Every 1-Time WWE Champion Ranked From Worst To Best
21. Stan Stasiak
In wrestling, a "transitional champion" is one who only wins a belt in order to drop it to a booker's desired wrestler almost immediately afterwards. This tactic is usually used to move the championship from one babyface to another without having them fight each other, and we'll be seeing a few more examples of this practice further on in the list.
Our first transitional champion is Stan "The Man" Stasiak, father of Shawn and just the fifth man in history to hold the WWWF Championship (as it was known up until 1979). Stan's jubilations were shortlived though, as he would drop the belt to Bruno Sammartino just nine days later and never win a championship of any kind in the WWE ever again.
Stan's reign is largely forgotten about these days and its easy to see why. He was only really given the title to avoid Sammartino beating fellow babyface Pedro Morales, but Stan should still be recognised for ending such a lengthy and historic reign and for being the man to usher in Bruno's second stint with the promotion's top belt.