10 WWE Champions You Didn't Care To Hate
Unfortunately for these guys, the title doesn't make the man, the man makes the title.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to care about WWE in any real capacity. The company has long since given up on producing a product for those that still watch it. It isn't new, but watching WWE programming feels like a chore when it should be a joyful celebration of the wacky world of professional wrestling.
But hey, at least the champions are pretty engaging, right? Roman Reigns and Big E are charismatic performers who are electric between the ropes, top-tier stars that fans want to see on a weekly basis. The same is true of their major challengers, meaning WWE has created a situation where its main event scene is safe for now.
This hasn't always been the case. WWE has sometimes had a tendency to try the 'throwing faeces at the wall' approach when it comes to making stars, leading to some world champions that have been less than engaging in the eyes of the fan. The same is true at the other end of the scale, where repetition has led to stale champions doing stale champion things. If you're a fan of rolling your eyes, WWE has often been the perfect promotion for you.
Some champions have inspired more apathy than most. Whether trying to whip up jingoistic fervour or simply annoying people, these former WWE Champions were too boring to truly care about.
10. Alberto Del Rio
Oh boy, Alberto Del Rio. It is difficult to talk about Del Rio without focusing on his well-documented litany of latter-day controversies. The man has veered from one car crash to the other, eliciting a range of reactions that cover everything from concern to undiluted hate. To put it simply, there hasn't been anything positive attached to the name Alberto Del Rio for a long while.
WWE tried and tried to make The Mexican Aristocrat a superstar, but it never really worked. Some of that is down to Del Rio, a methodical performer in the Randy Orton sort of style that never connected deeply with the audience outside of that time he buried Big Show under a load of furniture. Del Rio had four runs on top of WWE and each one sort of sputtered along, constantly feeling transitional despite the company's hopes to the contrary.
As always, WWE must shoulder some of the blame too. Del Rio was always positioned as a paper champion, and by the time he was becoming a consistent loser as the challenger, it was all over. That debut victory over Rey Mysterio soon came to feel like it was from another time, and Del Rio's championship reigns were about as flat as you were going to get.