Every WWE Champion Of The 2000s Ranked From Worst To Best
With a new millennium came what seemed like 2000 different title reigns.
In the 1990s, WWE began the shift from the their world title being the main defining symbol of its top star to being more of a prop in storylines. In the 2000s, this shift was ramped up in a big way, as quick title changes and transitional reigns became more and more common, the peak of this being in 2009, when the WWE Championship changed hands ten times.
Put simply, the 2000s were a very messy decade for WWE. Starting at the highest of highs in 2000, the company would go through severe talent and tonal shifts that left it in a much weaker state by 2009. Through that and the brand split bringing on a second title, the importance of the WWE Championship greatly diminished, leading to a lot of lackluster title reigns.
Still, with any bad comes some good, and whether it was as the globe belt or the shiny spinner, the WWE Championship was in the hands of a diverse group of superstars in the 2000s. Some made it a joke, while others made it their mission to keep it the greatest prize in professional wrestling.
18. Batista
"Big Dave" Batista is one of those guys who's more linked with the world heavyweight championship (or the big gold belt, as we'll call it from here on) than he is the default belt in WWE. Whether it was on RAW or SmackDown, Big Kahuna Burger Dave was usually on the brand that had the big gold belt rather than the spinner, so the former is what he chased and held most of the time.
Still, in 2009, when he was on the RAW brand he feuded with Randy Orton over the WWE Championship, and at Extreme Rules, he defeated the Viper in a cage match to win the spinner belt for the first time in his career. Hooray!
He then vacated the title two days later after an injury angle with Orton and Legacy. Boo-ray.
It turns out that Batista needed time off for surgery due to a torn triceps. Despite WWE knowing this well in advance, they still booked Big Brother VIP Dave to win the title, fearing that if he came up short again in a title match, it would hurt his drawing power.
Given how the title soon went back to Orton, the fact that Big Bad Wolf Dave held the title for a mere two days is just a weird historical footnote.