5 Best WWE Superstars who only had one world title reign
The number of superstars with 10 or more world title wins in WWE can be counted on one hand. John Cena (16), Triple H (14), Randy Orton (12), Edge (11), and The Rock (10).
It should be noted that two of The Brahma Bull's world title reigns were with the WCW Championship during the Invasion angle. If you count WCW titles to it, then Hulk Hogan can be added to the list with 12, while Ric Flair comes in with 8 (the remaining 8 were with the NWA World Heavyweight title).
However, some fans might be surprised to see a list of legendary and incredible superstars from the Golden Era to the PG Era who are highly-revered but only have one world championship reign in WWE.
This list looks at five of the best names in WWE to only have one world title reign in the company.
#5. Kevin Owens - Only one world title reign in WWE in 2016-17
On this day in 2016, @FightOwensFight won the WWE Universal Championship #WWE #WWERaw #RAW #UniversalTitle #UniversalChampionship https://t.co/YuE4JZqghQ
It's hard to imagine that it's been close to five years since Kevin Owens' last WWE world title reign ended. Even his sole Universal Championship reign between 2016 and early 2017 happened due to Finn Balor's injury at SummerSlam 2016.
Owens had incredible momentum in the summer of 2016, and he was chosen to be the second Universal Champion. His reign turned out to be the best part of the post-brand split era of RAW, with SmackDown normally being the superior show that year from a quality standpoint.
However, the end of his Universal title run turned out to be a disappointment, as it ended at the hands of Goldberg in 22 seconds at Fastlane 2017. As it turned out, that was the peak of his WWE career as he never enjoyed the same level of success again.
While he won the United States Championship from Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 33 soon after, he wouldn't win another world title. He was a WWE or Universal title contender on multiple occasions since then, but he was never in a position to win.
KEVIN OWENS. That's it. That's the tweet. 🤯
#RoyalRumble #UniversalTitle @FightOwensFight @WWERomanReigns @HeymanHustle https://t.co/OtitCoOpr1
As of this writing, Kevin Owens' contract expires at the end of January 2022. There's no news yet on whether he will re-sign with the company, or if he has even been offered a contract in the first place.
Technically, KO is a former world champion in a past promotion, but this list is restricted to WWE.