The Rock's World Championship Wins - Ranked From Worst To Best

by John Bills

1. Survivor Series 1998

the rock mankind survivor series 1998
WWE.com

They say you never forget your first, and that is especially true when it comes in such a controversial manner. The Rock’s first ever world championship came at Survivor Series 1998, as he stood tall at the end of the Deadly Games tournament to crown a new WWF Champion. He defeated Mankind in the final, with a swerve ending that played on the events of Montreal in 1997. It was groan-inducing then, and 18 years later any reference to it brings the same reaction.

The Rock was without doubt the right choice as champion, riding a huge wave of popularity and with the charisma to continue the forward movements the WWF was making in the Attitude Era. By turning him here and aligning Rocky with the dastardly McMahons the company pretty much guaranteed a hot WrestleMania season.

It doesn’t really matter how you win your first world championship. This was proof if proof were needed that The Rock was going to be the man going forward, the combination of a big championship win and online-affiliation with the top heel in the company a big stepping stone in the career of The Great One.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.