Ranking EVERY WWE Champion From Worst To Best

38. Buddy Rogers

WWE Champions Ranked
WWE.com

If you can't be the best, be the first, and that's realistically how time and history will reflect Buddy Rogers as relates to WWE's top strap.

Rogers was the man at the centre of Vince McMahon Sr and Toots Mondt withdrawing their interest from the National Wrestling Alliance in 1963 to form the World Wide Wrestling Federation with 'The Nature Boy' on top. He'd held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship before a loss to Lou Thesz, but the pair of promoters refused to acknowledge the switch and instead brought him into their new territory as a talisman.

In the spirit of nonsense pro wrestling lore, it was announced that he'd won the title in an April 1963 Rio de Janeiro tournament, and even that was just to legitimise it in order for it to matter when he lost it to Bruno Sammartino the very next month. 

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 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. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, 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