8 Greatest Transitional WWE Champions Of All Time

The very first transitional champion in the WWE, "The Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff ended Bruno Sammartino's insane 2,803 day reign on top and stunned Madison Square Garden into an eerie silence all in one fell swoop.

In the days before weekly TV shows and monthly pay-per-views, crowds were more than happy rooting for a guy like Sammartino and would have continued doing so indefinitely, because the structure was set up so there was truly only one top guy in the company. Whoever that guy was, the crowd was going to get behind him.

But when Sammartino became exhausted from the grueling championship schedule, it was decided that another favored babyface, Pedro Morales, would be his successor. Of course, having Morales win it directly from the ultimate fan favorite would have set him up for too much backlash.

And so Koloff was brought in to take the heat for ending Sammartino's nearly eight year reign.

The crowd literally fell silent when it happened. This was still the height of kayfabe, and once Koloff was announced as the new champion, there was legitimate fear of a full-scale riot. In fact, they didn't even hand Koloff the belt in front of the audience because several people probably would have hopped the barricade to try and beat him to death with their shoes.

Koloff only held the belt for three weeks, but it was enough to kickstart a new direction for the company and firmly move wrestling into the '70s.