10 WWE Champions Who Didn't Draw
2. JBL
At No Way Out 2004, the unthinkable happened - Eddie Guerrero defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. There have been few wrestlers as organically popular as Guerrero in WWE history, and with him on top, attendance for SmackDown house shows began to rise.
Unfortunately, there were many reports that the pressures of carrying the brand began to get to Guerrero and that - combined with a massive bladejob at Judgment Day that put the champion into shock - led WWE to take a different path. At The Great American Bash, Guerrero lost the title to JBL.
Fans were stunned, as only a couple of months earlier, JBL was part of a midcard tag team. Nobody took him seriously as a main-eventer or as a world champion, and that translated into doom for SmackDown. TV ratings and house show numbers fell back to pre-Guerrero numbers, and PPVs also weren't as strong. Despite all that, WWE kept the belt on JBL for nine months.
All in all, JBL's reign was a financial failure - so much so, that some sources claimed that he had broken the decade-old record for lowest-drawing WWE Champion ever.