The WWE Championship is touted as the most prestigious title in all of sports entertainment. It is is the peak of the wrestling world, and the wrestlers who hold the title are immortalized in the history books forever.
Many great superstars have held this prestigious belt in WWE's history. Let's take a look at the 5 greatest WWE title holders of all time.
#5 Steve Austin
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'Stone Cold' Steve Austin is one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time. He almost single-handedly helped put WCW out of business.
With an anti-hero personality, he was the most over WWE Superstar in the Attitude Era. His WWE Championship match against The Rock at WrestleMania is probably the best WWE Championship match ever at WrestleMania.
With a great gimmick and an even greater in ring acumen, Steve Austin was the perfect man entrusted to lead the company to glory.
#4 AJ Styles
AJ Styles is arguably the greatest wrestler of this generation, anything that includes him is gold. If you need a proof of his abilities as a wrestler, you need to know that he carried Jinder Mahal to a career best match on SD Live!
He has defended his title constantly, with a knack for delivering strong performances consistently. His series of matches with John Cena are the stuff of legend. He has been the champion holding down SmackDown Live for the past 2 years.
#3 Bret Hart
The reason why Bret Hart has been included on this list is because his championship victory was the indicator of a big company paradigm shift - the company was moving away from tall, huge men and towards sleeker and faster superstars.
Hart claimed that he was the best and backed it up in the ring. He was a true champion, cutting excellent promos, wrestling stellar matches and putting butts in seats.
#2 Bruno Sammartino
Bruno Sammartino is the reason why the WWE is what it is today. Sammartino earned the title - The Living Legend during his lifetime. He was also called The Strongest Man in the World and The Italian Strongman, early in his career.
He is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. His powerful Bear Hug finishing move was widely popular.
Across 2 reigns - he held the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship for more than eleven years (4,040 days), the first of which is the longest single reign in the promotion's history at 2,803 days.
#1 John Cena
John Cena is probably the greatest WWE Superstar of all time. In a career spanning 15 years, he has amassed 16 world titles. With wonderful mic skills and great in ring presence, John Cena has become the yardstick for future generations of wrestlers.
What puts him on this list is the fact that he stabilized the company during its most turbulent period, when stars like The Rock, Batista, etc left the WWE - leaving a huge void. Cena helped keep the ratings up, and brought it back to mainstream relevance.