5 heels who won their first WWE world title clean

Heels and clean victory are two terms that do not often appear together in WWE dictionary. Most often, WWE makes the heel wrestler do some underhand tactic to secure a win over his or her opponent.

Kevin Owens' maiden Universal title, and Jinder Mahal's maiden WWE title victories are some of the most recent examples here. While Triple H shockingly turned on Seth Rollins to award Owens his first world title, The Singh brothers distracted Randy Orton to help The Modern Day Maharaja claim his first ever singles gold.

However, there have been a few instances where the heels went over the babyfaces clean. Even after being portrayed as the lazy heel who does not care for the WWE Universe, Brock Lesnar defeated Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34.

Randy Orton won his title unification match against John Cena clean at TLC 2013, but both Orton and Lesnar were some of the most prominent wrestlers at that time.

Some heel superstars toppled the champion clean to win their first ever world title. In this list, we will be taking a look at 5 of those guys.

Note: No Money in the Bank cash-ins are included in this list. Hence, this list excludes some big names like Edge, CM Punk, The Miz, Daniel Bryan, and Seth Rollins who all were heels at that time. The ECW title is also not counted in this list. Only those title changes that took place from the Ruthless Aggression era are included, otherwise the list would be too enormous.

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#5 Sheamus

Sheamus became the first ever Irish born WWE Champion

The rise of Sheamus in WWE was impressive. After making his WWE debut on June 2009, Sheamus quickly went up the ranks. He was one of the survivors in Survivor Series 2009, and quickly earned a WWE Championship match against John Cena at Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2009, after winning a battle royale.

The match was announced to be a tables match. However, to everyone's surprise, the Irish superstar defeated big match John clean, after Cena went through a table while attempting a Superplex. Sheamus became the first ever Irish born WWE Champion.

#4 Bray Wyatt

The odds were against The Eater of Worlds

Although Bray Wyatt is not on WWE TV at the moment, there was a time when he was treated seriously. After SummerSlam 2016, WWE gave Bray Wyatt a modest push. Bray capitalised on this opportunity and soon became one of the most over guys on the roster.

At Elimination Chamber 2017, Bray faced Dean Ambrose, Baron Corbin, AJ Styles, The Miz and the WWE Champion John Cena for the WWE Championship. Cena, Styles and Wyatt were the three men remaining after 24 minutes.

The odds were against The Eater of Worlds. However, Bray shocked everyone by pinning both John Cena and AJ Styles clean, thus claiming his first ever world title in WWE.

#3 Mark Henry

The World's Strongest Man was overdue for a world title run

In 2011 Mark Henry was a 15 year veteran in WWE. Thus it was baffling that Henry did not have many accolades to his name. He was a former European and ECW Champion. Jeff Jarett awarded him the European Championship, and the ECW title was never treated seriously by WWE.

The World's Strongest Man was overdue for a world title run, and at Night of Champions 2011, he got what he deserved. Henry's monster heelish attitude destroyed the then world heavyweight champion, Randy Orton.

Henry thus became a world champion for the first time in his 15 year run with the company (not counting ECW championship).

#2 Brock Lesnar

The Beast Incarnate was skyrocketed to the main event scene

Brock Lesnar made his debut on the WWE main roster in March 2002 as a heel. The Beast Incarnate was skyrocketed to the main event scene. Lesnar won the 2002 King of the Ring tournament after defeating Rob Van Dam - earning the undisputed WWE Championship shot at SummerSlam 2003.

Brock went on to defeat the champion - The Rock clean at the event, thus becoming the youngest ever world champion in WWE.

#1 Randy Orton

Orton pinned Benoit clean after an RKO

At WrestleMania 20, Chris Benoit defeated Triple H and Shawn Michaels in an epic main event to become the World Heavyweight Champion. In the following months, The Game unsuccessfully challenged The Rabid Wolverine for the big gold belt.

After winning a 20 man battle royal on RAW, Triple H's Evolution teammate Randy Orton became the number 1 contender for the Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam 2004. Orton was a rising member of a heel faction. Hence when Orton pinned Benoit clean after an RKO to become the youngest ever world champion, it shocked everyone.