10 Greatest WCW Champions Ever
Southern Comfort.
As he was wont to do at the time, Triple H had a right old laugh burying the WCW World Heavyweight Title as a means to cutting Booker T's legs off during their horrendous 2003 feud - just in case they weren't already reduced to bloody stumps by his racist rhetoric.
The gag was as laboured as one of 'The Game's WrestleMania main events. "5 Time WCW Champion?! DAVID ARQUETTE PMSL, amirite 'Naitch?!" was the usual formula. It was more latent hypocrisy from the man with the exact same 'Big Gold Belt' slung over his shoulder as he aimed to mirror the career of the genuinely iconic figure he kept glued to his heel.
The tired joke was just part of the equally knackered company directive to heap dirt on all things Atlanta despite gobbling up the assets and winning the 'war' years earlier. Taking potshots at the company's final full-year in business was an easier win than usual for Triple H - there was plenty to mock about WCW's soul-destroying final state even if it neglected a glittering legacy of excellence before the collapse.
A caveat - in an effort to steer away from the confusing lineages dating back through the NWA era and during the messy early-1990s split, this list extends to anybody entrusted with any variant of WCW's top prize from Turner's 1988 purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions through to its confirmed demise in 2001.
10. Ricky Steamboat
Until last year, Ricky Steamboat's 1989 World Heavyweight Title trilogy with Ric Flair was considered the greatest in the history of the industry. Only Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada's instantly iconic series has even came close to it.
Harnessing their consummate babyface/heel dynamic, 'The Nature Boy' and 'The Dragon's opposites attracted like few other pairings; The working class hero and the obnoxious braggart. The technical master and the shortcut maestro. The family man and the 'the styling, profiling, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, WOOOO wheeling dealing son-of-a-gun'.
Steamboat's grace made him a perfect pitch for a title switch as World Championship Wrestling tried to forge an identity away from the era of the National Wrestling Alliance so heavily defined by Flair. Always destined to drop the title back to 'Slick Ric' at the conclusion of the series, Steamboat's selfless and evocative selling ultimately drew sympathy for his foe as they arrived at their final battle at May's WrestleWar, triggering a Flair babyface turn for his next feud with Terry Funk. Few could have handled the delicate nuances of the booking quite so well.