8 Quickest Elevations From Midcard Titles To WWE Champion

6. Dolph Ziggler - 42 Days

Bobby Lashley
WWE.com

It may have lasted less than a day and he may have been awarded the title by his storyline girlfriend, but the fact still remains that Dolph Ziggler was the World Heavyweight Champion for a cup of coffee in February 2011.

This title reign was all part of an ongoing rivalry with Edge, and it was Vickie Guerrero who presented Ziggler with Big Gold on the 14 February episode of WWE's blue brand programming. As part of some power play shenanigans, Teddy Long would question Dolph's position as the new World Heavyweight Champion, with a swift title defence against Edge booked for that same night, playa.

The Rated-R Superstar would of course beat the Show-Off and reclaim the belt that he never should've been stripped off, and poor Ziggler would have to wait over two years until his next run as the World Heavyweight Champ - that win coming on the post-WrestleMania 29 edition of SmackDown.

Where that uber-brief first World Championship reign of Dolph Ziggler's is concerned, though, that came only 42 days after he lost the Intercontinental Title to Kofi Kingston on the 7 January SmackDown outing.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.