3. Antonio Inoki As WWF Champion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPqip6CzgZQ
Antonio Inoki is a Japanese wrestling legend, a huge name within the global industry. He has had various achievements in his home country, and would ride his fame all the way to a successful political career too. But one achievement you may not have heard about is this - Antonio Inoki was the WWF Champion. The Japanese star won the title on November 30 1979, defeating then WWF Champion Bob Backlund. The American star then won the title back on December 6th of 1979. WWF fails to acknowledge this in its official lineage, and the history books do not show Inoki as WWF Champion. The truth is he did win the belt, and in reality the WWF title probably changed many times over seas. Promoters see the title as a prop, and when working overseas where the regular audience knew nothing about it, changing belts wasn't really seen as a big deal. Nowadays of course it would be impossible - media coverage is everywhere. But back then the belt probably got switched quite a bit without anyone ever knowing outside the far flung territory the promotion was visiting. Antonio Inoki is now a WWE Hall of famer, but if you talk to him he will still tell you - he was the WWF Champion who never was.