10 WWE Stars That Should Have Won The World Title Sooner

Brace yourself, we’re about to enter the contentious territory of the 2001 Invasion angle.

Now personally, as a nine-year-old kid (and a relative stranger to WCW) this was whole storyline was brilliant at the time. But in hindsight, it was a watered-down version of what we should have got, and a clear example of how history is told by the victors.

Top WCW stars, such as Diamond Dallas Page, were made to look like chumps and the ECW talent hardly fared much better. However, they did have one man who looked the bee’s knees; Rob Van Dam.

Despite being a member of the villainous Alliance, he was pretty much universally loved. And yet, all he had to show for his efforts were Intercontinental and Hardcore titles; the staple mark of a mid-carder. He wouldn’t win his first World Championship until the summer of 2006, some five years after arriving.

I realise there was little chance of the WWE booking an “outside” name so strongly, but there was certainly a great chance to do just that when Van Dam first joined the company. Unfortunately, though, that didn’t quite fit with the narrative they wanted to write.