10 Better World Champion Options Than Brock Lesnar And Randy Orton

The WWE has two current World Champions, and two current World Championship problems. On one side, the problem is a non-existent champion who wrestles five matches a year tops. On the other side, the World Champion is a 13-time champion in the twilight of his career, sleepwalking his way through matches.

This has been WWE’s issue since WrestleMania, when Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton won the Universal and WWE Championships respectively. Since then, Brock has been absent, and it’s not even a lock that his championship matches will be any good, as Lesnar hasn’t had a good match in arguably over two years. Orton has floundered in feuds with Bray Wyatt and Jinder Mahal, a preliminary wrestler who has received a push out of nowhere. Orton will presumably retain the title tonight at Backlash, but there are much better options on Smackdown that Orton to be champion.

Who would make better choices as champions right now on either show? (Spoiler alert: neither Roman Reigns nor Jinder Mahal will be appearing on this list.)

Rusev is getting ready to come back from an injury, and it looked like he was about to make his case for being WWE Champion this past week on SmackDown until the writers decided to hold off on it until after Backlash. He should be the first in line to face Orton, possibly at the SmackDown-branded Money in the Bank pay-per-view next month.

When booked correctly, as he was during his two runs with the United States Championship, Rusev can come off as an unstoppable monster. He also can work in the ring, and has regularly excelled on the mic. He’s basically an upgrade over Jinder Mahal in every aspect, and more than deserving of a run with the championship, especially compared to Orton.