10 Saddest World Title Reigns In Wrestling History
3. Rey Mysterio II
Not to put too fine a point on it, but at WrestleMania 22, the role of Eddie Guerrero was played by Rey Mysterio. Eddie was the hottest act WWE had going, and after his tragic death, they just plugged Mysterio into his spot. Rey won the Royal Rumble, and dedicated it to his fallen friend.
He started teaming with Batista, just as Eddie had done. And he even started doing all of Eddie's signature moves and taunts. It was all very uncomfortable and surreal, but at least it paid off with Rey Mysterio, the ultimate underdog, holding aloft the World Heavyweight Championship to close out the biggest show of the year!
Except that Rey was almost immediately booked to look like a joke. Despite routinely trouncing opponents twice his size since arriving in WWE, World Heavyweight Champion Rey Mysterio was suddenly losing non-title matches left and right. To build to a match with JBL -- the story of which was that Mysterio couldn't compete with "the big boys" -- Mysterio failed to defeat Mark Henry, The Great Khali, and Kane in consecutive weeks.
He failed to decisively defeat Sabu and Rob Van Dam in interpromotional rivalries, then finally dropped his title to King Booker (all hail!) at The Great American Bash 2006.