Finally… Clothesline City… HAS-COME-BACK… to Wrestling-Online!

Hey everyone. Two columns in a month? Wow, I must be getting dedicated. Or not.

Later in this article you’ll find the Top 10 WWE Champions of All Time according to my calculations. For those of you that missed the last edition, or just plain forget, it’s based on title reigns, titles held (variously seeded), length of reigns etc. Who will be top – you may (or may not) be surprised!

But first I just want to address a few things in the land of Sports Entertainment.

I wasn’t going to buy No Mercy. Nothing on the card interested me. Not one match. Also, my DVD Recorder bust and felt I couldn’t really afford a new one right now. Several things changed my mind.

- John Cena got injured meaning the WWE Title was left vacant and a potentially exciting twist.
- Sky Box Office (UK PPV) promoted their 3 for 2 offer so I would get 3 PPVs for £30 ($60US). (So I get No Mercy, Survivor Series & Armageddon in the package, Cyber Sunday is a freebie anyway).
- I, with 3 workmates, won £600 ($1200) in a pub quiz, so my cut of that meant I could justify getting a new DVD Recorder (Thanks Lee, Andy and Sean!)

The second two point are moot, which don’t really merit discussion on this column. But I was pretty excited about the vacant WWE title. It brought back memories of classic pay-per-views such as WrestleMania IV and The 12th Annual Survivor Series and their respective 14-man tournaments.

Yes, the John Cena injury, but the WWE writers had 6 days to create an exciting story at the PPV with a clean slate. The fans understood the Cena story was out of play and would understand that anything they created didn’t have to have true ‘backstory’.

Alas we were, or at least I was, disappointed.

Excuse me whilst I indulge in a little bit of fantasy booking. Here’s how I would have played it.

8-man tournament, punctuated by the existing matches (Women’s, Finlay/Rey, Punjabi Prison and ECW).

Triple H and Umaga would be in a bracket together, meaning their advertised match was still on.

Randy Orton would be involved, naturally. The other brackets would include the top Raw stars on the roster who were teased being involved, for example: Carlito, Mr Kennedy & Jeff Hardy.

Include guest stars John Morrison and Matt Hardy from ECW and Smackdown and BAM! You have a tournament with excellent matches as a given. It also means you don’t have stupid pizza-eating competitions.

With this format, you also have the potential to set up new feuds and see the likes of Morrison and Hardy take on opponents you’re not used to seeing them against.

Maybe that format wouldn’t thrill you, but what I came up with in 5 minutes, I feel, is miles better than what the WWE ‘creative’ team came up with in 6 days.

6 days to decide to have a 20 minute segment to AWARD Randy Orton the title. Have Triple H beat him 13 minutes later. Then have Triple H beat Umaga (fairly easily) and then Super H almost beats Orton in a brutal Last Man Standing Match.

The Last Man Standing match was the only thing worthwhile in this story. And that match could have STILL taken place at the end of a tournament.

Triple H also killed Umaga with ONE Pedigree. Umaga, being a monster with a typically Samoan ‘Hard Skull’ gimmick. Given that the primary blow in a Pedigree is the head slamming the canvas, wouldn’t logic and sound ring generalship have decreed that Umaga should have no-sold the Pedigree?

Yes, the announcers tried to cover it up by suggesting Umaga had hit his head on the ringpost, but he clearly didn’t and Umaga was actually holding his shoulder when he came off the corner.

Ol’ Big Nose has been back 2 months and I’m positively sick of him already. When WWE fans realise there are alternatives on Raw like HBK and Y2J – they may follow suit. The boss’s son-in-law makes me sick.

The following night on Raw, the show was saved by Shawn Michaels comeback. Yeah Hardy and Kennedy had a good matchup but creatively, I felt the show was a dud.

“Savior_Self”, “Second Coming”. It’s got to be Jericho doesn’t it? Vince was incredibly disdainful to the fans when they were chanting “Y2J” at No Mercy. I hope the fans continue to chant it week in and week out to show the Chairman that they are desperate for some top fresh blood back in the WWE.

In the most recent flash, “REV 22:12” came on the screen. That I presume is a reference to Revelations from the Bible:

“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”

I have to compliment the WWE on this one. They are actually promoting a comeback the way it should be done. Mystery vignettes are much better than ‘Hi, I’m Jesse and this is Festus’ vignettes, in my humble opinion.

Congratulations to Drew Galloway who it appears from the Smackdown tapings has made his WWE debut. I have particular interest in Galloway as he is from my home town or Ayr in Scotland. Effectively he is living MY dream! But I’m
8 inches shorter than he is with none of his muscle, so that dream was always an outside bet. I sincerely wish Drew all the best and hope he, as a true Scotsman, puts Ayr on the map.

Okay, so the time has come for me to go over the Top 10 Greatest Champions in the WWE. Maybe Drew will make this list one day.

First a quick rundown of numbers 30 – 11:

#30 BOOKER T: 1036.983pts
#29 BATISTA: 1081.000pts
#28 RIC FLAIR: 1113.583pts
#27 OWEN HART: 1123.750pts
#26 KANE: 1129.639pts
#25 MR. FUJI: 1155.480pts
#24 CHRISTIAN: 1176.894pts
#23 TITO SANTANA: 1217.100pts
#22 DAVEY BOY SMITH: 1227.250pts
#21 THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR: 1274.350pts
#20 CHRIS JERICHO: 1286.308pts
#19 THE UNDERTAKER: 1286.308pts
#18 KEVIN “DIESEL” NASH: 1312.900pts
#17 ROB VAN DAM: 1418.575pts
#16 BILLY GUNN: 1453.705pts
#15 EDDIE GUERRERO: 1497.100pts
#14 KURT ANGLE: 1593.988pts
#13 “MACHO MAN” RANDY SAVAGE: 1717.400pts
#12 CHRIS BENOIT: 1759.267pts
#11 JOHN CENA: 1792.150pts

So let’s get down to the Top 10:

#10 THE ROCK: 1930.901pts – Yes, The Great One makes it into the Top Ten. Though with Cena prowling, I’m sure he’ll be toppled in a future edition of this rundown. His combined 297 days as 7-time WWE Champion boosts him considerably. Triple Crown and Royal Rumble winning bonus points propel him even further.

#9 EDGE: 2045.850pts – Edge has the unique honour of having won the ‘Double Triple Crown’. The Raw triumvirate of the WWE, Intercontinental and World Tag Championships as well as the Smackdown trio of the World Heavyweight, US and WWE Tag Titles. You could argue that the US Title he held was not during the Smackdown reincarnation, but I’m not going to be petty. Like him or loathe him, this 11-time Tag champ deserves his slot.

#8 “STONE COLD” STEVE AUSTIN: 2157.325pts – Again, not a surprise. 6-time WWE Champion, 2-time IC Champ, 4-time World Tag Champion, Triple Crown winner, 3-time Royal Rumble Winner and Former King of the Ring. Stone Cold definitely is at home in the Top 10.

#7 SHAWN MICHAELS: 2381.600pts – The Icon, The Showstopper, The Main Event. The Heartbreak Kid is flying high at number 7 with multiple WWE, IC, Tag, European and Royal Rumble victories. Shawn still has time to add to his total as I’m sure he has plenty of reigns left in his career, albeit, maybe not the ‘big one’.

#6 BRET “HITMAN” HART: 2798.700pts – The Best There Is beats his rival Shawn Michaels. Bret was the second Triple Crown winner in WWE history and a Royal Rumble winner. He also won the King of the Ring 2 times, in 1991 and 1993. Hitman is a true legend and if WCW reigns were included, I’m sure he and Flair would be vying for top spot.

#5 TRIPLE H: 2881.330pts – The Game makes it into the Top 5. I didn’t expect to find him here, but the stats don’t lie. He basically was the owner of the World Heavyweight Title during its first 2 years of activity which is essentially what got him here. A Royal Rumble victory and King of the Ring Title didn’t do him any harm either.

#4 PEDRO MORALES 2983.350pts – The first ever Triple Crown winner, even if he did only hold the Tag Titles for a day, it still counts. Pedro is from the era where champions held their belts for as long as they were entertaining crowds, not just for as long as the ‘creatives’ could be bothered. 1027 days as WWE Champion in 1 reign kind of beats the pants of Triple H’s 875 days as WWE/World Champion over 11 reigns.

#3 BOB BACKLUND: 3171.150pts – Perhaps the most mundane champion of all time. But he held onto that belt and sold out arena after arena so you really can’t knock him. A whopping 2138 days as champion over 2 reigns – although 2135 of those days were during his first run as champ!

#2 HULK HOGAN: 3314.725pts – The only surprise is that The Immortal One is not in the #1 spot. It will become obvious why he is not in a moment. 6 spells as WWE Champion over 2185 days. This staggering figure is propped up by a brief Tag run with Edge and a Royal Rumble victory.

And the Greatest WWE Champion of All Time iiiiis:

#1 BRUNO SAMMARTINO: 5755.000pts – Vince McMahon will not like this! The Official Greatest Champ title goes to the Italian-American legend of the WWWF. Why? Quite simple – he held the title for over 10 years during 2 reigns! He held the belt from 1963 to 1971 then from 1974 to 1977. An amazing 4040 days. You can see the jump from Hogan to Sammartino is a gap that is not going to be closed any time soon. Congratulations Bruno!!

I hope you found this list interesting, I certainly did, it threw up a few surprises, but as some of the Champions on the list prove, being a great wrestler has nothing to do with being decorated with titles in the WWE *cough* BillyGunn *cough*.

That’s a wrap for my column this week. If you have any comments, please feel free to email me at andrewbulik@wrestling-online.com

I’m off to the Smackdown tapings in Birmingham, UK next week. No doubt I will have plenty of comments about that for my next column. Ciao!