10 Greatest WWE World Heavyweight Championship Reigns Of All Time | partsFUNknown
This series is sponsored by WWE 2K22! Order your copy today! https://2kgam.es/3tyWSiA
WWE 2K22 MyGM Ep8: THE CHAMPS RETURN! | Monday Night War | partsFUNknown
Who do you think is winning the upcoming PPV? Let us know in the comments!
#WWE #2K22 #MyGM
Luke (Raw) has his champions to use again, while Pete (SmackDown) tries to hold his show together with chewing gum.
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
Buy wrestling merchandise here: wrestleshop.com
Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/
WWE 2K22 MyGM Ep8: THE CHAMPS RETURN! | Monday Night War | partsFUNknown
Who do you think is winning the upcoming PPV? Let us know in the comments!
#WWE #2K22 #MyGM
Luke (Raw) has his champions to use again, while Pete (SmackDown) tries to hold his show together with chewing gum.
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
Buy wrestling merchandise here: wrestleshop.com
Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/
Category
🥇
SportTranscript
00:00 The World Heavyweight Championship, the Big Gold Belt, Eric Bischoff's gift to Triple
00:05 H, the most prized accolade in all of sports entertainment… sometimes.
00:10 Yeah, the spiritual successor to the WCW Championship had a bit of a spotty history during its 11
00:15 year life in WWE.
00:17 When it wasn't around the waist of Triple H, there was about a 50/50 chance that it
00:20 would be taken seriously as a legit world championship, routinely being subject to opening
00:24 pay-per-views during the final years of its life.
00:27 However, with the title sort of making its return to WWE this month, what better time
00:31 is there to look back on what was the best that the Big Gold Belt had to offer?
00:35 We will have our corresponding worst reigns of all time list, which was honestly much
00:39 easier to write, this poor belt, next week, but for now, I'm Tempest hailing from Parts
00:44 Fun Known, and these are the 10 Greatest World Heavyweight Championship Reigns of All Time.
00:48 But before we get on with our list, make sure of course that you like this video, subscribe,
00:52 and enable notifications to always on so you never miss a fun list just like it, and make
00:55 sure to check out the latest edition of Survival Series, where everyone here at PFK tries to
01:00 name every World Heavyweight Champion.
01:03 Number 10, Shawn Michaels Now I'm going to start this list by saying
01:06 there are not a lot of lengthy World Heavyweight Championship reigns, and even less of them
01:10 that are good.
01:11 Hence, why we get to highlight little 4-week gems like Shawn Michaels' lone World Title
01:16 reign post-retirement.
01:17 HBK's run with the belt may have only lasted from Survivor Series to Armageddon in 2002,
01:22 consisting entirely of three matches, but the matches were all good, and everyone was
01:26 still basking in the glory of Shawn Michaels' return from retirement.
01:30 Shawn's reign lasted just long enough for everyone to forget about his poop brown pants,
01:34 as he defended his title against Rob Van Dam in the main event of Raw 8 days later, before
01:38 dropping it back to Triple H in a fun 3 Stages of Hell match involving tables, ladders, and
01:43 fire, oh my.
01:45 It may not have been the longest reign of Shawn's career or in the title's lineage,
01:48 but what can I say, the Big Gold Belt was with HBK for a good time, not a long time.
01:53 Number 9, Edge's Second Reign Another iconic World Heavyweight Champion
01:57 with very few lengthy reigns is indeed the Rated-R Superstar, who despite having seven
02:03 separate shifts babysitting Big Gold, only ever surpassed 100 Days as Champion one time.
02:09 This time, in fact.
02:10 Edge's peak as a chicken sh*t heel was often marred by injury, and when it wasn't, he was
02:14 the guy who would trade the belt with WWE's top guys, as was the style at the time.
02:19 This reign, starting at Armageddon 2007 and lasting until WrestleMania 24, was probably
02:24 the single best World Title run of Edge's career, however.
02:27 He was the star of Smackdown, having made The Undertaker's life hell throughout 2007,
02:32 going to such measures to keep the title from the Dark Ruler, Hades, as career theft of
02:36 Stu the Cameraman, and cloning himself twice to win the title at Armageddon.
02:40 Now as the Champion, he had a fun rivalry with Rey Mysterio, which was the emotional
02:44 crux of the La Familia storyline, before handing the title off to Mean Mark Spookles at WrestleMania,
02:50 capping off an enormous 105-day reign.
02:53 Must have felt like a decade for the lad.
02:55 Number 8, Kurt Angle I wonder what the alternate timeline looks
02:59 like where Batista never gets hurt ahead of WrestleMania 22 and defends the World Heavyweight
03:02 Championship against Randy Orton.
03:04 We'll never know for sure, but what we do know is that in that universe, Kurt Angle
03:07 didn't have a banging main event match with The Undertaker at No Way Out 2006.
03:12 Kurt stepped up to win the vacant World Heavyweight Championship in the wake of Batista's injury,
03:16 and then proceeded to have a bad match with Mark Henry at the Royal Rumble, and even writing
03:20 this, the words "bad match" and "Kurt Angle" burn my mouth as I say them in the
03:24 same sentence.
03:25 But thankfully, rather than running that match back, Kurt quickly pivoted to The Undertaker.
03:30 It doesn't matter if it's 2000 or 2006, you put those two pros in the ring together,
03:35 and you are going to get a damn good match.
03:37 Kurt Angle was not a healthy boy in 2006, he will admit that himself, but god damn was
03:42 he having good matches.
03:43 This was peak wrestling machine Kurt Angle, and a man who makes the lineage of the World
03:48 Heavyweight Championship better just by being part of it.
03:51 Number 7, Mark Henry When asked what matches I would most like
03:55 to go back and experience life, I often do resort to my cliched answers of Omega vs.
03:59 Okada in 2018, or Rock and Hogan in Toronto, or a number of others, but one that always
04:05 sticks in the back of my mind is that of Mark Henry vs. Randy Orton from Night of Champions
04:10 2011.
04:11 No, the match itself isn't great, but the pop when Mark Henry, the man given character
04:16 so horrendous that WWE had hoped that he would quit, but he stayed anyway because he loved
04:21 wrestling, pinned Randy Orton to finally become World Heavyweight Champion, is electric.
04:26 Mark Henry's Hall of Pain run was by far the best run of his career, finally capitalizing
04:30 on his immense physical charisma to become one of the best monster heels the company
04:35 had seen in a very long time.
04:37 Again, his matches weren't great, outside of a few decent outings with the likes of
04:40 Big Show and Daniel Bryan, but this run just felt earned.
04:44 It was the perfect time for Henry to be champion, and if injuries hadn't cut this title run
04:48 short, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it would have ranked even higher
04:53 on this list.
04:54 Number 6, CM Punk's Second Reign CM Punk's first reign as World Heavyweight
04:59 Champion peaked on the very first night.
05:01 He got his big moment, and then proceeded to never main event a pay-per-view, regularly
05:05 be the top of the second hour segment of Raw, play fifth fiddle on the brand to Cena, Batista,
05:09 Jericho, and HBK, and then lose the title in a match he wasn't even in.
05:13 Not a reign that would make it on this list.
05:15 His second reign, however, that's a different story.
05:18 Many people weren't sure why WWE gave Punk money in the bank in 2009 after a lackluster
05:23 2008, but when he cashed in on the uber popular Jeff Hardy at Extreme Rules, he turned the
05:28 briefcase and the world title into the best piece of character work he had done in WWE
05:32 to that point.
05:34 Punk argued that he had done nothing wrong, doing the exact same thing he had done to
05:38 Edge the previous year that had all the fans cheering, but now they were booing him because
05:42 he did it to Hardy.
05:43 This response from the crowd sparked the first WWE heel turn of CM Punk, and by Night of
05:48 Champions, Punk was the straight edge savior and the biggest heel in the company.
05:52 This rivalry with Jeff Hardy would go on to win the Wrestling Observer's Award for Rivalry
05:56 of the Year, and I don't think it's unfair to say that this run saved CM Punk as a potential
06:01 main event guy in WWE years before the pipe bomb would send him into the stratosphere.
06:06 5.
06:07 Triple H's Third Reign During the first three years of the Big Gold
06:11 Belt's WWE resurrection, Triple H practically had a monopoly over it.
06:15 If he wasn't holding it, he was challenging for it, and unfortunately, this is not regarded
06:19 as a particularly good time for the title, Raw, or WWE in general.
06:23 However, potentially lost in the shuffle of Hunter's Reign of Terror was this reign,
06:28 his third of five reigns and I would say his most palatable.
06:31 Winning the title back from Goldberg at Armageddon 2003, this title win was the crown jewel in
06:36 Evolution's collection, completing the set of Raw Championships held by the group for
06:40 the start of 2004.
06:42 It was during this time that Trips had some solid matches, including his best match of
06:46 2003 on the final Raw of the year against Shawn Michaels, before continuing that rivalry
06:50 into WrestleMania, dropping it to Chris Benoit in the best move possible at the best time
06:55 possible.
06:56 And no, Chris Benoit is not featured on this list.
06:58 Sorry.
06:59 Triple H is who many people most closely associated with the Biggest and Goldest of Belts, and
07:03 thankfully, one of his five reigns was actually good enough to earn that distinction.
07:08 4.
07:09 Chris Jericho's First Reign Continuing a bit of a theme on this list of
07:12 short but incredibly effective reigns, Chris Jericho's career renaissance in 2008 was
07:17 staggering, ultimately being rewarded with the world title at Unforgiven.
07:21 He wasn't champion for too long, about a month and a half, before dropping it to Batista
07:25 at Cyber Sunday in a title change that still has Adam screaming into his clothes, "Go
07:29 watch Survival Series now," but Jericho's title reign was his first since losing the
07:33 Undisputed title at WrestleMania 18 six years earlier, and this time it was actually great.
07:38 Jericho was the best heel WWE had seen in many a moon, and his rivalry with Shawn Michaels
07:43 remains one of the best told stories the company has ever produced, and thankfully, they were
07:47 able to culminate that rivalry with the best match of that rivalry over the world title
07:51 in a ladder match at No Mercy.
07:53 This was the Observer's Match of the Year in 2008, and remains one of the best ladder
07:57 matches in WWE history, focusing on thoughtful storytelling and ramping excitement over a
08:02 barrage of flashy moves.
08:04 Jericho never had a long reign as World Heavyweight Champion, but his work with the belt was never
08:08 anything but top notch.
08:10 3.
08:11 Daniel Bryan It seemed impossible at one point in time
08:14 that Daniel Bryan, little internet darling Daniel Bryan, hated by Michael Cole on commentary
08:19 Daniel Bryan, fired on Night One of the Nexus Daniel Bryan, would ever be a world champion
08:25 in WWE.
08:26 However, that is exactly what happened when Bryan cashed in Money in the Bank on Big Show
08:30 at TLC 2011.
08:32 Could this have been the start of a great underdog babyface title reign?
08:35 I suppose, but ask Rey Mysterio how well those work out in WWE.
08:38 Instead, what we got was the beginning of Daniel Bryan as the best in the world on a
08:42 worldwide stage, the beginning of the "Yes" chant, not done as a rallying cry for his
08:46 legions of fans, but as a way to over-celebrate his victories, eventually turning himself
08:51 heel through sheer annoyance.
08:53 Bryan was always one of the best wrestlers the world had to offer, but this was the first
08:57 time he was able to really show his speaking ability, comedic chops, and main event wrestling
09:01 capabilities on the WWE level.
09:04 His title reign may have ended in perhaps the worst way possible narratively at WrestleMania
09:08 28, but ultimately it was the best thing that ever happened to him, turning the "Yes"
09:12 chant into the rallying cry for his legions of fans that we all know it to be now.
09:17 2.
09:18 The Undertaker's Third Reign
09:20 One of only but a few reigns on this list to actually crack 100 days, the MC of RIP
09:25 took hold of the World Heavyweight title at Hell in a Cell 2009, defeating CM Punk, and
09:29 held it all the way to February, losing it to Chris Jericho inside the Elimination Chamber
09:34 due to a rogue Shawn Michaels appearance.
09:36 For many years, SmackDown was considered "The Undertaker's Yard."
09:39 That was his show, but it was always more in a "you have to go one-on-one with the
09:44 Undertaker player" kind of way, making Undertaker seem like the omnipotent force that policed
09:48 the show from the heels that bothered Teddy Long, rather than the actual top wrestler
09:52 on the brand with the hardware to prove it.
09:55 His first two reigns as champion were short-lived, both starting at WrestleMania, only to then
09:59 last until just after Backlash the following month.
10:02 This reign was different, and saw Undertaker carry the brand as its champion for an extended
10:06 period of time, defending it on pay-per-view against the likes of Jericho, Rey Mysterio,
10:11 Batista, Big Show, and CM Punk.
10:13 This was also the last stretch of time where The Undertaker was a regular fixture on TV
10:17 every week, and he really made the most of it, reigning as a strong champion with a wide
10:21 range of good title defenses against varied challengers.
10:25 And Number One, Batista's First Reign
10:28 The longest reigning World Heavyweight Champion of all time, and it was meant to be even longer.
10:33 Even though I didn't watch it live, I have a very special place in my heart for Batista's
10:36 rise to the top of the card.
10:38 His rivalry with Triple H and Evolution was another of WWE's most successful stories,
10:43 and to crown a new world champion at WrestleMania and have that champion become a new megastar
10:47 is not a terribly common thing, let alone one that ends up having the best run anyone
10:52 ever had with the belt.
10:53 With title defenses such as his Hell in a Cell match against Triple H at Vengeance, my
10:57 personal pick for Batista's best ever match, and other highlights like his mini feud with
11:01 Eddie Guerrero in what would be Eddie's final ever pay-per-view match, Batista really
11:05 made the World Heavyweight Championship feel like his own.
11:08 Big Dave holding the big gold felt right this first time, in a way that it never really
11:12 did again with his later reigns often tainted by many, many injuries and way too many matches
11:17 with The Great Khali.
11:18 You'll hear about that next week.
11:20 This first reign captured a great moment at WrestleMania to end a great build, and then
11:24 followed up with the kind of work that WWE often so fails to put in with their new top
11:30 stars.
11:31 And that's our list!
11:32 Make sure of course that you like this video, subscribe and enable notifications to always
11:35 on and check out this clip from the latest episode of Survival Series.