Ranking Every WWE Champion Of The Attitude Era
9. Kane
Hey, remember that time they gave Glenn Jacobs the WWE Championship just so they could say they did it and everyone would leave them alone about it? That sure was a fun day, wasn't it?
It's not that Kane's one title defense wasn't entertaining and all, but it was such an obvious ratings ploy and a complete waste of an opportunity.
This was also the first of many extremely short WWE Championship reigns that only served to cheapen the belt's importance and showed one of the Attitude Era's most glaring weaknesses: Immediate drama is more important than longterm payoffs.
Yes, it was interesting to see The Big Red Machine walk out of King of the Ring 1998 with the gold, but he never even had a shot to make it his own, and it was a damn risky move taking the belt away from a rising star like Stone Cold at such an important time in his ascension.
Quite frankly, they're lucky Kane's tiny reign didn't do more damage to both of their careers.
Luckily for Austin, it had no effect on his meteoric rise. And luckily for Kane, he'd get another shot at hoisting the big time gold over his head when he won the World Heavyweight Championship in 2010 and was able to enjoy a substantial reign the second time around.