Ranking the WWE Champions of 2016
It goes without saying that the WWE Championship is the biggest championship in the history of the WWE as well as professional wrestling. Whether called the WWE World Heavyweight Championship or the Undisputed WWE Championship, that title has an illustrious history with a myriad of different athletes having held the belt.
This belt has been held by the biggest names in professional wrestling, from legends Bruno Sammartino and Superstar Billy Graham to the modern-day giants in the sport like John Cena and Brock Lesnar.
There have been men who weren’t as capable from an athletic standpoint like Andre the Giant and Kevin Nash, and there have been phenomenal athletes and great technical wrestlers to hold that belt like the late, great Eddie Guerrero and Daniel Bryan.
Each year only a select group of individuals hold this title, and their Championship reigns are heavily criticised and analysed by fans and viewed as a microcosm of the WWE product.
This year, only five men held the WWE Championship, and each one had something unique about their title reigns. The longest reign between these men will exceed 100 days and possibly more while the shortest reign has been less than 10 minutes.
These men were deemed worthy to hold the biggest title in professional wrestling, and their reigns have had a great influence on the WWE product this past year. With that in mind, this article will be ranking the best WWE Championship reigns between these five men over the past year from the worst to the best.
#5 Seth Rollins
This isn’t really Seth Rollins’ fault because the crowd was more than willing to accept him as the WWE Champion, but the fact that it lasted less than a day is why it has to be ranked dead last.
Rollins returned to the WWE at the Extreme Rules PPV, attacked Roman Reigns, and made his intention to pursue the WWE Championship known. His mantra of redesign, rebuild, and reclaim was based on his severe knee injury that forced Rollins to vacate the title without losing it in a match and laid the foundation for his inevitable return to the world title picture.
Rollins and Reigns went to war over this Championship and put on a fantastic match worthy of any professional wrestling award. Rollins’ reign as champion began when he defeated Reigns for the title and ended swiftly when Dean Ambrose cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase.
With only minutes as the reigning, defending WWE Champion, his reign can be described as nothing more than transitional.