10 Most Successful Champions In WWE History

3. Buddy Rogers

John Cena
WWE.com

WWE Championship Reign(s): April 11, 1963 - May 17, 1963

Though the Buddy Rogers wasn't able to work for too long as the original WWWF Champion before health problems put paid to his career, he was at the centre of Vince McMahon Sr and Toots Mondt's 1963 controversial and landscape-shifting withdrawal from the National Wrestling Alliance.

McMahon and Mondt wanted to go with Rogers over perennial titleholder Lou Thesz due to the former's success in New York, and with the two sides at an impasse, the pair acrimoniously pulled away and crowned 'The Nature Boy' as their World Champion in preparation for later crowning Bruno Sammartino.

This was, in effect, the creation of WWE - a decision to go it alone in the North East rather than work under the regulation of the NWA created the model that McMahon Jnr eventually purchased from his Father to set about decimating then transforming the marketplace forever.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 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. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, 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