10 Legendary pro wrestlers who were never WWE World champion

Rowdy Roddy Piper hefts the WWE Intercontinental championship proudly.
Rowdy Roddy Piper hefts the WWE Intercontinental championship proudly.

#5 El Matador Tito Santana

Tito Santana
Tito Santana

Real Name: Merced Solis

Debut: 1977

Career Accolades: Tito won nearly fifty championships across various regional promotions, but is probably best known for his two WWE Intercontinental title reigns, and his WWE tag team title reign with Rick Martel as part of Strike Force.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004. Despite his many years in the sport, he only ever made one appearance for WCW, where he pinned WCW World Champion Jeff Jarrett. So, Tito Santana is the only wrestler alive who can claim to be undefeated in WCW!

Tito Santana was one of the early Mexican American wrestling superstars, and blazed the trail that others like Eddie Guerrero would later follow. Unlike many of his fellow wrestlers, Tito Santana never, ever, EVER worked as a bad guy or heel. He remained a babyface throughout his entire career.

Why he never wore the WWE's big belt: Tito was active in WWE at the same time as Hogan's five-year run, and as a babyface, he simply never had any shots at the main event. Despite his tremendous popularity -- not to mention win/loss ratio; Tito rarely tasted a clean defeat -- Tito would never hold the big belt in any of the major wrestling organizations.

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Edited by Nishant Jayaram
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