Ranking EVERY WWE Champion From Worst To Best
2. Stone Cold Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin was more than just a top babyface or flag-bearer for WWE as its champion. He was the cultural icon the organisation had fumbled around in the dark for most of the 1990s after Hulk Hogan's steep mainstream decline and eventual 1993 departure.
Wrestling was and is a stars-first industry, and though the market leader underwent a number of necessary stylistic and philosophical shifts in a post-Hulkamania world, the one thing the brand lacked was a centrepiece that truly extended beyond the pro wrestling bubble. Through force of will of the performer and a remarkable amount of luck and happenstance elsewhere in the industry, the spot was at long last filled by Steve Austin. King Of The Ring in 1996, he was a force of nature by 1997 and the uncrowned champion before he even won the belt at WrestleMania XIV in 1998.
The dirty secret about 'The Rattlesnake' as a babyface champion is that the reigns were more about his chases to get the gold than the time spent holding it. His longest stretch with the belt came during his experimental spell as a heel in a turn that realistically marked the beginning of the end of the company's second boom, proving that being Champion was always as much about what the position represented as much as it was wearing the strap.