10 Most Successful Champions In WWE History
9. Bob Backlund
WWE Championship Reign(s): February 20, 1978 - December 26, 1983, November 23, 1994 - November 26, 1994
Everything came full circle for Bob Backlund when he was used to transition the WWE Championship from Bret Hart to Diesel via a short loss in Madison Square Garden. This was unsurprisingly not the run that made all the money, though his "Mr Backlund" reinvention at least taught some younger fans about his fairly rich history.
He'd been on the wrong end of Hart's side of things in 1983 when, ahead of the return of impending mega babyface Hulk Hogan (more on him later), his epic five-year reign came to an end at the Camel Clutching hands of The Iron Sheik.
Up to that point, he'd been the long-awaited longstanding replacement for Bruno Sammartino in WWE's home market. A New York icon who permitted near-identical booking in each of his programmes, Backlund was the guy the locals always wanted to win, regardless of more interesting, flashier rivals.