Examining Why Championships Don't Define WWE Greatness

WWE's championships are only some of the bricks that make up the castle that is a Superstar's legacy.

Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton will be looking to leave each other battered as they battle for the vacant WWE Championship.

Neither Orton nor Bryan's legacy will be defined by that championship, though. It will play a major factor, but determining how great a WWE Superstar is, is a far more complicated formula than counting up championship reigns and days those titles are held.

Defining greatness in WWE and pro wrestling is a much more difficult task than with sports.

When fans debate the greatest NBA player, the number of championship rings on Michael Jordan's fingers is a major reason fans give him that honor. The narrative about LeBron James shifted once he won his first title; it helped him to climb into the pantheon of the game's all-time icons rather than be labeled a "choker."

Championships do not mean as much in WWE. There is a human element beyond titles that complicates quantifying legendary status.

Establish a connection with the fans, create lasting memories or demonstrate impressive skills and one's legacy forms solidly without the use of gold.

In many ways, WWE's titles are props.

Earning a championship is usually thanks to talent and hard work, but politics are also involved. WWE chooses who will be the better face of the company—much in the way Triple H is doing in the current storyline.

WWE is most concerned with creating the best story. Whatever title reigns and changes are required to tell that story, so be it.

The more intriguing narrative in 1988 was for Ted DiBiase to fall to Hulk Hogan again and again, resulting in him using an evil twin to conspire to win the WWE Championship and later create his own Million Dollar Championship.

DiBiase is a member of the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame on the strength of his wrestling skills, his ability to entertain, his outstanding performances as a cackling, heartless millionaire and a host of other things not associated with championships. Jake "The Snake" Roberts has similar assets to boast about.

Memories Trump Gold

Roberts remains one of the greatest talkers in WWE history, one of its finest storytellers in the ring and a man who impacted the audience like few others. He won no championships in WWE.

As his eyes pierced the screen and talked about wallowing in the muck of avarice, he grabbed hold of the fans in a stranglehold.

The Mountie and Marty Jannetty both had reigns as Intercontinental champ, an honor WWE never gave Roberts. Ask fans which wrestlers from the late '80s and early '90s they most loved, and who are still the freshest in their minds. Chances are few will name The Mountie or Jannetty before Roberts.

Roberts created a blueprint for having a celebrated career without a single title reign.

When you make every feud as compelling as Roberts did and every match a work of theater, championships aren't necessary. For wrestlers frustrated by being stuck in the midcard and not getting the title shots they believe they deserve, they need only look to Roberts.

At its core, WWE is about entertainment. Should one entertain fans to the extent that Roberts did, one's legacy is secure without a speck of gold to speak of.

A Difference in Eras

A new WWE fan looking to learn about the company's history may see Jeff Jarrett's six reigns as Intercontinental champ, his European Championship win and his tag team title run with Owen Hart and think that Jarrett was better than he was.

With WWE's lack of statistics, one gets tempted to overvalue championships.

It's one of the few concrete elements of the equation. Crowd response, creativity, mat wrestling skills and charisma are harder to measure. Jarrett's talent certainly helped him earn all those belts, but so did being in the right place at the right time.

Were Jarrett to have been born several years earlier and competed in Pedro Morales' era, he may have never touched the IC title.

Morales held that championship from the end of 1980 until June 1981 and then from Nov. 23, 1981 to Jan. 22, 1983.

In Jarrett's era, reigns turned over far more rapidly. These moments were used to create excitement, new champions being crowned at breakneck speed.

Scroll through the history of the Intercontinental Championship. Note how many times the title changed hands in 1995 alone.

That's a far cry from Morales' era where a champ often held fast to the title for hundreds of days at a time.

Philosophies about how WWE presents its product shift. That means one is left with strange statistical anomalies like John Cena holding the WWE Championship 11 times in one era and Bruno Sammartino holding the title for 2,803 days in a single reign in another.

Were WWE a non-scripted sport, one would use the latter stat to say that Sammartino is the greatest WWE wrestler of all-time. He's not in the discussion as much as other Superstars, including one whose impact can't simply be measure by his time as champion.

Beyond Belts

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin's WWE Championship wins and reigns were a huge part of his career. It's hard to reflect on Austin's past and not think of Jim Ross screaming when "The Texas Rattlesnake" won the title from Shawn Michaels—or any of his wars with The Rock over the belt.

Still, Austin isn't considered the greatest WWE Superstar ever by many primarily because of those championships.

Bob Backlund held the WWE title longer than Austin, and Orton has won it more times than Austin. Austin's legacy is bigger than those numbers, though. How do you begin to measure what made Austin so special?

How do you measure receiving the loudest pops from fans or being a prominent part in WWE winning the Monday Night Wars?

Sure, one can add up his impressive T-shirt sales and calculate his impact on pay-per-view buys and TV ratings, but beyond that Austin made a connection with the fans that still reverberates today. He was the driving force of the Attitude Era and his take-no-prisoners attitude was as enthralling a character trait as the business has seen.

You certainly don't leave Austin's titles off his resume, but there is plenty beyond that which is just as important to his place among the greats.

 

Naked Waists in the Hall of Fame

Being an elite Superstar doesn't require championships, and the men in the WWE Hall of Fame without title wins to their name are proof of that.

Leaving out those who earned inductions despite not working for WWE like Verne Gagne, Nikolai Volkoff and Abdullah the Butcher, here are the Hall of Famers who didn't win a single title in their WWE careers.

Harley Race and Dusty Rhodes earned their spots here mostly based on achievements elsewhere, but there are huge names who made their names with WWE.

Ernie Ladd is considered by many to be one of the best heels and best big men in wrestling history. He did his damage as a challenger to champions—the obstacle the champs had to overcome.

George Steele used a captivating character to carve out his legacy, no titles required. How many of today's Superstars would trade their careers for one that resembled Jimmy Snuka's?

Snuka inspired and awed with his physical ability.

He made his matches entertaining and unforgettable. That's the ultimate goal of WWE Superstars, not necessarily championships. When Bryan and Orton retire, folks will certainly bring up their titles as part of their accomplishments. But should Bryan never win the WWE title again, he could still certainly find himself alongside Backlund, Morales and Ladd in the Hall of Fame.

The reaction he's garnered from fans and the artistry of his ring work make him great; the championships only tell part of the story.

Until someone can create an algorithm to calculate how beloved a Superstar is and how much he forces his way into our memories, measuring greatness is going be something we do blindly with our gut.