Ranking EVERY WWE Champion From Worst To Best
43. Bray Wyatt
Bray Wyatt was a one-man merchandise machine to such an extent that by the time he became Universal Champion as The Fiend in 2019, fans were willing to drop four figures on a custom title belt with the spooky face splashed across the front. It was at very least some reward for what he'd endured in the years prior, with his one and only WWE Championship run just another reminder of how often his and the company's creative visions weren't really in lockstep.
To much fanfare, Wyatt - four long and challenging years after the character debuted on main roster screens - became WWE Champion at Elimination Chamber 2017. It ensured he'd head into WrestleMania with the industry's top prize, and came as result of a shockingly well-received programme with Randy Orton too. The rise had been so organically impressive that few could have predicted the crushing 'Show Of Shows' fall.
Wyatt was booked to manifest projections of insects onto the canvas to supposedly rattle Orton. Ignoring the gaping logic flaw that you could only see the extent of the images from a birds eye view 20 feet above the ring, the plan was just as useless in kayfabe. 'The Apex Predator' brushed the nonsense aside, RKO'd Wyatt and pinned him in ten minutes, He didn't get near the gold again.