Ranking Every ECW Champion In History - From Worst To Best

Although Masato Tanaka’s stint as ECW World Heavyweight Champion was much briefer than Santana’s—six days versus 32—I’ve ranked the former slightly higher for a couple of noteworthy reasons.

First off, despite the shortness of the reign, Tanaka actually managed the same number of defences as Santana did during his time as champion. After beating Mike Awesome for the belt in December of 1999, Tanaka would successfully defend against Kintaro Kanemura in that brief six-day window before surrendering the belt back to Awesome at an ECW TV taping.

Plus, that of course meant that unlike Santana before him, Tanaka had actually competed in the match that saw him lose the title, as opposed to simply forfeiting the belt.

So considering that Tanaka’s time as champion was still equally, if not more, eventful than Santana’s­—despite its relative brevity—the Japanese star ranks ever so slightly ahead on this one.