10 Best Wrestlers Who Never Held The WWE Title (And When They Should Have Won)
An alternate look at WWE history.
One of the most persistent topics of discussion among WWE fans concerns the best superstars to never hold the company's world championship.
From Owen Hart and Ricky Steamboat to Rick Rude to William Regal, there have been many supremely talented men who didn't get a shot at running with the ball.
Fans like to talk about these guys and posit what the company would have looked like if they happened to be crowned champion, and it makes for some very interesting debates.
What if Owen had defeated Bret Hart for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam 1994? What could Vader have done if he had upended Shawn Michaels in 1996? How could WWE have capitalised on Zack Ryder's popularity with a proper push and title run?
Alternate histories in wrestling are always interesting to explore, and the company would have a very different feel if some of these workhorses won the 'big one'.
Not only will this list discuss some of the greatest superstars who never got a chance to hold the WWE Championship, but it will also take a look at precisely when they could have won the title - the best moments for the victories that would have etched their names in immortality.
Here are the 10 best wrestlers who never held the WWE Title and when they should have won, in chronological order.
10. ​Rick Rude (SummerSlam 1990)
"Ravishing" Rick Rude was one of the greatest heels in WWE history, but he never got any higher that the Intercontinental Championship.
Still, his victory for the title came at the expense of The Ultimate Warrior, so when Warrior eventually won the WWE Championship, Rude was a natural challenger for the belt.
Warrior won the steel cage match between the two at SummerSlam 1990, but it Rude could have easily come away as champion. The cage match, though meant to prevent interference, provides a handy way to give a babyface a cheap loss without a pinfall.
A foreign object, given to Rude by his manager Bobby Heenan, could have rendered Warrior unconscious long enough for Rude to escape the cage's confines.
Warrior's run ended up coming to an inauspicious end at the hands of Sgt. Slaughter at the 1991 Royal Rumble, which merely served as a transitional reign to put the belt back on Hulk Hogan.
Had Rude ended Warrior's reign, he could have been a moneymaking heel champion and WWE could have even kept him from jumping to WCW.