Ranking EVERY WWE Champion From Worst To Best

54. Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon did far worse things with his absolute power than crown himself WWE Champion, but it was unquestionably the lowest ebb for the industry's top prize and realistically a low ebb for the McMahon character during the company's turn-of-the-century boom. 

To be absolutely fair to the move, it was huge in context. The babyface McMahon had been a rival heel Triple H desperately needed to increase his own credibility during a wonky 1999 rise, and business was booming to such an extent that the pair drew massive ratings for their impromptu SmackDown title match and the subsequent fallout on Raw several days later. But strapping the Chairman up was a step too far, as proven by the creative dead end the move caused. McMahon won the gold on a Thursday, surrendered it on a Monday, couched his non-defence of it as an honourable move, and the gold was back with 'The Game' by virtue of the six-pack challenge created to clear the mess up. 

The pacing and frenetic energy of the product obscured the stupidity, and everything moved on at a similar pace. But it happened - McMahon fell into the same trap so many other promoters had done, just to briefly call himself Champion of a product he had total control over.