10 Famous Wrestlers Who Had Only One WWE Title Match

They only had one shot, and they didn't make it count.

By Jacob Simmons /

In terms of wrestling title, it doesn't get much more important than the WWE Championship. 

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Since its creation in 1963, the championship has gone by many names, been held by many legends, and has been contested in some of the greatest matches in wrestling history. There was that period of time where Jinder Mahal had it, but there's no need to go into that now. 

The title is so prestigious that it's an honour just to have a match for it. Some of the best wrestlers of all time have fought for the shiny cummerbund on multiple occasions, but there are some legends who only got one opportunity to add it to their collections.

The following is a list of performers who only had one televised match where the WWE Championship was on the line. Some of these names had other matches for the title when the cameras weren't rolling, or fought for other World championships within WWE, but when it comes to the big one, they only got one shot. 

To put things into perspective, James Ellsworth has had two WWE Championship matches in his career. You couldn't make this stuff up. 

10. Chavo Guerrero

Though his uncle Eddie might be more widely famous and beloved, that's no excuse to sleep on Chavo Guerrero Jr. 

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Chavito has worked everywhere there is to work, picking up championships in WWE, WCW, TNA, Lucha Underground, and more. He's no stranger to the World title picture either, having carried WWE's ECW brand as their top star. 

This period of time saw Guerrero take on CM Punk in the infamous "Gulf of Mexico" match. If you don't know what that is, then look it up. It's worth it. 

Predictably, Chavo's one and only WWE Championship shot was against his uncle. On the February 19th 2004 edition of SmackDown, just four days removed from Eddie winning the belt, Los Guerreros imploded in a match with Kurt Angle as the special guest referee. 

Unfortunately for CG Jr., this was all done to set up Angle as Eddie's next challenger, and the younger Guerrero was shunted back down the card, never to get a whiff of the title picture ever again. 

He didn't technically lose this match, though, as Angle's interference rendered it a no contest. That's something, right? Right...

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