10 WWE Championship Reigns That Definitely Should Have Been Longer
Every kid grows up dreaming of being WWE Champion for an hour...
1. Mankind (1999)
The Attitude Era is fondly remembered by the fans and wrestlers who lived through it, but it was far from perfect.
Yes, everyone was over and the arenas were wold out, but some of the output was downright awful. One thing that certainly suffered during that time was WWE's championship belts, including their World Title.
1999 was particularly bad for playing hot potato with the main prize, as it flipped back and forth between the likes of Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker and Triple H.
Mick Foley got in on the act, too, when the overachiever won the big one on the January 4 episode of Raw, which was historically spoiled by WCW announcer Tony Schiavone giving away the result at the start of Nitro (which was lived while Raw was taped).
It was a phenomenal moment, but Mankind lost the title back to The Rock 20 days after the switch aired, in an I Quit match at the Royal Rumble.
A week later, Foley got the belt once again, winning the ratings smash 'Halftime Heat' empty arena bout with The Great One, which aired during halftime of the Super Bowl.
Once again, though, it was a short reign where Mankind didn't get to do much with the title, losing it back to The Rock once again two weeks later in a ladder match on Raw.
There was simply no chance WWE weren't going to go with Rock versus Austin for the title at WrestleMania, but it was harsh on the hardworking Foley.
Mankind's third and final WWE Title run that year lasted just 24 hours. He won it in a triple threat match at SummerSlam (in order to have special referee and Minnesota Governor Jesse 'The Body' Ventura get a photo op with a babyface), only to drop it to Triple H the next night on Raw (word is that Austin was against doing a job to The Game at that point in time).
So, while Foley is a three-time WWE Champion, none of those three reigns were allowed to reach their full potential.
Written by Lewis Howse
Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel. A pretty good guy.