10 Totally Underrated WWE Championship Reigns

The history of any wrestling Championship is bound to be a bumpy one, replete with scripted swerves, real-life screwjobs and backstabbing politics... Great, legendary heroes stand astride their respective eras like titans, relinquishing their belts only for storyline purposes, or else as a ceremonial rite of passage to make the next big star. Some would-be WWE Champs never quite transition to the big time (usually a mixture of bad booking, audience reaction, or both) and others still have had the world handed to them on a plate, but simply lacked the knowledge or wrestling ability to take full advantage of what was on offer... Every once in a while, though, a WWE superstar becomes truly deserving of that title and embarks on a journey into the annals of legend. These greats; men like €˜Stone Cold€™ Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, The Rock and Bruno Sammartino will forever be indelibly linked with their respective eras, their names becoming synonymous with greatness. In the eyes of their fans, they become Gods of the squared circle, akin to the gladiators of Rome... If you€™ve been a WWE fan for any period of time, you€™ll almost certainly have seen a couple of title runs that thrilled (or infuriated) you enough to keep you tuned in, week after week, event after event. You€™ve probably seen your fair share of duff, uninspired reigns as well (especially if you€™ve been a fan over the last decade or so). However, it is also entirely possible that there were some cracking title runs that, for one reason or another, we all missed out on. In this list, I€™ll be looking at 10 of the most underrated World Championship runs in WWE€™s history and (hopefully) making the case for why they deserve to be better remembered... Here goes...

10. Dolph Ziggler €“ World Heavyweight Champion (08/04/13 €“ 16/06/13)

Yes, it is a weird choice to start with, I know. However, Ziggler€™s WHC win was a huge moment for his many fans and demonstrated that €˜The Show Off€™ could hold the €˜Big Belt€™ as well as anyone else in the company. Having said that, what followed was by no means a great title run... Ziggler began by cashing in his €˜Money in the Bank€™ briefcase and dethroning Alberto Del Rio in a way that put neither man over as a particularly impressive champion. Ziggler then dropped the belt back to Del Rio a little over two months later and has since plummeted down the card (to the point where a lot of newer fans are wondering why he still gets a surprisingly healthy crowd pop whenever he enters the ring). ...But for one shining, golden moment, it looked like WWE was going to give Dolph the push he so obviously deserves. It seemed that Dolph Ziggler was going to get a chance to compete at the very top echelons of the company and thus, the world. Go back and HYPERLINK "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKqtFqpRLEk" watch it again on YouTube, listen to the crowd, feel their reactions and take a swig of just how over Ziggler could be if the WWE marketing machine truly got behind him. With a fraction of the effort they put into burying Ziggler, they could easily turn him into a megastar overnight. Readers of UK wrestling mag Power Slam actually voted the moment of Ziggler€™s title victory as €˜Angle/Segment of the Year€™ for 2013 and it goes without saying that the IWC went crazy as well. However, the mainstream fan reaction is what ultimately matters and, by that yardstick, Ziggler STILL has all the makings of a great champion. We need to remember that title run, not for what it was, but for what it could have been, i.e. the start of something very big indeed.