Ranking EVERY WWE Champion From Worst To Best

"Worst To Best" needs a criterion at the best of times, let alone when you're talking about the prize that has - for 60+ years now - been considered the very richest there is on offer in all of North American professional wrestling.

As neatly articulated in The Iron Claw for filmgoers unaware of how the industry works, winning the belt isn't quite the same as winning a gold medal or the Superbowl, but in terms of acknowledging a wrestler's abilities on a similar scale, it is.

Not least because of the potential financial rewards.

The person on top theoretically draws the house and earns the most. If the houses are hot they earn even more for themselves and everybody else. And that's before considering the potential of mainstream fame, critical acclaim and the possibility of using success in a grinding industry as a way out of it.

Though all of this was thought to be lost in WWE after 20 years of ruthless building of the brand over the power of one specific top star, the most recent boom period has been driven by a top heel Champion being dethroned by a top babyface challenger who desperately craved the spot. It's been a welcome reminder of how all of this is supposed to work, so to this end, the factors for ranking here are relatively straightforward; drawing power, quality of work, cumulative tenure, influence, and simply if they ruled or sucked.

Thus...

Vince McMahon did far worse things with his absolute power than crown himself WWE Champion, but it was unquestionably the lowest ebb for the industry's top prize and realistically a low ebb for the McMahon character during the company's turn-of-the-century boom. 

To be absolutely fair to the move, it was huge in context. The babyface McMahon had been a rival heel Triple H desperately needed to increase his own credibility during a wonky 1999 rise, and business was booming to such an extent that the pair drew massive ratings for their impromptu SmackDown title match and the subsequent fallout on Raw several days later. But strapping the Chairman up was a step too far, as proven by the creative dead end the move caused. McMahon won the gold on a Thursday, surrendered it on a Monday, couched his non-defence of it as an honourable move, and the gold was back with 'The Game' by virtue of the six-pack challenge created to clear the mess up. 

The pacing and frenetic energy of the product obscured the stupidity, and everything moved on at a similar pace. But it happened - McMahon fell into the same trap so many other promoters had done, just to briefly call himself Champion of a product he had total control over.