5 wrestlers you never thought would be WWE Champion

WWE history is filled with wrestlers you expect to win the WWE title and who when you hear are WWE Champion, you are not surprised. Guys like John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton and Triple H.

They all look like WWE Champions. They all fit the mould of what WWE wants their Champions to be, and as a result they have all won multiple WWE Championships.

But every once in a while WWE put their most prestigious title on someone you never thought would hold it. Here are five times they have done so.

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#5 AJ Styles

AJ is now a two time WWE Champion

Outside of the WWE, AJ Styles was one of the top talents in the wrestling world. He excelled in every promotion he was in, including in TNA, where he held countless championship including the TNA World Heavy Weight Championship, twice. As a result of his great displays in TNA, Styles even earned the nickname ‘Mr TNA’.

So, given that Vince McMahon considers TNA or Impact Wrestling his biggest competitors, it was unthinkable that he would let AJ Styles hold his most prestigious title.

Even when Styles debuted in WWE back in 2016, hardly anybody thought Styles would ever hold the WWE Championship. This was not because AJ isn’t a good wrestler, which he clearly is. But simply because the WWE big bosses may not be fans of TNA or small ‘indie’ wrestlers like Styles.

However, Styles impressed WWE management so much that he has won the WWE Championship twice in the space of two years, a feat few thought he would ever accomplish in WWE.

#4 Finn Balor

Balor made history when he became the first every Universal Champion

Finn Balor is on this list for much the same reason as AJ Styles. Balor was hugely popular outside of WWE and a huge star in NJPW. He was also one of the founding members of the most popular group in wrestling currently, The Bullet Club.

This made Finn an ‘indie darling’ and in years past, the idea of someone like Finn coming to WWE and winning the title was unheard of.

Another huge reason for this is Balor's size; he's only 5’11", which is very small for a WWE Superstar, and he also weighs just 190lbs. He could quite easily be on 205 live in WWE!

Balor is much smaller than what WWE looks for in their champions. John Cena is 6’1" and 251 lbs; Brock Lesnar is 6’3" and 286lbs. So the fact that WWE decided to put the belt on a 5’11" 190lb wrestler and make him the main guy on their 'A show' would shock many.

However, much like AJ though, Balor overcame the odds and his wrestling ability shone through which convinced WWE to make him the first ever Universal Champion.

#3 Bray Wyatt

Bray Wyatt caused a huge upset when he pinned John Cena to win the WWE Championship

Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt Family came from NXT and looked like a real dominant stable. Their matches with groups like The Shield were excellent and in their first few years, it looked like they would be set for big things. Especially their leader Bray Wyatt.

However, WWE would continue to book Bray to lose. He would come out and deliver big long promos about how he is a god, how he is going to destroy his opponents and then he would lose the feud.

This greatly diminished Bray’s stock and by 2017 it looked like he would never hold the gold. However, at Elimination Chamber 2017, Bray Wyatt shocked the world.

Wyatt competed for the WWE Championship inside Elimination Chamber against John Cena, AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, The Miz and Barin Corbin. All of whom, except Corbin, you could argue are bigger stars than Bray. Despite this, Wyatt would cause quite the upset when he pinned the champion at the time, John Cena, to earn the WWE Championship.

Granted Bray did/does have the ability to be a big star and was worthy of being WWE Champion, but given how WWE had been booking him, you’d be lying if you thought it was going to be Bray coming out of Elimination Chamber as champ.

#2 Christian

It was clear WWE valued Edge much higher than Christian.

There is no doubting that Christian was very popular with WWE fans during his time in the company, especially when he was partnered with Edge. The pair were hilarious together and also put on some of the best tag matches in WWE history, as well as becoming seven-time tag champions together.

However, it was made quite clear that WWE saw Edge as the star of the duo as he was pushed to become one of the biggest stars in WWE and an 11-time WWE Champion.

Christian on the other hand, was left out in the cold by WWE as they never really saw him as a top star. This also saw Christian leave WWE in 2005. He would not return to WWE till 2009.

However, despite Christian never getting the push of his tag partner Edge, he would hold the World Heavy Weight Championship in his second spell in WWE. Granted he did only hold it for five days and he did only win it because Edge helped him.

But he will go down in history as a World Heavyweight Champion, something few people thought he would ever do in WWE.

#1 Jinder Mahal

Who else could it be, really? When Jinder Mahal re-signed with WWE in August 2016, it was quite clear he was going to be used as a 'jobber'. He won his first match back on TV when he defeated Heath Slater and then he pinned Jack Swagger two weeks later on Raw.

But other than in Main Event or Superstars matches, Jinder would not win a match by himself until he was drafted to SmackDown in April 2017. Jinder somehow came out on top in a six-pack challenge for Randy Orton’s WWE Championship which was a huge shock in the first place.

Even then, nobody seriously thought Jinder, a guy who had won two singles matches on TV since his return, would actually beat a star like Randy Orton. But against all the odds, Jinder Mahal would pin Randy Orton at Backlash to become WWE Champion.

This was by far the biggest shock WWE title win in history. Because Jinder had gone from a glorified jobber to WWE Champion within the space of about five matches.

The reasons behind Jinder becoming WWE Champion were partly because management was pleased with his great body transformation. But the main reason was WWE were/are trying to expand their market in India and they thought putting the title on Jinder would help with that.

Regardless of the reason, you can’t deny Jinder winning the title was a huge shock and if you’d have been told back in August 2016 that he would be WWE Champion within the year, you would have never believed it.