Top 5 Transitional World Champions in WWE 

Winning a Championship in WWE is every aspiring Superstar's dream. However, not everyone that gets signed by WWE is lucky enough to become a Champion, let alone a World Champion. A meaningful Title reign can surely add value to one's career and make it noteworthy.

A Champion in Professional Wrestling is considered to be the top Star of their respective divisions. For example, the United States and Intercontinental Champions are regarded as the Top Stars of the mid-card division. Same goes for the World, Women's and Tag Team Champions.

However, not every Champion is meant to rule the yard. Sometimes, a Title is given to a particular Superstar only for the time being, before another Superstar gets fully ready to win that title. Such Champions who hold a Title only for others to win it from them are called "Transitional Champions".

Over the decades, several Top Superstars have been transitional World Champions and here are 5 of them.

#5 John Cena (2014):

John Cena won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in 2014 before Brock Lesnar made his return in summer.

It's hard to grasp the fact that the 16-time World Champion John Cena has had several transitional Title reigns. The most prominent one of those was in the summer of 2014 after Daniel Bryan had to vacate the Title due to a career-threatening injury. While Daniel Bryan was enjoying his time as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, another Superstar was quickly climbing up the ranks. He was none other than the Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar.

Lesnar had ended The Undertaker's undefeated Wrestlemania streak earlier that year. Having broken such a monumental streak, it was only a matter of time before the Beast could get his hands on a World Title. Lesnar was supposed to headline Summerslam that year and there was no WWE World Heavyweight Champion in June. So, the Title was put on Cena at Money in the Bank and the leader of Cenation held the Title for two months before dropping it to Lesnar. It was a huge moment for Lesnar as it was his first WWE Title win in over 10 years.

#4 Triple H (2005):

Triple H's final World Heavyweight Title reign was a Transitional one.

Who can forget Triple H's reign of terror from 2002 to early 2005? During those three years, the Cerebral Assassin ran rampant through the roster and went over Superstars from WCW, ECW and even WWF's Attitude Era. He carried the World Heavyweight Championship for most of those years and defeated the likes of Goldberg, Booker T, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Rob Van Dam and so on. He also won the feud against his former Evolution stablemate, Randy Orton.

Triple H won his final World Heavyweight Championship at New Year's Revolution 2005 in an Elimination Chamber match. However, that reign was a transitional one. His evolution teammate at that time, Batista was getting ready for his big push and the World Title needed to be put on someone in the meanwhile. Triple H was the right guy for this job. After Batista won 2005's Royal Rumble match, the Evolution disbanded and Triple H put over the Animal in the main event of Wrestlemania 21. This match officially marked the end of Triple H's reign of terror.

#3 The Rock (2002):

The Rock was made the Undisputed Champion to solidify Brock Lesnar as the face of WWE.

The Rock was undoubtedly one of the biggest stars of the Attitude Era. However, when he filmed Scorpion King during his time off in 2001, he realized that he could nail it in Hollywood. Thus, it started becoming evident in the summer of 2002 that the Great One was on his way out of WWE. This, combined with the Rock/Hogan match at Wrestlemania X8, resulted in The Rock getting less and less positive crowd reactions as time went by.

He won the Undisputed Championship from The Undertaker at Vengeance 2001 but only to keep it warm for Brock Lesnar. Lesnar earned the Title shot after winning the 2002 King of the Winner tournament. "The Next Big Thing" ended up winning the Championship from the Rock at Summerslam 2002, just a month after the latter had won it. After having a Transitional World Title run, The Rock left WWE for pursuing a full-time acting career and his role in WWE got reduced to that of a part-timer for the next 2 years.

#2 Brock Lesnar (2018):

Putting the Universal Title on Brock Lesnar in 2018 was the right choice.

After keeping the Universal Championship hostage for over a year, Lesnar dropped the title to Roman Reigns at Summerslam 2018. However, Reigns had to vacate the title due to the return of his Leukemia. Reigns was reportedly supposed to hold the title until at least Wrestlemania 35 and main event the show for the fifth time in a row. The Big Dog's sudden departure caused the entire plans to be reshuffled. There was no legitimate main event star on Raw with Strowman having Backstage Heat and Rollins being a prominent part of the mid-card division.

This caused WWE to put the title back on Brock Lesnar at Crown Jewel until Rollins could be re-transitioned into the main event scene. The Beast Incarnate's transitional Title reign lasted over 5 months. He finally dropped it to the Kingslayer (now the Beastslayer) at Wrestlemania 35 in a shocking fashion.

#1 JBL (2004):

JBL had one of the most memorable reigns as a Transitional Champion.

It could come as a shock to everyone that how can a 250+ days WWE Title reign be a transitional one. However, that was true in JBL's case. After Brock Lesnar left WWE in 2004, Chris Benoit was drafted to Raw and Eddie Guerrero wanting out of the main event glory with Kurt Angle suffering from an injury. And, with Triple H not willing to be a part of Smackdown, the Blue Brand was in dire need of a new face.

At that time, the US Champion John Cena was highly over with the WWE Universe. However, he needed some time to be groomed into a main event player, and so did stars like Randy Orton and Batista who would eventually join the Smackdown roster in 2005. This caused WWE to debut the JBL character, a pro-American heel gimmick. The Longhorn Loudmouth won the WWE Championship from Eddie Guerrero at the Great American Bash 2004 in June and proceeded to carry the title until Wrestlemania 21, where he dropped it to John Cena.

JBL's title reign lasted 280 days, making him one of the greatest transitional Champions of all time. He also became the longest reigning World Champion exclusive to Smackdown, a record that would be broken 13 years later by AJ Styles.