Ranking EVERY WWE Champion From Worst To Best
53. Rey Mysterio
Moving from the ridiculous to the sublime, there's probably no bigger gap of least-to-most deserving WWE Champion than the one separating Vince McMahon and Rey Mysterio. Yet, not only did McMahon hold the belt for longer than Mysterio but he also managed to get away without losing it too. Rey couldn't even make it through the broadcast where he won the thing.
On a July 25th 2011 Raw that realistically revealed just how badly WWE's "Summer Of Punk" was going to be, a tournament set up to crown a new (paper) WWE Champion concluded with a win for Rey Mysterio. It marked his first WWE Championship reign ever, and was at least a flash of feel-good from a company theoretically in disarray following the departure of the actual titleholder. By the end of the night, hopes for any of this turning out well were as good as dashed.
Mysterio was effectively guilted into putting the gold up against John Cena on the same show, just to get to a visual of Cena facing off with Punk a mere eight days after the Chicagoan had supposedly departed the company forever. Replacing Rey - a beloved figure who often didn't get close enough to the top prize with Cena - a babyface that had long been divisive amongst fans - was as deflating as the confirmation that there'd be no wild west scenario with rogue Champion Punk operating outside of the market leader's walls.