10 Most Successful Champions In WWE History
Champions that struck the MOST gold. Not to conform to cliches, but Number 6 may actually shock you.
Critically important criteria disclaimer before we begin.
"Success", as in the titular kind, can be measured objectively, but subjective measures are always more fun in conversation, in debate, or in the pub. Your writer will argue until he's puce about the merits of Bret Hart and Diesel over just about any other wrestler living or dead, but neither of them drew record figures on top as WWE Champions and thus never gained quite as much of Vince McMahon's trust as the men (and, alas, they of course are all men) below.
Triple H once very shrewdly and intentionally reduced the contributions of Chris Jericho, Edge, Rob Van Dam, and by proxy Daniel Bryan in one single promo, all theoretically to put himself over as a A-Lister to the "B+ Player" tag he was saddling with them.
But, with the dollars, cents and vast research of Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer, where exactly does he stack up? As the man himself clarified, this list is "based on placings in the top ten by year with emphasis on record setting years and dominant years based on doubling everyone else in that specific year", with only WWE Champions included.
Not to conform to website cliches, but Number 6 may shock you...
10. Randy Orton
WWE Championship Reign(s): October 7, 2007 - October 7, 2007, October 7, 2007 - April 27, 2008, April 26, 2009 - June 7, 2009, June 15, 2009 - September 13, 2009, October 4, 2009 - October 25, 2009, September 19, 2010 - November 22, 2010, August 18, 2013 - September 15, 2013, October 27, 2013 - April 6, 2014, April 2, 2017 - May 21, 2017, October 25, 2020 - November 16, 2020
Keeping himself at the top of the card for the better part of 20 years has gone a long way in earning Randy Orton the last place on list, with the number of industry icons he ranks above enough to give him a full second Legend Killer run two decades after the first one.
His multitude of title reigns may not have all come during particular industry highs, but his work with the likes of John Cena, Batista, The Undertaker, Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt has seen him routinely programmed against popular and/or money-drawing stars, and the springboard he received from breaking out of Evolution with Batista came just before WWE's audiences started to plateau for good.