6 Least memorable pro wrestling champions
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are that of the author himself and not necessarily of Sportskeeda.
Picture this moment: You're sitting around with some close friends watching a pro wrestling event on television. Maybe it's the WWE, or ROH, but it doesn't really matter which promotion. On screen, a wrestler pins his opponent and becomes a newly minted champion.
On rare occasions, every one of your friends will agree, but most of the time an argument will break out about whether or not the new champion is 'worthy' of holding a prestigious title belt. Both sides will have their opinions, and perhaps cite precedents about earlier champions in a similar mold, but in reality the only way to tell if someone was a worthy champion or not is by looking through the lens of history.
For a recent example, you can look at former NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa. When he first won the belt, many believed him to be unworthy, and that he would merely act as a transitional champion to put the NXT title on Johnny Gargano. However, fast forward to the recent past and pretty much everyone agreed that Ciampa might have been the greatest NXT champion thus far.
So, let us adjust the lens of history and scan back to yesteryear and ascertain seven pro wrestling champions who may not have been worthy of carrying the ten pounds of gold.
#1 Kevin Nash (Diesel)
The Man: Kevin Nash, wrestling as Diesel
The Time: November 26 1994
The Title belt: The "richest prize in sports entertainment," the WWE World Championship.
In a lot of ways, you almost can't blame WWE for putting forward Kevin Nash as their top guy in 1994. Bret Hart, their biggest star at the time, was off filming acting projects. Shawn Michaels was a cocky heel and a star on the rise, but had yet to truly prove himself on the main event stage. With Hulk Hogan gone to rival WCW, there wasn't much left in the way of marketable talent.
So, it was Kevin Nash who was pushed almost overnight from being a mere bodyguard to being the world champion. He defeated Bob Backlund, who had been built up as a serious threat for years, in less than eight seconds to collect his first--and thankfully, only--WWE World title reign.
Why he wasn't a memorable champion: Kevin Nash has always had a great look and tremendous size on his side. In later years, working for WCW, he was able to relax and express himself well on the microphone, but at the time in WWE he was relatively green at interviews.
Then you factor in that Nash has one of the most limited movesets in all of wrestling. When working with men like Bret Hart, he could deliver an adequate match, but his clashes with Sid Vicious and Backlund were less than stellar.
WWE officials were so worried about his match with King Mabel that they added the Ladder match between Razor Ramon and HBK to the show in hopes it would overshadow what was likely to be a terrible match (spoiler alert; it was, in fact, terrible.)
Nash just didn't have the tools at his disposal to be a worthy champion in 1994, and it showed.
Nash not only had a limited skill set, he was also consistently down with injuries which halted his progress as a WWE superstar. Right from his WCW days to the time the NWO members returned to the WWE, Nash had to endure a lot of pain and bad luck which eventually cost him his career as well.