Top 5 Transitional World Champions in WWE
Winning a Championship in WWE is every aspiring Superstar's dream. However, not everyone that gets signed by WWE is lucky enough to become a Champion, let alone a World Champion. A meaningful Title reign can surely add value to one's career and make it noteworthy.
A Champion in Professional Wrestling is considered to be the top Star of their respective divisions. For example, the United States and Intercontinental Champions are regarded as the Top Stars of the mid-card division. Same goes for the World, Women's and Tag Team Champions.
However, not every Champion is meant to rule the yard. Sometimes, a Title is given to a particular Superstar only for the time being, before another Superstar gets fully ready to win that title. Such Champions who hold a Title only for others to win it from them are called "Transitional Champions".
Over the decades, several Top Superstars have been transitional World Champions and here are 5 of them.
#5 John Cena (2014):
It's hard to grasp the fact that the 16-time World Champion John Cena has had several transitional Title reigns. The most prominent one of those was in the summer of 2014 after Daniel Bryan had to vacate the Title due to a career-threatening injury. While Daniel Bryan was enjoying his time as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, another Superstar was quickly climbing up the ranks. He was none other than the Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar had ended The Undertaker's undefeated Wrestlemania streak earlier that year. Having broken such a monumental streak, it was only a matter of time before the Beast could get his hands on a World Title. Lesnar was supposed to headline Summerslam that year and there was no WWE World Heavyweight Champion in June. So, the Title was put on Cena at Money in the Bank and the leader of Cenation held the Title for two months before dropping it to Lesnar. It was a huge moment for Lesnar as it was his first WWE Title win in over 10 years.