Hey wrestle fans!

The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed that I haven’t written since the Benoit tragedy. Wrestling just seems to have gone belly-up in the last 2 or so months. I have plenty to say about that, but first I want to share with you a geeky little project I took up the other day.

I decided to rank WWE champions. I was just curious – who is the most successful wrestler, in terms of championship reigns?

To qualify you just had to have held a major title or have won the Royal Rumble or King of the Ring. Wrestlers are ranked according to the number of reigns with each title and the number of days their reign lasted.

Each title was seeded with the WWE and World Titles top of the tree, ECW not far behind, then the Intercontinental and US Titles, followed by the Cruiserweight then World and WWE Tag Titles. I included the European and Hardcore Titles. The Hardcore Title wouldn’t give a wrestler many points due to its number of holders.

The United States and Cruiserweight Title reigns were only valid during their WWE tenure and WCW World and Tag titles were not included. Points were given to wrestlers who had won major ‘non-titles’ such as the Royal Rumble and King of the Ring.

Bonus points were allocated for any wrestler who had won a variation of the Triple Crown (WWE/World Title, WWE/World Tag Title and IC/US Title). Stats and figures have been pulled from Wikipedia and are accurate up until the 5th September 2007.

So who is the Greatest Champ of all time? Here is the Top 30:

#30 BOOKER T: 1036.983pts – Not a surprise. The King has held many titles in the WWE since his debut in March 2001. World, IC, US, Tag and Hardcore accolades for the Texas native.

#29 BATISTA: 1081.000pts – You may forget that as well as being SmackDown’s perennial champion for the last 2 years, he has also held both Tag Team Titles and won the Royal Rumble – boosting his profile.

#28 RIC FLAIR: 1113.583pts – This may be a surprise to many, Flair being so low on the list, but this is WWE title reigns. Flair had a major run with the WWF Title in 1992, but since then he’s only had brief runs with the IC and Tag Titles.

#27 OWEN HART: 1123.750pts – One of the most decorated WWF wrestlers of all time. Intercontinental, European and Tag Team Title reigns are backed up by a King of the Ring victory in 1994. Sadly, I didn’t award points for Slammys.

#26 KANE: 1129.639pts – The Big Red Machine is more decorated than you may expect. A WWE Title reign only lasted a day, but he has also had 2 reigns with the Intercontinental Title (57 days in total), 9 reigns as a World Tag Champ (389 days), 1 Hardcore Title (16 days) and bonus points for being a Triple Crown winner.

#25 MR. FUJI: 1155.480pts – Yes, THE Mr. Fuji! This may shock many of you but The Devious One was a major success as a Tag Team Champion in the 1970’s. In tag-teams with Mr. Saito and Professor Tanaka, Fuji racked up 5 separate World Tag-Titles spanning 931 days in total.

#24 CHRISTIAN: 1176.894pts – No TNA points counted here, but Christian’s numerous Tag-Team reigns with Edge and Lance Storm rocketed him into the Top 30. Intercontinental, European, Hardcore and Light Heavyweight Title wins supported his high position. I dearly hope to see Mr Jay Reso back in Stamford one day to add to his ranking.

#23 TITO SANTANA: 1217.100pts – Became ‘El Matador’ towards the end of the Hulkamania era, but many forget this Hall of Famer was a hugely successful IC Champ (2 reigns, 443 days) and Tag Team Champion (2, 326). He was also King of the Ring.

#22 DAVEY BOY SMITH: 1227.250pts – The highest placed wrestler from this side of the Atlantic. The only available title ‘The British Bulldog’ didn’t win during his WWF tenures was the big one. He also made the European Title mean something. If even one third of the European Title matches held had a smidgeon of the passion shown in the ‘One Night Only’ match he had with Shawn Michaels, perhaps that title would still be around today.

#21 THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR: 1274.350pts – Mr. Hellwig just misses out on the Top 20. A huge draw from 1988-91, Warrior had a 293 day reign as WWF Champion and 2 reigns with the IC Title spanning 432 days.

#20 CHRIS JERICHO: 1286.308pts – Jericho has done it all. WWE Champion, Intercontinental and Tag-Team reigns, which also bags him the Triple Crown bonus. I hope to see him boost his ranking this autumn should he return.
Narrowly missed out on 19th place to…

#19 THE UNDERTAKER: 1286.308pts – A dead heat with Y2J on points but has won
3 more WWE Titles than Jericho. It may be surprising that the WWE, Tag, World Heavyweight and Hardcore Champion is so low on the list, but his title reigns don’t seem to last very long.

#18 KEVIN “DIESEL” NASH: 1312.900pts – Big Daddy Cool won all of his titles as ‘Diesel’ and had a year long reign with the WWF Title. IC and Tags = Triple Crown bonus. Unlikely to improve his ranking over time – unless I factor in Royal Rumble performances and WCW Title reigns

#17 ROB VAN DAM: 1418.575pts – Another much decorated athlete who I am gutted about leaving the WWE. By my count, held every belt available on this list except from the World Heavyweight and United States Title. I really hope he’s ‘doing a Jericho’ and just getting some time to himself.

#16 BILLY GUNN: 1453.705pts – What? Yeah, I’m as baffled he made it in too, as I would never describe ol’ Kip as a ‘successful champion’. But he is a 10 time tag champion (with Bart and Road Dogg) and had spells with Intercontinental and Hardcore gold. Mr Ass also won the King of the Ring – it’s hard to believe Vince ever saw him as ‘the next big thing’ but his titles suggest otherwise.

#15 EDDIE GUERRERO: 1497.100pts – The late great Eddie Guerrero. Was only in the WWF/E for 3 and a half years, but scored a phenomenal amount of success in that short period of time. Spells with the WWE, Intercontinental, WWE Tag Team, United States and European titles earn him this lofty spot.

#14 KURT ANGLE: 1593.988pts – Within his first year, Angle had bagged the European, Intercontinental, King of the Ring and WWE titles. In fact, the only honours the Olympic Gold Medalist did not hold were the Royal Rumble and World Tag Team Title (Raw).

#13 “MACHO MAN” RANDY SAVAGE: 1717.400pts – You may think it strange that this legend find himself this high up the list, he did after all only win 4 of the eligible titles (WWF (x2), IC and KOTR), but that’s where longevity comes into play. After winning the WWF Championship at WrestleMania IV (defeating Ted DiBiase), he held onto the strap for 371 days until the following WrestleMania against ‘The Immortal One’.

#12 CHRIS BENOIT: 1759.267pts – There’s been enough written about Benoit and his legacy, and I may tackle that later or in another column, but no-one can deny he was a true champion as far as inside the squared circle went. The only titles he didn’t get his hands on were the WWE Title (he held the World
Heavyweight) and King of the Ring.

#11 JOHN CENA: 1792.150pts – Holy crap, Cena nearly made the top ten. Cena qualifies as a ‘Triple Crowner’ having won the WWE, US and World Tag Championships. Again, longevity is also what pulls ‘the bland one’ into this position, his current reign having lasted 358 days on Monday.

I thought about cycling through the entire top 30 in this issue, but have decided against that, as I have a lot of other things I want to discuss.

This has been a week that has rocked the landscape of World Wrestling Entertainment. 13 or so wrestlers have their careers put on hold for the next month. Well, the ones that suit them anyway.

So far, by my count, the wrestlers who have been written out of the TV shows
are: William Regal, Mr Kennedy, Booker T, John Morrison, Umaga and Chavo Guerrero. Some wrestlers have been dismissed.

Some things have been bothering me about these suspensions.

Were we supposed to believe those crap punches and lame STF(U) were enough to sideline William Regal?

Does Mr Kennedy being written out of the Paternity Saga mean that the angle is going to be hotshot? That’s a dangerous game.

John Morrison is apparently due to take the ECW title back off CM Punk upon his return. What sort of message does that send out to talent?

I’m stunned that Chavo Guerrero gets involved in all this crap, considering his family’s history.

For any readers in the UK, I seriously urge them to read Power Slam magazine. An independent insight into the wrestling world. This month they published details about the whole WWE / Drugs saga that I was completely unaware of.

They wrote that testosterone is classed as an anabolic steroid. In fact, it has been the ‘Steroid de Jour’ for many a year. That the WWE tried to say that testosterone is not a steroid seems crazy, but that’s exactly what one of their statements said.

John Cena also conceded that he takes testosterone on the Larry King show.
The WWE have obviously been lying and messing with wrestling fans for far too long. They now think they can lie to the media and try and pull the wool over their eyes.

Fit Finlay and Ken Kennedy have also made complete asses of themselves on American TV. I feel quite disturbed that Kennedy is one of the 13 suspended, given the vitriolic nature of the his defence of the WWE on his website via attacking the media.

It really annoys me that the WWE have closed ranks and have basically started attacking the media, saying that they are conducting a witch-hunt.
The WWE is more than happy to court the media when it suits them, you know, when Kevin Federline and Donald Trump are in the mix. But when they are not giving Vince free advertising by reporting such stories, it is very much a different story. Sorry Vince, as many a celebrity will tell you, you can’t have it both ways.

In fact, I remember back in the days of necrophilia angles, Vince and the WWE media machine complained that the media were not taking enough notice of their outrageous angles. You reap what you sew.

Another thing that’s really bothered me about this whole thing is that it was Triple H giving the motivational speeches in the locker room. About steroids. Obviously old Big Conk may have developed that body naturally, but it has always been speculated that Mr Stephanie McMahon may have been on the juice at one point of his career or another.

It’s kind of like a guy you work with stealing pens from the stationery cupboard. Even the management do it. You are actively encouraged to steal pens by the company, in fact, you are told you’ll get further in the company by stealing pens. So you do it, you start to progress in the company. Then suddenly, a whistle is blown and folk start to get suspended for stealing pens.

You are then given a ‘motivational’ speech by the guy who married the bosses daughter stole a helluva a lot of pens to get to the position he’s in. How would that make you feel? Ok, not the best of analogies but I think you see what I’m getting at.

I wonder if it will ever be investigated if the Boss stole pens too…

One positive that has come out of this is that wrestlers who may not normally get a shot have been given a push, albeit likely only temporary ones. Noble, Moore, Kendrick, London and Daivari have all been given more airtime, which I like. I would much rather see the 5 of them duke it out over the Cruiserweight Title, but can’t see that ever happening as, yes, the Cruiserweight are officially a joke in the WWE now.

Randy Orton’s name was on the list with the other 12. Shouldn’t he be off TV now? I vaguely remember the WWE amending their Wellness Program to allow superstars to continue to perform on TV, though without pay or house show appearances. It seems very likely Orton falls into this category and YET AGAIN gets more chances than ANY wrestler has ever received in the WWE.

If I worked for the WWE I would be extremely pissed off by these double standards. But the WWE is full of hypocrisies such as this. Absolutely littered with them. For example, Mickie James being told not to throw punches, yet John Cena’s are just plain awful. Kendrick and London being ‘grounded’ in order to not take away from ‘superstars’, yet the fans are crying out for someone just to be a little ‘different’.

Just some quick notes before I go:

- Audio show? Why was I not invited?

- I LOVE Black Machismo. But makes me wish the WWE would come to terms with the REAL Macho Man, because even a guy doing an impression of him, highlights how unique and what a star Randy Savage was. Ohhh yeah!

- Ric Flair walked out because he isn’t getting a push. Has Richard Flehr watched a Ric Flair lately? They are dire. Finlay is of a similar age to Flair yet is much more exciting in the ring and can still execute a helluva lot of moves and manipulate the crowd. Flair can do little of this these days. It’s no wonder officials have finally tapped out and given up on Flair.

- I realise TNA isn’t anywhere near as popular as WWE and perhaps never will be, but if you are a wrestling or sports entertainment fan, I’d suggest giving it a shot. Characters and wrestlers such as Christian Cage, Kurt Angle, Abyss, AJ Styles and Samoa Joe eclipse any of the WWE’s current active talent. (Yes, I know Cage and Angle are products of the WWE, but they have even further developed in TNA, especially in Cage’s case)

I’m going to trot off now. If you have any comments, feel free to email me at andrewbulik@wrestling-online.com and I’ll do my best to get back to you.

Look out for my next column where I’ll reveal the Top 10 Champions in the WWE of all time.