After being established in 1997 as the WWEs tertiary championship, the European title had a mostly inglorious history, bouncing around from superstar to superstar, without a significant amount of build or fanfare. The title was famously held by the son of WWE owner Vince McMahon, and was even awarded to one performer after he found it discarded in a duffel bag. Other WWE superstars who went on to accomplish very little during their careers had stints as champs Spike Dudley, Crash Holly and The Hurricane, to name a few which helped devalue the strap's significance further within the company. And yet theres an underrated prestige associated with the European Championship. A number of future WWE Hall-of-Famers have held the championship. A handful of superstars held both the European and Intercontinental Championships dubbing themselves Eurocontinental Champions. Some performers even used the title as a stepping-stone to bigger and better things in the WWE, including World Heavyweight Championships. One of the greatest WWE superstars of all-time won the European Championship was the first-ever Grand Slam Champion. On the July 22, 2002 episode of Raw, the European Championship was unified with the Intercontinental title, officially terminating the belts lineage. This list celebrates the European Championships history not only by looking at some of the most high-profile individuals who held the title over that five-year span, but also noting those who made the belt high-profile by making it a critical part of some great feuds and top-notch matches.
Honorable Mention: Rob Van Dam
In a list of great European Champions, Rob Van Dam warrants inclusion only because his Raw match with Jeff Hardy in July 2002 marked the official end of the title, as it was unified with the Intercontinental Championship. The unification of these belts was significant because it came at a time when the WWE was unifying all of major titles. On the August 26, 2002, episode of Raw, RVD defeated Tommy Dreamer to unify the Intercontinental and the Hardcore belts. With this one belt encompassing all of the secondary titles, and with Brock Lesnar, the undisputed WWE champion appearing every week exclusively on Smackdown during the brand-split era, RVDs Intercontinental title was supposed to serve as the primary strap on Raw. But then Triple H, who reportedly thought holding the Intercontinental title was beneath him, was awarded the big gold belt on a September episode, making him WWEs first official World Heavyweight Champion, and rendering all of the secondary title unifications, moot.