After Triple H began his 12th run as a World Champion recently, I started thinking--who are the greatest WWE/F Champions ever? Who had the biggest impact? Who had lengthy reigns? All this was taken into account.
So, without further ado, the top ten WWE/F Champions of all-time--
10.) The Nature Boy Ric Flair (2 Reigns)--
Flair came to the WWF surrounded by controversy. He left the NWA/WCW in a spat over money and brought with him WCW's World Title (the big gold belt as it was known), claiming on WWF TV to be the "real" world champion.
He would win his first WWF Title at the 1992 Royal Rumble, defeating 29 other superstars, including the Immortal Hulk Hogan, to win the title. He would, however, go on to lose the title just three months later at Wrestlemania VIII to "Macho Man" Randy Savage.
Flair would claim his second and final WWF Title in September of that year, defeating Randy Savage at a house show. Flair would hold the belt just one month before dropping it to Bret "Hitman" Hart. He would return to WCW by 1993.
9.) "Macho Man" Randy Savage (2 Reigns)--
After a lengthy heel run to start his WWF career, Savage would become a successful face culminating in his first WWF Title by defeating "Million Dollar Man" in a tournament at Wrestlemania IV, with help from Hulk Hogan.
This would lead to the epic feud between Savage and Hogan that stemmed from Savage's belief that Hogan was after Miss Elizabeth. The feud came to a climax at Wrestlemania V, where Hogan ended Savage's nearly year-long reign.
Savage wouldn't sniff the title again until three years later when, at Wrestlemania VIII he defeated Ric Flair for his second title run. He would successfully defend it through Summerslam of that year, but would lose it back to Flair in September before departing to the WCW in 1994.
An interesting note: of all of Savage's WWF & WCW title reigns, they all ended with losses to either Flair or Hogan.
8.) The Undertaker (4 Reings)--
The Dead Man has had a long history in the company and it all began at the 1990 Survivor Series.
After an impressive winning streak, he was granted a shot at Hulk Hogan's WWF Title at the 1991 Survivor Series. He would win the match, but in controversial fashion, as Ric Flair pushed a chair into the ring resulting in a tombstone piledriver on the chair. The title would be vacated only to be won back by Hogan at "Texas Tuesday".
The Undertaker would enter into a myriad of feuds with odd characters until finally getting another shot at the title heading into Wrestlemania 13. There, he defeated "Psycho" Sid to claim his second WWF title.
That reign, however, would end at Summerslam of that year when an errant Shawn Michaels chair shot allowed Bret Hart to pick up the victory, launching a tremendous feud between Michaels and the dead man.
His third reign would come during the Austin Era, with help from Mr.McMahon, at Over the Edge (the event where Owen Hart tragically lost his life). This reign would be totally uneventful, as he would drop the title back to Austin a month later on Raw.
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