Who Was The Best Champion Of The WWE in 2008?

With the year coming to close and most thinking forward to Wrestlemania, I thought I would take a look back at the past year’s champions, and try to name the best champion of 2008.

Everyone will have their opinion of who the best champion of 2008 was, but I think the fairest and most unbiased way to pick one is to look at the individual championships first. Then from there decide who was the best out of all of them.

This may read purely as a description of the past years champions, but how else can you begin analyzing so many championship reigns. But I hope you’ll have fun reading and remembering what we all tune in for the past year to see, Champions!

Women’s Championship

Beth Phoenix – Beth started off the year as the champion, and after a brief interruption from Mickie took her second Women’s Championship of the year and career. She also won the Slammy for “Diva of the Year”, and has been one of the most physically dominating divas in recent years. Beth has no disbelieve in her ability in the women’s division, and has not been beaten often.

Mickie James – Mickie isn’t the strongest diva the WWE has ever seen, but that hasn’t stopped her winning matches. She earned her title reign this year, and probably didn’t deserve to lose it the way she did in a two-on-two winner takes all title match teaming with Kofi Kingston. But that did lead to one of the funniest teams of the year, Glamorella, so I guess it had a silver lining.

With only 2 choices I’d have to pick Beth. She has recently been voted the second best female wrestler of 2008 (behind Awesome Kong of TNA) by Pro Wrestling Illustrated, and I’d have to agree with them that she is the best in the WWE at the moment.

Divas Championship

Up until this Fridays Smackdown Michelle McCool was the first and only Diavs champion, beating Natalya for the newly created title. She had made one successful defense against Maryse before losing it to her on the second time of trying. You would agree that Maryse’s title reign would not warrant considering her as the best of the year, so I think the honor falls to Michelle McCool.

WWE Tag Team Championship

John Morrison and The Miz – John Morrison was no stranger to the tag team division, with three title reigns before his first with The Miz, and the two have been impressive together all year. The managed a few title defenses during their reign but finally lost it at the Great American Bash in a fatal four way. The Miz and Morrison have been great fun this year and the Dirt Sheet on WWE.com has been a great hit. The tag team division has looking questionable over the past year but these guys are definitely a prospect for the future.

Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder – Curt and Zack made a bit of a name for themselves this year as Edge’s cronies, but wrestling wise haven’t really excelled. Won the title almost by fluke and lost it on the first defense. Not the best reign of the year by a long shot.

Carlito and Primo Colon – Carlito’s future seemed unsure before the arrival of Primo, as he seemed to be performing only in dark matches. But paired with his brother the two turned face and are still reigning champions. As a wrestler I feel we have not seen the best of Primo yet, and Carlito is only 29 so they both have a lot left in them. As for their title reign it’s not been bad. They have been performing well together and formed a amusing alliance with the Bella twins.

It has to be between Miz and Morrison, and Primo and Carlito, and personally I think that Miz and Morrison’s title reign was the best. It lasted over eight months and saw them lose it without either be pinned.

World Tag Team Championship

Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly – Having won the titles in early December in 2007, their reign ran through until Night Of Champions in late June where Cody rather distastefully turned on Holly. They made successful defenses against Cade and Murdoch, Satino and Carlito, and London and Kendrick, before Rhodes joined DiBiase. I can’t say I was the biggest fan of their “team”, or their wrestling for that matter, but you can’t argue with results.

Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase – Not including the brief interlude of Batista and Cena’s reign they held the title for almost four months in 2008. A lot of people are betting on DiBiase to be a big star in the future, and the Legacy faction will certainly help the two assuming DiBiase joins it on his return. To win the titles back from Cena and Batista was no mean feat, albeit the fact the two weren’t on the best of terms, but they couldn’t hold out against CM Punk and Kofi Kingston.

Batista and John Cena – I don’t think this really counts as a reign given the circumstances, but on paper John Cena and Batista could have made on hell of a tag team. I thought briefly when they won this title that the WWE would give them a bit of a title run and bring a bit of prestige back to the tag team division, but their impending match and short feud laid waste to that wish.

CM Punk and Kofi Kingston – Arguably the two stars that have improved the most in 2008, with Kofi winning the Intercontinental title and CM Punk winning the World Heavyweight Championship. Both were drafted to Raw from ECW and had continued success since. Their title reign as a tag team wasn’t as impressive as their individual success in 2008, and surprisingly they lost their titles to Miz and Morrison at a WWE live event, leaving CM Punk free to pursue the Intercontinental Championship.

John Morrison and The Miz – They could hardly be given the honor of having the best reign of the year for this title with such a small reign thus far, but 2009 could hold more for these two.

I would like to say that Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase were the best title holders this year but having lost the titles twice in the year and being embarrassed by Cryme Tyme stealing their titles they hardly showed dominance. With their many successful defenses of their titles I think Hardcore Holly and Cody Rhodes have to take this one, although some may disagree, but I don’t think they would make and threat of being “champions of the year”.

United States Championship

MVP – MVP won and lost the United States Championship at consecutive Backlash’s, with the third longest reign in the title’s history. He has had a poor end to his year but nobody can argue with the fact that his year long title reign was impressive. Maybe his character was slightly pompous, and he refused a title match with Matt Hardy at one point, but the guy beat Chris Benoit for the title and could have won the Money in the Bank but for interference from Matt Hardy.

Matt Hardy – After his return from injury and the renewal of his feud with MVP, Matt won his first major singles title in the WWE. It was only a two month reign, but a good way for Matt to make a mark as a singles competitor.

Shelton Benjamin – Shelton was drafted from ECW to Smackdown and after beating Matt Hardy in a non-title match won the title at the Great American Bash. He is the reigning champion with successful defenses against R-Truth and Hurricane Helms. Some think that Shelton will be a future world title contender, and this reign has certainly not done any harm to that goal.

I don’t think many will disagree with me if I say MVP was the best US Champion of 2008. Being the third longest reigning champion in history deserves a lot of credit.

Intercontinental Championship

Jeff Hardy – As the Intercontinental Champion, Jeff also had a shot at the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble, but did not manage to become Raw’s undisputed champion. He lost his title because he had been issued with a wellness policy violation, which was not apparent in the storyline, but even so failed to have a successful title defense.

Chris Jericho – After his return to the WWE and an unsuccessful shot at the WWE Championship, Chris picked up the pieces of the banned Jeff Hardy in his record eighth title reign. He held the title for just over three months, but this impromptu title reign wasn’t the best he has ever had. He lost the title following a distraction from Shawn Michaels, and didn’t contend again.

Kofi Kingston – After Kofi’s impressive performances on ECW he claimed his first singles title in the WWE, losing it possibly unfairly on the same night as Mickie James in a winner takes all match. You could call Kofi lucky with the assist from Michaels to win the title, but his luck ran out when he teamed with Mickie. This wont be the end of Kingston as a singles title competitor, but for a first reign it must be regarded as just that; a first reign. It wasn’t bad but he didn’t cause a massive stir.

Santino Marella – If my award was for the funniest champion of 2008 then Santino would win hands down. His rapping, and dancing, and just being a general clown on Raw was priceless, but his title reign wasn’t too serious. He bundled his way though some successful defenses of the title but lets face it, his wrestling hasn’t been the best this year. You can’t blame him for his wrestling because that’s just the character the WWE wanted to give him, but he has been value for money in terms of entertainment.

William Regal – Regal won the title on home soil, and now awaits the winner of the Intercontinental Championship tournament CM Punk. He hasn’t wrestled on television since winning to my recollection, but maybe this title reign could improve. Will is getting on in the years and I wouldn’t be surprised if he loses to Punk.

This is a pretty hard one to call to be honest because the reigns are quite even, but I have to pick, so I’ll say Hardy. I think that I’m right in saying that Santino is the only person to successfully defend the title this year, but his reign was a bit of a joke wrestling wise. So as he was forced to lose the title because of his ban, I think Hardy should take this one.

ECW Championship

CM Punk – Punk has been one of my favorite wrestlers of 2008, but I can’t say I watched much of ECW, or saw much of his reign. I think he was robbed in his loss of the title thanks to La Familia, but fortunately for him better things were to come.

Chavo Guerrero – A very undeserving ECW champion in my opinion; weaseled his way into the title with the help of Edge, and quite fairly lost at Wrestlemania in an eight second match to Kane. Not the best champion, even for ECW.

Kane – There can’t be many more impressive ways to win the title than the way Kane did. He defended the title successfully, again against Chavo, but lost shortly after being drafted to Raw in a triple threat involving The Big Show and Mark Henry. I always enjoy seeing Kane succeed, because there is something very likable about him, despite the dark image. But with his move to Raw and Henry’s move to ECW, it was pretty predictable that his reign ended.

Mark Henry – This was Mark’s first singles title for ten years, and he would be the first to hold the newly designed all silver title. You might not blame him for losing the championship in the ECW Championship Scramble, but being such a large athlete he could have done better. Henry did prove a force for some weeks on ECW but eventually the fans longing for Matt Hardy as champion led to him losing it. He did beat Hardy for the title a couple of times prior but the “world’s strongest man” couldn’t hold out forever.

Matt Hardy – After a short US title run, Matt took his second major title of 2008, the ECW Championship. With the win at Unforgiven this has been a big year for Matt’s singles career, and he can also take the small accolade as the first person to win a championship scramble. It might be a long reign for Matt, but wrestlers like Evan Bourne won’t make easy to hang on to.

Again this is tough but I think Matt Hardy deserves to be called ECW Champion of 2008. Some of the others had good reigns but Matt has been doing a good job as champion, and it has been a good year for him. I think Matt has had the longest reign of the year as well, and unless he has to defend it at the Royal Rumble he should hold it for another couple of months.

World Heavyweight Championship

Edge – Edge started the year as champion after using his “Edgeheads” to win the title in a triple threat at Armageddon. He would have a couple of title defenses against Rey Mysterio before losing to Undertaker’s streak at Wrestlemania. He didn’t perform very champion-like during his reign, taking as much help from Vickie Guerrero as he could. Even with Hawkins and Ryders helping at Wretlemania he couldn’t win, but when the whole of La Familia joined in at One Night Stand he won his second title of the year. It would only last as night though as CM Punk cashed in his Money In The Bank to take the title from Edge.

Undertaker – The Undertaker got pretty screwed over during his title reign in all honesty. Vickie gave Edge a rematch at Backlash, which Taker won, so she decided to take the title from him. Undertaker would then win the match for the vacant title at Judgement Day, only to have Vickie come out and void the match. In his last attempt to regain the title in a TLC match Taker was banished from the WWE after being ganged up on by La Familia. Undertaker has been impressive all year, as you would expect, and if things were a bit different on Smackdown he might have had a better reign.

CM Punk – Punk won Money In The Bank at Wrestlemania and cashed it in against Edge. He had a few title defenses against the likes of JBL, and never actually lost his title as he was instead forced to miss the championship match due to a punt from Randy Orton. Punk had a chance to regain the title, but failed in a cage match against Jericho. Most see Punks first title reign as more of a token gesture, but at least he has his foot in the door now.

Chris Jericho – Not many would have guessed at the start of the night that Chris Jericho would have come out of Unforgiven as the World Heavyweight Champion, especially following the beating his received from Shawn Michaels Earlier that night. But he managed it and proved to be a great heel champion, with defenses of his first reign of the year against CM Punk and Shawn Michaels in a ladder match, and one of the matches of the year in my opinion. After losing to Batista at Cyber Sunday Chris would regain the title 8 days later. Only to lose again at the next pay per view Survivor Series

Batista – Batista had been desperate to regain his World Heavyweight Championship status after practically being robbed of it in Armageddon 2007, and did so at Cyber Sunday. His reign however was not too great, only lasting a few days, and he won’t be winning it back any time soon following a recent injury.

John Cena – Returning from injury was bound to end in championship gold for Cena, and did so at Survivor series. His reign has not run its course yet, and with a title defense over Jericho at Armageddon he could be here a while. But many are queuing up and he will face stiff competition.

Chris Jericho has to take this one. Cena’s reign made lead to something great but in terms of 2008 Jericho has been pure gold. His new heel image fits him well, and his wrestling is excellent as always. He won Superstar of the Year in the Slammys, and his title reigns have backed that up.

WWE Championship

Randy Orton – During his title reign, Orton defended successfully against Jeff Hardy, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Triple H and John Cena. Now if that’s not a list of who’s who to defend a title against I don’t know what is. Orton lost in a fatal four way to HHH but had a great run as champ. Orton has arguably been the best heel of the year, and his wrestling ability is incredible.

There are not many people I enjoy watching wrestle more at the minute, with his viper like taunts and almost savage finishers. We can expect a lot more form Orton, but as a title run in 2008 it was pretty impressive.

Triple H – Hunter had an almost seven month reign and it is no surprise why he is one of the business’ best. This gave him the joint record highest number of WWE Title reigns, and not a bad one did do it on.

Triple H defended the title against Orton, Edge, The Great Khali, and Jeff Hardy before finally losing to Edge as a surprise entrant in a triple threat match. The WWE has always made HHH look invincible, but there is a reason, he does it so well. The guy is huge, and this title reign matched him. It was a bit of a shame for him the way he lost it but he’ll win it again I’m sure.

Edge – Edge only held the title between Survivor Series and Armageddon, and didn’t really impress as a champion. He didn’t deserve to win it in the first place in my opinion, but I suppose if your “wife” is the GM there is bound to be perks.

Jeff Hardy – Jeff finally won the big one this year claiming his first world title. After several times of trying he won the WWE Championship in a match nobody expected. Jeff hasn’t had a lot to do as champion yet but that’s more of a story for 2009, so he doesn’t really deserve the title of champion of the year.

As I was writing the winners of the WWE Championship, I realized that the best champion of 2008 was going to come from this category, and that it would be between two men; Triple H and Randy Orton. I mean their reigns were just incredible. Not many have had so many successful defenses against oppositions of such high caliber as these guys faced, and I thought this honor should fall to one of them.

Now I am a big HHH fan don’t get me wrong, but nothing compared to Randy Orton this year. He just kept winning in 2008, and I was pretty gutted for the guy when he broke his collar bone. But his reign as champion was brilliant; he did everything in his power to keep hold of the title and was so entertaining. His move set is excellent, and the guy can really wrestle.

I look forward to see what 2009 brings in terms of champions, but what did you think of 2008’s?