10 Best Simultaneous WWE Heavyweight Champions
Champions Of Champions Of Champions.
There's empty catharsis in complaining.
A piece you may have missed last week focussed on a selection of subjective assessments of some of the worst simultaneous champions in WWE's split-belt history, spawned from a bizarre online debate in which a fan posited that Jinder Mahal was a far worthier steward than both Seth Rollins and Kofi Kingston. This wasn't an entirely baseless complaint, but discourse on it certainly extracted a number of different complaints about said subjective assessments.
But then, there's empty catharsis in complaining. May there still be some in celebration too? The ten pairings below reflect periods long or short in which all briefly felt right within WWE. Spells where the two champions best reflected their respective brands or the belts themselves. A great time to be a fan, an even better one to be alive.
As a tonic to the original gripe article, here's the babyface companion piece. Nothing but niceties and reminders of all the things that make us all fans in the first place. "Good sh*t!", as Vince McMahon himself would apparently say.
Now head to the comments section to very angrily disagree, because there's empty catharsis in complaining...
10. John Cena (WWE) & Mark Henry (World) - 2011
Long before Mark Henry faked a retirement to dupe John Cena into giving him a WWE Title match, he was splitting wigs as part of a joyous 'Hall Of Pain' run with the other top title in sync with Raw's perennial 'Champ'.
Everything had gone a bit mad on Raw over the summer of 2011. What should have been a scorched earth reimagining of the flagship after CM Punk's incineration of the process instead became a wasteland of burned fingers and loose ends. As a still point in that turning world, John Cena was ideal to keep the title warm either side of tepid Alberto Del Rio runs before 'The Voice Of The Voiceless' reset and reascended.
It was all very odd. Whilst the brand extension had ostensibly ended, Mark Henry tore through what remained of the SmackDown roster (and other associated goobers on Raw, for that matter) to finally live up to a lofty contract first signed fifteen years earlier. Away from the mayhem of horrendous scripting and cancelled Kevin Nash comebacks, he was free to be the monster he was experienced enough to be.
The reigns couldn't have been more Vince McMahon either - he was having his moment before relenting and giving Punk and Daniel Bryan the belts back by the end of the year. But more on them later.