Ranking Every ECW Champion In History - From Worst To Best

Last week, Michael Cole boldly claimed that Goldberg was the greatest WCW Champion in history, and so it fairly felt apt to put his words to the test and have a go at ranking each of the company's former world champs.

Now, I’d love to say that someone’s since made a similar remark about a former ECW Champion, but somewhat unsurprisingly I can’t. I can, however, say that all of that talk about the greatest WCW Champions in history did get me thinking about how that list would look within the context of the Philly-based hardcore promotion.

So, based on a variety of objective criteria, including the number of reigns, the lengths of reigns and successful defences alng the way, as well as some more subjective measures such as the quality of those stints as champion, this article takes a stab at ranking every ECW World Heavyweight Champion in history.

Of course, I’m specifically talking about the true ECW history here—that from 1992 to 2001—rather than the post-2006 abomination that was the WWE re-boot. So, safe in the knowledge that you won’t be reading about the desecrating reigns of the likes of Mr McMahon in 2007, sit back and enjoy some ECW original goodness as we count down the top world champions in the history of the company.

We kick things off with a man who’s remembered as a true icon of ECW, but whose time with the company’s top title didn’t quite reflect that legendary standing.

Tommy Dreamer managed just one reign as ECW World Heavyweight Champion, but more significantly that reign will forever be remembered as the shortest in company history.

Having defeated Taz to capture the gold at Cyberslam 2000, Dreamer’s celebrations were brought to an abrupt halt when Justin Credible jumped the newly-crowned champ and challenged him to an impromptu match. Naturally Dreamer accepted, but an uphill battle was made all the more difficult when his manager, Francine, turned on him, allowing Credible to pick up the pieces to end Dreamer’s tenure after a mere matter of minutes.

He may be one of the most synonymous names with ECW, but with his one reign as world champion clocking in as the shortest in company history, it’s difficult to place Dreamer any higher than in last place on this list.