10 Best Booked WWE Champions Of 2020
Io Shirai, Keith Lee and Roman Reigns prove there is life in WWE yet...
WWE, eh? When they are good, they are very, very good. When they are bad, well...
Following a mixed year for the company, in which a global pandemic and negative publicity failed to prevent McMahon and co. rolling around in Scrooge McDuck levels of money, it's only fitting that WWE's storytelling was similarly uneven. (Incidentally, was anyone else disappointed that this year's Money in the Bank contest didn't reveal a gold-filled vault, complete with diving board, underneath WWE HQ?).
While WWE has had more than its fair share of poorly booked champions this year it would be churlish of anybody to dismiss the company outright. After all, a huge part of fan frustration with WWE stems from the fact that it is capable of being so much better than it is. Each champion on this list shows the magic that modern WWE is capable of, which is why it is so annoying when the company allows itself to drift aimlessly along a sea of mediocrity.
Ok, enough negativity! Let's move on and celebrate the champions WWE did right by this year and hope that they manage to do the same for all their title-holders in the year to follow.
10. Sasha Banks (WWE Smackdown Women's Championship)
It only took five years, but the Boss has finally started living up to her nickname on the main roster!
That seems a strange thing to say about a five time RAW Women's Champion, but each of those title reigns lasted only as long as her first defense as Sasha won and lost the title at a rate that would have Vince Russo saying "Woah, we GOTTA slow down here, bro!"
Fortunately, WWE were themselves aware of this and built it into the story of Sasha's rematch with her rival-turned-bestie-turned-nemesis Bayley (more on whom later). Even though it made no logical sense for Sasha to drop the belt almost immediately after winning it, the fact that she had done exactly that on so many occasions made for an intriguing narrative heading into the bout and made Sasha's successful defense feel far more meaningful than the vast majority of WWE's championship rematches.
Following this up with a first-ever clean victory over Asuka in a cracking match at Survivor Series further bolstered Banks' credentials as a worthy champion and gave fans hope that this will be the run that finally sees the Boss live up to the potential she displayed on NXT all those years ago.
If not, it's looking like WWE's loss will be showbiz's gain.