10 Best WWE European Champions
27 men held the belt between 1997-2002...
4. Matt Hardy
The Sensei of Mattitude has proven time and time again that he can make anything, whether it’s a match, angle or title, mean something if he is given the time and freedom to get it over. See every mad thing he has done in the Broken Universe as proof.
In his early days as a WWE superstar, Matt had to work hard to distinguish himself, from his brother Jeff if not the rest of his co-workers. As with Edge and Christian, management clearly always saw the ultra-unique Jeff as the potential singles star, whereas question marks remained over the comparatively conservative Matt.
Proving himself as a worth singles champion, Matt had a great run with the European Title in the spring and summer of ’01, taking it from Eddie Guerrero, who was enjoying a second, briefer reign with the gold.
A true fighting champion, marvellous Matt’s title defences were an ever-present and, although he never had a classic match while holding it, he had countless good ones and the fact that he actually defended and cared about the title meant that the fans ended up doing so too.
When The Hurricane finally took it from him after 122 days, it was seen as a bigger deal than it might have been were it not for the efforts of the elder Hardy.
Written by Lewis Howse
Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel.