Your Most Hated World Title Reign in History
 

So, for this weeks podcast, we'll be discussing the Most Hated World Title Reigns in History, and want your input on what is your most despised run anybody had as a World Champion in any promotion, ever, and of course why?

A key point here is we are looking to discuss the title runs themselves, NOT simply a guy becoming champion who you don't feel was worthy (Vince McMahon for example).

As always we'll be reading the best contributions on the show and crediting you accordingly - so what is the World Title reign you personally hated more than any other, and what about it pissed you off so much?

EDIT - The show discussing your Most Hated World Title Reigns Ever is now online and available to listen to at the following link: http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean....ReignsEver.mp3

Jeff Jarrett's reigns as the WCW Champ. He absolutely sucked in the ring, so did his opponents. It was terrible, that whole New Blood vs the Millionaire's Club feud sucked ass.

When hhh held the belt forwver and used to cut the same 20 minute promo every raw

Khali as World Heavyweight Champion. Those 5 words speak for themselves.

Mark henry's run as most people probably liked it, i never and main reason never really liked mark henry as a wrestler his matches always bored me to hell.

Didn't he have multiple of these?

Rey Mysterio's World Title Run.

First of all, he's 5"5 150 pounds so any believability is gone. Secondly, he got jobbed out in non title matches every friggen week. It was a complete waste and I couldn't wait for it to be done

Chavo had no charisma though, and needed to profit from Eddie's death

Toss up between Cena's 1st or 3rd WWE title reign and Triple H's 2nd World title reign. they all dragged on way too long and were their own "Reigns of Terror" in a sense.

Cena's mostly due to how quickly the whole Super Cena and over coming the odds stuff got stale. Triple H's reign mostly for it symbolizing all the bad stuff about RAW compared to Smackdown being hot at the time.

Steele is gonna lose his shit at all these hhh bad reign posts

Christian's world title reign... I mean I was happy as the next guy when he won it, but honestly with how badly they botched that shit it really is the biggest waste of a title reign in my opinion. Just awful all around to the point that I actually wish Christian had just never won the title.

Thirdly, they had to call it just the "World Championship" because REY WASN'T A FUCKING HEAVYWEIGHT!

They've done that a lot though in recent years. To be honest I'm surprised they kept the "heavyweight" at all when they introduced the new belt. Besides weight classes in wrestling are stupid. There isn't a light heavyweight, cruiserweight, etc division anymore so why should there be a heavyweight division? I'd honestly prefer they just call it the world title all the time truthfully.

Wishbone is right

Surprised nobody has said David Arquette yet which is by far the stupidest reign ever and pretty much sent WCW down.

The fuck, seriously? Henry's reign wasn't about work rate or ***** matches, the dude was a legitimate badass and carried Smackdown. His reign was the last time I even checked out that show. Go back and watch, you might have a different take with the passage of time.

Fall of 1999 HHH was my least favorite, mostly because he didn't belong in the spot yet.

He was the hottest thing in the Summer of 99. He was one of the biggest parts of the new Rock n' Wrestling Connection that created Sunday Night Heat among other things.

I have 3. Sorry.

1. Triple H's extremely long reign as the World's Heavyweight Champion before he dropped the title to Bill Goldberg.

2. Randy Orton's first reign as the World's Heavyweight Champion. As far as I was concerned, I did not consider him as "world champion" material with respect to how he was booked and how quickly he dropped the strap to Hunter. It wasn't until the end of that No Mercy PPV where he wrestled twice and walked out of the show with the WWE Championship (3rd reign since he was awarded the title earlier in the night before he lost it to Hunter...again) that I saw him in a different light.

3. Dolph Ziggler's second reign as the World's Heavyweight Champion. It was sad that it ended the way it did due to health. I had so many high hopes when he won the belt on that edition of RAW after Mania 29.

Rey mysterios first WHC championship run was awful. He lost weekly to Big Show, Khali, Mark Henry, Kane, the only time I remember him NOT losing was when he wrestled to a no contest with Sabu on ONS 2.

Rhynos TNA Title run was awful as well, He goes from winning 3 matches in one night to losing the belt back to Jarret within one week, and then shuffled back down to the midcard for the remainder of his stay there.

Mysterious definitely. For a run that was supposed to be a feelgood thing it made watching Smackdown an excruciating ordeal.

Mine's Daniel Bryan. Really any of his WWE or WHC reigns. Never thought he was champion material and the length of his reigns prove it. Him as the IC champion is were I believe he belonged.

His last reign was a solid month, didn't get injured until after his match with THE DEMON Kane at extreme rules.

Goldberg's WCW title reign. It sucked, cause it was boring. He was unstoppable so there was no point watching his defenses. Especially considering he'd defend against the likes of Disco Inferno and Scott Putski.

His last reign was the one I hated the most because it came after that ridiculous WM. Well known that I'm not a fan of his but just felt that show was horrible. And feeding him to Kane right out the gates proves they had nothing planned after giving him the title.

They didn't feed him to Kane, he won the match. They probably wanted him to hold it until SummerSlam where he would be eating the 16 suplexes instead of Cena.

Jack Swagger

talk about a guy that just isn't world title material.

He had pretty decent matches.

In the WWE, it would be JBL's endless reign back in 2003 or 2004 or whatever. Every match he won by cheating and it was just so boring and not believable.
Outside the WWE universe, Xristo Diavlo's short title run from last season of CHW comes to mind. At first I was real excited about THE METAL MESSIAH becoming the face of the company but the run ended up being too short and boring, he barely did anything with the title.

I agree krow, CHW deserves better.

How can we forget that epic title defence against Curt Henning? I mean no offence to Curt, Mr Perfect will always be a legend. But he was never WHC material and to have him take on Goldberg for the title at BATB was stupid.

It was indeed stupid, because whether you consider Hennig World Champion Material or not, you knew he wasn't gonna win.

Rollins' reign is pretty dreadful. The guy is a glorified jobber. When your heel champion can't even cheat his way to winning matches outside of a title defense a month, there's a problem. Makes no sense to have a title on him. Not to mention the fact that they've gone out of their way to make it clear that he's not in the same league as the US champion. Logically, why is Cena not World champion at this point and Rollins US? The hierarchy of the titles is nonsensical.

Also have to add Vince on September 16th, 1999 SD! You have yourself as leader of a wrestling business and you book yourself to beat the champ and take his title? And because it was an obvious conflict of interest, as he mentioned, he vacated it faster than a dog runs from a fire hydrant that another dog's already pissed on.

No, dude. From GAB 2006 - TLC 2013, roughly 7 1/2 years it was still separate from the WWE Championship and during that whole time, was still called the World HEAVYWEIGHT Championship. When it was unified with the WWE Championship by Orton, who defeated Cena at TLC 2013, it became what it is now, the WWE World HEAVYWEIGHT Championship.

Checkmate, NS.

Curt was AWA World Champ before his WWE run in the 80s.

By the late 90s though he had no business being in the title picture.

Fucking dunce

But at least Arquette was being used as a promotional tool for a movie. HHH was just eating up at around 45-50 minutes of tv on a 2 hour show every show to open, be peppered in, and close in the main event. Completely preventable overexposure at its finest.

But for an answer, I honestly hated both Rey Rey and Christian's runs... but Christian's more.

I liked both guys. I actually didn't dislike them becoming champion, either. I don't care that Rey didn't grow tall enough for the people who think billing height and weight is the same as actual height and weight. I hated the notion that they ONLY got a shot due to "sympathy reigns": that the company didn't see enough in either one of them *until* it was convenient to capitalize because of something else.

But Christian's second run was the worst. It was like the prototype of the worst parts of what's happening to Seth Rollins right now and the worst parts of CM Punk's last run all in one. He was made to look like a constantly complaining, can't even win WHILE cheating, "doesn't deserve to be there at all" douchebag. He deserved to be presented better.

And yes, though I hated the HHH "reign of terror" with a channel-changing, eye rolliing passion... and though I am a huge mark for Christian... I have to go with Christian edging out Hunter. No pun intended. I was sick of seeing HHH, but wish I could have seen better of Christian, because we all know it could have and should have been handled better... and had Edge not have to weigh permanent disability against more ringtime, he would have sadly never gotten the green light to begin with.

Unrelated, but posting because of the comment about Rey being more charismatic than Chavo:

Being a Gurrerrero is the worst thing for Chavo's career. As talented a performer as he is, he was never going to get out of the shadow of Eddie, even if Eddie never died. He should have dropped off the radar, changed up his moveset, and been the first Sin Cara. I mean going total Curry Man here (yeah, we know Daniels is him, but he didn't wrestle the same under the mask). He could have gone really far if "nobody knew" it was him.

I both love and hate Christian's run..

I love it in that Christian had the title and had some good matches/good feud with Randy Orton.

I hate it in that it ended way too early....


















Should still be going on.

:shifty:

1 day was 1 day too long for Christian's title reign

Lex Luger when he won it for the first time. Ric Flair was the real world champion and that poop with him and Barry Windham main eventing with Luger turning heel with Harley Race was fucking terrible. Can't stand Lex Luger. He's a real piece of poo.

How do you feel about the Lex Express/Lex Luger paying Japan back for Pearl Harbor by bodyslamming Yokozuna?

The power of USA #1 slammed that giant jap back in 1993. Lex was just the vessel used by God that day to beat the oriental fatass.

Matt Hardy. No need to placate to North Carolina idiots. THey probably came in for free. EC3 was screwed. Now the title is vacant anyways.

He is no World Heavyweight Champion.

You think ADR should have won the belt so soon?

Nah all of that "my destiny" shit was annoying.

Big Show from Survivor Series '02 - whenever -- What fucking need was there to destroy all of a then very young and talented Lesnar?

Great Khali was a worse champ than David Arquette

I know JBL's reign is going to come up, and whomever agrees is retarded.

I hate the 1999 HHH stuff, but upon further review I think we have to consider 1996 Shawn Michaels. His matches were superb and great to watch, but the character, feuds, storylines, and Jose Lothario were fucking brutal to even a hardcore fan like myself. I find 1996 WWF to be a historically relevant curiosity, but the HBK run has to be one of my least favorite for everything but his 5 or 6 PPV matches.

I think the matches themselves should take it out of consideration. There were runs that had NO redeeming qualities. And I mean... at least there WAS a story behind his feuds. Yeah, having British Bulldog randomly pop up at the end of the PPV and say "SHAWN MICHAELS TRIED TO FUCK MY WIFE!" was a bit random and forced, but it was something.

Lol just watched the raw replay that the feud got started on.

JBL would have been the last person to cross my mind. His reign was golden. The only bad thing about it was it ending to John Cena

Not just that but back in the day I don't recall any hype to the match and given it was Goldberg's first title defence that should have been the case.

In any case Goldberg v Hogan SHOULD have been the main event at BATB i.e. 'Berg winning the title then.

Yeah the promotion really worked.

It was more the fact that by allowing Arquette to win it soiled what was such a coveted title in pro wrestling.


I would also argue Vince Russo holding the title albeit briefly was also one my most hated reigns.


The very worst would have been had Russo gone ahead with Tank Abbott becoming WHC. That guy as talented a UFC fighter he was, had absolutely no business in a pro-wrestling ring. He neither had the look, nor skills, no charisma, no likeability.....nothing. Why was he even there?

* Triple H's 280-day World Heavyweight Title run after he beat Shawn Michaels -- which I suppose you can open up to his original World Heavyweight Title run, as well as his third between Goldberg and Chris Benoit, his fourth from -- well, actually all of his runs with the Big Gold Belt. Triple H ran through so many babyfaces, and left a lot of them looking worse -- Kane, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Goldberg, Randy Orton -- this reign of terror was finally alleviated by Batista, but RAW was a chore during this era.

* The Great Khali's run with the World Title. I know you guys aren't the biggest fan of Kane, but he seemed like the logical stop-gap choice at the time. I understand the idea of being able to promote an Indian World Heavyweight Champion, but that doesn't mean you have to put it on Khali.

* Christian's World Heavyweight Title reign never got the legs it deserved. Maybe he wouldn't have worked as a top star, but I think him losing the title so soon (both times) impeded any chance he had of being a player in consequent years.

* Rey Mysterio's 2006 run was exploitative and made no sense.

* JBL's 280-day reign with the WWE Title. I was happy for Bradshaw to succeed, but this was just boring.

* John Cena's 280-day run with the WWE Title. I think I just hate 280 day reigns. I felt this presentation of Cena -- as the unbeatable hero -- is where Cena's relationship with hardcore audiences was tarnished -- something still lingering today. If Cena had been a more vulnerable act, he may have been an even broader demographic draw for the WWE. I've actually blocked the 380-day run he had from my mind.

* I've got to be honest, as much as I love him now, Chris Jericho's Undisputed Title reign was the shits. Jericho stood out in one promo with The Rock, but apart from that, he was presented in a way that made it seem like a small child could beat him. Sort of like Seth Rollins now. I've also always been fascinated as to why Chris Jericho chose to wear green tights in his WrestleMania title match. It seemed like an odd aesthetic choice for such a big match.

* The Undertaker's third World Heavyweight Title run. This cut the balls off CM Punk and felt like a sharp change in direction, and that didn't sit well with me at the time, as the Punk vs. Jeff Hardy stuff was really exciting.

* Sheamus' World Heavyweight Title run. Ugh. Right from the start this was riddled by miscalculations. It was the same approach the company took with John Cena's first WWE Title run, jammed Sheamus down our throats, he beat the wrong guys too many times, the 18-second win made Bryan and changed the climate in WWE completely, and by the end of it you had felt like you'd seen more than you could ever want of Sheamus. I still don't think he should have lost it to the Big Show though.

They've dropped "Heavyweight" from the US and IC Titles (although Paul Heyman would try to sneak one in for Curtis Axel), but the World Heavyweight Title did legitimately get the "Heavyweight" dropped as soon as Rey Mysterio won the belt, and then placed back in there when he lost it.

I want to thank everybody for the contributions, we got to read many of them on the show, which is now available at the following link:

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean....ReignsEver.mp3

Join us as we take your nominations for this tremendous distinction, talking all the trials and tribulations involved in the World Title reigns of individuals such as JBL, The Miz, Shane Douglas, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Ronnie Garvin, Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarrett, Hulk Hogan, Big Show, Kurt Angle, Seth Rollins, Triple H (of course) and many more, debating what made these runs as utterly hateable as they were. A very fun show this week, check it out and let us know what you think!

Lol God damn it, JBL's reign was amazing

It was, He did everything he was supposed to do to get you to hate his guts and just when you thought their might be something to like about him he made y ou hate him even more. It's a shame he hit his stride so late in his career because he could have been a legend.

I hope they mentioned Rhynos 1 week Regin in TNA. Will listen later.

Carl is just the worst. JBL is the best heel in the company of the last 15 years.

Lowest drawing too.

Funny thing is, to me JBL's reign is much, much better in hindsight. At the time you still had incredible people that were far more over than he ever was that hadn't sniffed the top title. Then there he was, all of a sudden, king of the hill. His promos were almost entirely cheap heat too, which soured me at the time. As good a promo as he was, it all felt so cheap.

I pretty much agree with that. I couldn't buy JBL suddenly becoming good enough to be WWE Champion, or the sudden dropping of the beer-drinking, cigar-smoking ass-kicker. I found his style wasn't conducive to longer title matches at the time (not saying that he's a bad worker, just that I don't really want to see him in main event-style matches) and although he was a good talker, he never made me really care about a program.

The Smackdown roster was pretty thin by the tine JBL took over as champ.

Many wrestlers have said JBL was the last true heel in wrestling.

Workrate fags are just pissy because he beat Deadie Guerrero for the belt. I adore JBL.

Carl is not welcome here. JBL IS a Wrestling gaaaaaawd!

Yeah TPWW IS BRADSHAW!

JBL was fucking incredible. This podcast has made an enemy.

Lol I was so pissed hearing all of that shit.

That whole "cheap heat" thing is ridiculous. You're a heel. You want people to hate you. Say and do things to make people hate you.

Fuck cares how.

Can't think of a serious main event heel over the past 15 years or so who hasn't gone for cheap heat. Moreso than I remember JBL doing, in fact.

Given how little time his character was given to evolve, and how quickly he was rushed into the main event, I thought JBL was excellent. In no way, shape or form was he a cool heel. He wouldn't get cheered, or get chants. Just straight out boos.

It's not his fault they were short on heels. The way they've booked him is how they should book Rollins. Wins at any cost and avoids comeuppance. He also handed the belt over to the biggest star of the last ten years.

JBL's character, especially at that time and with that roster, was a main event character. He needed to be thrown in the deep end rather than dicking around the midcard, and he fucking flourished, I think. Drawing doesn't hold as much water with him because it was the B show in the midst of the business' downturn. The Cabinet was great, and JBL did his job perfectly.

JBL's reign one of the all time best

I'll sever the legs of anyone who disagrees

Holy shit, I had no idea JBL would be such a dividing line.

The match quality aspect doesn't mean much to me, Rollins is a great guy in the ring, but the out of ring stuff sucks, and a big part of it is his fault. JBL's character was miles better, my problem is that the best stuff JBL did wasn't in his title run. The Eddie feud, post Mania Cena feud and the I Quit match, the One Night Stand appearance, the US Title stuff, etc.

For his actual title reign, he had a horrible feud with Undertaker in which no good matches or great promos occured, a feud with Booker I don't remember one thing about, and the horrible Big Show feud, including a particularly horrendous Smackdown episode based around Joy Giovanni being kidnapped.

The cheap heat I bring up because I love cheap heat in wrestling, but during these feuds in particular, it was all cheap heat, and nothing else to it. I agree it doesn't matter how you get them to hate you as long as you do, but it didn't lead to any great heated moments during his title run at all, so it's for nothing. He may have done a good job with it being so rushed, but that rushed aspect is impossible to ignore.

This may have to be an agree to disagree - I like JBL, but not his title reign. At all.

JBL had loads of great promos. With him channeling Ronald Reagan as he hobbled down to the ring from his various injuries.

It was morning again on Smackdown!

I am that one guy who didn't want RVD to take the title from Cena.

At this point the storyline grabbed me as WWE vs some outsiders. Cena was defending the title that Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan, Bruno Samatrino, HBK, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and so many greats held before him. I didn't want to see that title, that legacy, go on someone who needed a bingo hall full of smarks to get over.

<font color=goldenrod>Gonna have to echo what others have said and say Rey Mysterio's title reign in 2006. First one that jumped out in my mind. First off, I was a huge Rey fan in his WCW days and when he first came over to WWE. I always thought it'd be awesome if he found a way to win the World Title. I never expected a lengthy run out of him.

I always figured it would be a surprise win to pop the crowd and sell the fact that anything can happen in WWE. Maybe he works a couple of programs against guys he can realistically work with but are still main eventers, such as Eddie and Angle (I figured a Rey title run someday was plausible even while Eddie was alive). Then you do the logical transition of him feuding with a bigger guy and while you could find ways to flirt with him winning, ultimately he drops the belt and moves on to his next program.

Rey was always super over, and it'd be a nice reward for him to work at the top of the card with the belt and the fans would feel rewarded for having invested in him as a character. But it would also maintaining a sense of realisticness since he'd never go over somebody he physically shouldn't stand a chance against.

But instead they booked him like a complete and utter jobber after he won the belt. More importantly though, his run to the belt was booked in such a way that nothing could have possibly been interpreted from it other than "the spirit of Eddie has willed Rey to victory!" and it was just exploitative as all fuck.</font>

I would say Reys 1 hour reign with the WWE title was completely unnecessary.

We don't take kindly to JBL hate round these parts!

TPWW also isn't what I'd call a "workrate website", so JBL gets a lot of love here.

I friggen loved his title reign.

Oh I know, and I like that. I'm a staunch believer that the work in the ring is the least important part of being a star, and I know you're in the same boat - I vividly remember your message to me about our mutual appreciation of the big picture about a year ago.

I just want to be entertained. Lol don't really care how.

I've got your back on this hb2k. I was bored to tears during JBL's reign. And I was a Doug Basham mark.

Noid is a rogue poster

Maybe Tammy needs to spank me and teach me a lesson? Does anyone still have that hotline number?