Ranking All 50 WWE World Heavyweight Champions - From Worst To Best

The best (and worst) in the world at what they do.

WWE Champions
WWE

Eric Bischoff's been using it as a failsafe during the occasionally-excellent '83 Weeks' podcast with Conrad Thompson, but unlike in several of his needlessly defensive missives, he's bang right when he notes that "context is king".

He refuses and rejects countless reasoned arguments made by Conrad (particularly as pertains to Dave Meltzer and The Wrestling Observer) during their debates, but does have lived experience on his side. Context - particularly the context he spins for his own benefit - is king.

Context controls the criteria of this list. This list will use drawing power, match quality, longevity and overall credibility whilst holding what has long been considered the industry's "richest prize" and - where possible - avoid recency bias. Just because the footage is in black and white, it doesn't mean the champion didn't mean green at the box office.

A final one for the pedants (of which your writer often is) - this is exclusive to WWE/F World Heavyweight Champions only. The Universal and World Titles have both been considered as prestigious at various points, but the belt with the lengthy lineage will always be the one that carries with it the in-built gravitas and respect of the past-holders.

Even these first few...

50. Vince McMahon

WWE Champions
WWE.com

Vince McMahon could deny all he liked that he ever actually wanted to carry his company's top title, but he looked mighty pleased with himself strolling out on Monday Night Raw six days after dethroning Triple H on a September 1999 SmackDown taping.

The most successful promoter in industry history knew enough to get his most important prize off himself, but the fact he managed to do it without actually getting pinned (McMahon donated it to the winner of the following Sunday's pay-per-view main event) foreshadowed how little *ss his kids would show when they assumed his character's throne in later years.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett