8 Quickest Elevations From Midcard Titles To WWE Champion

3. Rob Van Dam & Braun Strowman - 27 Days

Bobby Lashley
WWE.com

What do beloved extreme babyface Rob Van Dam and bland, vanilla monster Braun Strowman have in common other than a propensity to shout their own names? Why, they both had a 27-day gap between losing a secondary title and winning a World Championship.

In fact, both RVD and the Monster Among Men had those 27-day gaps in between losing the Intercontinental Championship and then winning their first ever World Championship. For Van Dam, that 'first ever' was the WWE Championship then held by John Cena, while Strowman toppled Goldberg at WrestleMania 36 to become Universal Champion.

Mr. Monday Night's 2006 One Night Stand victory over Cena came 27 days after losing the IC Title to Shelton Benjamin in a 3-on-2 handicap match. As for Braun, 27 days before his big 'Mania win was the Elimination Chamber PPV where he dropped SmackDown's secondary title to Sami Zayn.

Despite it being a bland run, Strowman actually managed a 141-day reign as Universal Champion - which isn't bad for a last-minute WrestleMania replacement for Roman Reigns.

As for Rob Van Dam, his WWE Championship was a paltry 22 days. That being due to the Whole F'n Show being Wholly F'n Stupid and getting arrested for drug possession.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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.