8 Quickest Elevations From Midcard Titles To WWE Champion

1. The Ultimate Warrior

Bobby Lashley
WWE

The Ultimate Warrior has a special place at the top of this list, as he is the only person in WWE history to never actually lose their secondary title on the way to claiming their first ever World Championship.

With mammoth momentum behind him, Warrior rampaged into WrestleMania VI as the Intercontinental Champion. In a main event dubbed the Ultimate Challenge, it was the Parts Unknown native going up against WWF Champion Hulk Hogan in a winner-takes-all contest.

In what was supposed to be a passing of the torch, the Ultimate One emerged victorious on that 1 April 1990 night. Of course, the Hulkster was one forever reluctant to pass any torch, brother, and Warrior was always in an uphill battle to carry the company on his back.

As for the Intercontinental Champion, Warrior would end up vacating that title in the aftermath of WrestleMania VI. Mr. Perfect would defeat Tito Santana in the final of a tournament to crown the new IC Champ.

For Warrior, his run as WWF Champion was actually pretty fun and drew solid numbers. The problem, as was so often the case, was that Warrior was his own worst enemy. His insane demands and erratic behaviour saw his career never get even close to the highs of 'Mania VI - and that's without even mentioning what a racist, sexist, homophobic piece of sh*t he proved to be in his later years.

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.