Every WWE World Heavyweight Champion Ranked From Worst To Best
This is every WWE World Heavyweight Champion (Minus Seth Rollins) ranked from worst to best
Between 2002 and 2013, WWE boasted two major world titles. Every figurehead needs a good second-in-command, and while the WWE Championship remained the biggest title in wrestling, the World Heavyweight Championship was never far behind. Not so much Batman and Robin, but rather Batman and a marginally smaller Batman.
In 2001, as we all know, Vince McMahon bought WCW and absorbed some of their assets. One such asset was the WCW World Heavyweight Title, which was unified with the WWF Championship at Vengeance to create the Undisputed Title.
Chris Jericho beat The Rock and Austin in the same night, and stood atop the wrestling world, albeit briefly before he lost to Triple H in the main event of WrestleMania 18. The Undisputed Championship then made its way to Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, and The Rock, before eventually falling into the hands of 'the next big thing', Brock Lesnar… and then the brand split happened. SmackDown GM Stephanie McMahon convinced Lesnar to sign an exclusive deal with her brand, leaving Raw without a top champion.
This led to Eric Bischoff, now general manager of Raw, creating the World Heavyweight Championship - represented by the famous Big Gold Belt that had been worn by NWA and WCW world champions over the years. Instead of holding a tournament for the new title, however, Bischoff simply gave the title to Triple H - his excuse being that the Game had been Lesnar’s number-one contender before the split.
Triple H became the first of 25 WWE World Heavyweight Champions and this is every World Heavyweight Champion ranked from worst to best.
Disclaimer: The new WWE World Heavyweight Championship created in May 2023 is a separate title, according to WWE, and won’t be included in this list.
25. The Great Khali
If you asked a complete non-wrestling fan to place Khali on this list, they’d probably put him somewhere near the top. After all, why would a terrifying 7-foot behemoth be a worse champion than a short hairy environmentalist who shouts ‘yes’ a lot?
Khali certainly had the look, but one small factor prevented him from being a good wrestler. He couldn’t really wrestle.
When the title was vacated in mid-2007 by Edge due to injury, a 20-man battle royal was hastily scheduled for later the same night. The match featured powerhouse favourites such as Batista and Kane, as well as exciting dark horses like Matt Hardy, Mark Henry, and MVP. Instead, the Great Khali won, and embarked upon a two-month reign of terror.
While wrestling isn’t just about work rate, you don’t have to be a mid-2000s Ring of Honor fan to realise that this was a bad idea. Khali defended the title in a series of clunky, clumsy matches, often getting himself disqualified to keep the gold. He finally lost it to Batista in a triple threat match at Unforgiven, after taking a spinebuster.
