrevocably damaged by high profile losses to every major star in the company such as The Undertaker, John Cena, Roman Reigns and Kane.
His reign existed solely for the purpose of him dropping the title to Randy Orton whom he had been feuding with for months. WWE felt adding the WWE Championship to their conflict would spice up their rivalry. It didn't.
Their title match at Wrestlemania 33 played out to near silence. Wyatt's career continued to nosedive until a mini-revival earlier this year in his entertaining tag team partnership with "Woken" Matt Hardy.
Suffice to say, Wyatt needs a lot of rebuilding before he can be considered a World title contender again. Many have forgotten his brief Championship run already.
#3 John "Bradshaw" Layfield
In a title reign that still seems unlikely almost 15 years later, Bradshaw, the long-time WWE employee who had spent most of his career in mid-card tag teams such as The New Blackjacks and the APA, was rather abruptly repackaged as a Dallas's J.R Ewing style millionaire character, John "Bradshaw" Layfield.
Not only did the JBL character come out of nowhere but it was a massive transition from the working class Texan gambler and beer drinker persona he had portrayed for the previous half-decade.
In an even bigger surprise, JBL, the career mid-carder was suddenly pushed as a main-eventer in a title feud with WWE Champion, Eddie Guerrero.
Guerrero who had vanquished Brock Lesnar, no less to win the gold and defended the title versus Kurt Angle in a killer match at Wrestlemania XX was no match for JBL apparently and dropped the belt to him in a lousy match at the Great American Bash 2004.
From there, JBL incredibly held the title for a staggering 280 days (a record that AJ Styles only recently broke as the longest reigning Champion in Smackdown history) before he lost the title to John Cena at Wrestlemania 21.
JBL was never considered for a WWE Championship run again.
#2 Rey Mysterio
Rey Mysterio had much-hyped reigns as World Champion in WWE but only once did he reign as WWE Champion.
Not only that but his reign didn't even last one full episode of Raw. Mysterio's title win was supposed to occur, one week earlier, as he was scheduled to face The Miz in a tournament final for the vacant title, as CM Punk had left the company with the WWE Championship after defeating John Cena in the stunning main event of Money in the Bank 2011.
However, that episode of Raw had run long and Vince McMahon had to inform Mysterio and Miz that they would clash the following week instead.
They did and Mysterio beat Miz but was forced to defend the strap against former Champion Cena in Cena's contractual re-match. Cena beat Mysterio in a match that was surprisingly good before Punk returned to confront Cena post-match with the WWE Championship he had left the company with.
Mysterio was simply a transitional Champion to build the Punk/Cena feud. A quick reign that was even more quickly forgotten.
#1 Vince McMahon
Before the much-maligned Vince Russo made Hollywood actor, David Arquette and later himself WCW World Champion, Vince McMahon's ego ran wild to the point where he booked himself to become WWF World Champion in September 1999.
From a storyline perspective, the title change worked in context as it was effectively Stone Cold Steve Austin who beat then WWF World Champion, Triple H to further their feud when he placed a fallen McMahon on top of the "Game" to win the title.
McMahon, unsurprisingly was and still is the oldest title holder in the belt's 55 year history and his reign was mercifully short when he vacated the belt and held it up in a six-way match at the next pay per view event, Unforgiven, where Triple H would regain the belt which very much made the whole exercise seem pointless.
Ex WWE writer blasts Liv Morgan HERE
