10 Times Brilliant Wrestlers Endured Miserable Title Reigns

9. Rob Van Dam - WWE Champion June 11, 2006 - July 3, 2006

AJ Styles
WWE.com

Who's got two thumbs and totally f*cked up the biggest push of his career?

Rob-Van-Dam.

It was a Dam shame; RVD did well to recover his main event aura having lost so decisively to Triple H at Unforgiven 2002 and subsequently meandered about in several thrown-together tag teams purely to fill a spot on the midcard. Not that he wasn't at fault; if there is ever a time to not get high in your car, and then subsequently exceed the speeding limit in said car, it is when you have just won the biggest prize in the industry as the figurehead of an emerging brand around which you have been built.

After waiting four years to reach the pinnacle once more, couldn't he have waited five minutes to get to his hotel room?

Van Dam defended the title just the once on pay-per-view, defeating Edge at Vengeance 2006. He lost both the WWE and ECW World Titles across a 24-hour period between July 3 and 4 once WWE caught wind of Van Dam and Sabu's bungling stoner comedy side project.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and surefire Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!