Ranking Every First Current WWE Champion From Worst To Best

6. WWE Champion - Buddy Rogers

Seth Rollins Jim Ross
WWE.com

The Champion that broke the bond between Vince McMahon Snr and the National Wrestling Alliance, Buddy Rogers was such a favourite of the North East promoters that their persistent use of him alienated the rest of the NWA board and triggered a split.

Rogers lost the NWA World Championship to Lou Thesz, but was awarded the brand new WWWF Title in 1963 thanks to yet another mythical Rio tournament victory.

With his health in decline, Rogers wasn't to last as champion - he dropped the strap to company legend-in-the-making Bruno Sammartino just a month after "winning" it.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 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 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, 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