10 Best Simultaneous WWE/WCW Heavyweight Champions

6. Bret Hart/Vader - 1992

Austin Goldberg 98
WWE

Bret Hart's first run as WWE Champion reflected an enormous philosophical shift for the company away from...enormous philosophy-free main events. 'The Hitman' spent every match reframing what it meant to carry the industry's richest prize, wrestling intense and competitive matches in place of battles purely defined by who the biggest baddest f*cker was.

In Vader, WCW, somehow, found a way to marry both diverse .

Thrilling feuds with Sting, Cactus Jack and several others within the company's underrated roster at the time positioned the deadly super-heavyweight as a new kind of unstoppable wrestling force. It perhaps speaks to every single cliche about Vince McMahon's fascination with muscles and airport tests above every other metric in wrestling, because neither of them were drawing either. Business may have been in the bin, but the workrate went from the outhouse to the penthouse with these two sharing the top spots.

It was a genuine shame it took until Vader's WWE arrival in 1996 for the two to go to war, particularly as the rechristened 'Mastodon' was past his physical prime by then.

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Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett