Who do you consider a "World Champion"?

[KIRA]

I think they frequently acknowledged Daniel Bryans past on WWE television

[Curd]

Originally Posted by Tom Guycott The other thing about glossing over past accomplishments is that, quite generally, everyone starts over in the 'E. It would be a good way to get someone who is semi-established over right away, but Vince likes to build guys from the ground up. Even if they're already built. Places like WCW or TNA wanted you to recognize that the guy was somewhat legit coming in the door. They didn't just drop them in the basement and have them claw their way up like in WWE. WWE likes to pretend other places don't exist. Just about everywhere else will usually allow any advantage a guy can use to get over, ESPECIALLY if they're a former champion in WWE.

This is right on. WWE considers earning the top title in another fed to be akin to completing an internship; you did well enough to win the confidence of that other promoter, but that just means Vinny Mac or Triple H will give a chance to intern at WWE.

[Morrisey]

Only former non WWE World Champions that should be recognised by WWE are WCW and UFC. TNA, ECW and ROH are too small scale to be considered "real" World Champions. Not too sure what I think about Japan.