10 Worst Simultaneous WWE Heavyweight Champions
6. AJ Styles (WWE) & Brock Lesnar (Universal) - 2018
There are times in wrestling when, for reasons it seems hard to parse in hindsight, the product suffers despite the best intentions of all involved.
Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels couldn't draw mainstream numbers despite their matches being simultaneously futuristic and futureproof. WrestleMania XIX's cavalcade of stars from every generation couldn't commercially deliver buys comparable to the eras that birthed them. Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose couldn't save shoddy booking with that shoddy, shoddy match.
Such was the case in Autumn 2018 after Brock Lesnar was infuriatingly selected to take back the Universal Title after Roman Reigns' devastating departure. 'The Beast' took the red belt back at Crown Jewel, a pay-per-view so abysmal it reset the standard for modern era sh*te that also featured AJ Styles boring the f*ck out of some Saudi Arabians with another middling match against Samoa Joe.
He was supposed to take on Daniel Bryan before the 'YES Man' made his intentions on not travelling to the event abundantly clear. Styles had held the title for nearly a year at this point, but like the sagging series with Joe, his multi-show programmes with Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens had woefully underperformed.
Bryan, ironically, was the dawn that followed the darkness. His shocking pre-Survivor Series win over 'The Phenomenal One' (and the heel turn that went alongside it) supplied an immediate dream match with 'The Beast' that relit his fire ahead of an enjoyable Road To WrestleMania.
More's the pity these two felt so stale. It couldn't have been any further from their fight the prior year...