10 Things You Didn't Know About The WWE Title
4. Only Three Masked Wrestlers Have Won It
Eric Bischoff will have a beaming smile across his face reading this. Only joking, but he was the one who whipped Rey Mysterio's mask off in WCW because he felt the flyer was more marketable without it. WWE proved that theory wrong, but Vince McMahon still wasn't one for putting his biggest belts on masked men.
That's why only three masked wrestlers have held the WWE Title.
Kane was the first. He beat Steve Austin in a wonky 'First Blood' brawl at King Of The Ring 1998, but quickly dropped the belt back to 'Stone Cold' 24 hours later on Raw. Next up, Mick Foley's Mankind gimmick seized glory on the 4 January 1999 edition of the flagship. He'd lose the belt to The Rock weeks later at Royal Rumble.
Then, there's Mysterio himself. He had much more success with the World Heavyweight belt, but only held the WWE Title for around two hours on the 25 July 2011 Raw. John Cena hammered him and took the gold on that very same episode.
Side note: Others who donned masks throughout their careers, like Cody Rhodes or Punk, weren’t doing so when they bagged the belt.