Grading: Undisputed Champions

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Hey guys.

 

In this topic I want to talk about the World Wrestling Entertainment Undisputed World Heavyweight Championship. The title was formed after the awful InVasion angle left the WWE with TWO World Champions. So, it was decided to unify the two titles in a 4-Man One Night Tournament at Vengeance. That night, Chris Jericho, seen by most fans as a glorified mid-carder, became the first Undisputed Champion. It should have signaled a new era in the WWE, and a vindication for Jericho who had been struggling to find main event credibility since Fully Loaded 2000.

But, instead office politics, and poor decison making, marred Jericho's reign. In his four-month reign he rarely defended the title on TV, and when he did he won only by outside interference, or intentional DQ. He was made to look like a very weak champion from his first defense. Despite this Jericho was an entertaining heel and, managed to keep crowd heat.

 

However, it was not meant to be.

 

At Royal Rumble 2002, Triple-H made his return and, won what is considered by many the worst Rumble in years. Ironically, Jericho also made his strongest title defense at RR, defeating The Rock to retain the Undisputed Title.

At No Way out, Jericho needed the entire n.W.o to win, although this is excusable since it was a sure-fire set-up to the seemingly perfect Austin vs. n.W.o feud. In the monthes to come however, there would be no excuses. Jericho vs. HHH, a proven money feud, became HHH vs. Stephanie with that Jericho guy helping her somewhere. The WWE writers gave him tons of WrestleCrap worthy stuff do to, including injuring HHH's dog on SmackDown! It was, in a word, a farce.

Not surprisingly, the HHH/Jericho match at WM X-8 was the least anticepated ME in WrestleMania history. HHH once again made Jericho look like a chump in an anti-climatic match, that was nowhere near as entertaining as Rock/Hogan or Austin/Hall for that matter.

Ironically HHH would prove to be the worst Undisputed Champion in the title's short history. He "retired" Stephanie, beat Jericho again, and lost to Hogan in his first PPV defense of the title at Backlash. Hogan had been built up as an under-dog looking for one last run with the gold. Although the program looked golden on paper, Hogan was a mediocre champ, who tanked in the ratings, and didn't help the slump in Public intrest at all.

At Judgement Day the title was taken off Hogan in favor of Undertaker. UT really couldn't spike ratings, but he was loyal, he was marketable, and he was the only monster heel who the fans would buy beating Hulk. The match was predictably awful, but it would soon be topped.

It's difficult for me to say that Undertaker's reign with the title was the best, but I guess he wins by default. Undertaker worked programs with RVD, Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle, Triple H, and The Rock in his two months as champ. No matter how bad booking was, the fans bought him as champ, and it showed. Jeff hardy was consideribly elevated after his matches with Taker. RVD's matches with Taker were awesome, and were the highlights of RAW whenever they were on.

Unlike Hogan and HHH, The Undertaker was victorious in his first Pay-Per-View defense. At King of the Ring, he defeated HHH despite interference from The Rock. The match itself was dreadful. But it's importance to the Undertaker's reign was awesome. Taker now looked even more dominant, and he was about to begin feuding with the biggest babyface in the company. The WWE wanted to insure that the main event at the upcoming PPV, (Ironically named Vengeance) was a solid match so they added Kurt Angle to the mix. For the first time since No Way Out there was real specualtion as to who would win the title.

At Vengeance, the Rock won a hard-fought Triple threat Match to become the fifth Undisputed Champion. However it was obvious at SummerSlam he would drop the title due to his movie schedule. And hie opponent had also been determined.

On RAW a few weeks before KOTR it was announced that the winner of the KOTR tourny got a title shot at SummerSlam. At KOTR, Brock lesnar pinned Rob Van Dam to win the tourny, and the title shot. Brock was Vince's golden boy, big, athletic, and intimidating. he was given a huge push despite little experience and mediocre crowd reaction. He was fed RVD, The Hardys, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair. Anyone who would get the crowds to boo him. He and The Rock began to play mind games in one of the most entertaining feuds of the year. Brock and Paul would provoke The Rock and then leave, or allow others to attack before Rock could retaliate. At SummerSlam, they will meet, all indicators point to Brock winning. But with the WWE you can never be sure.

And what kind of champ will Brock be? Well, with the kind of linage the title's had so far, he doesn't have to be very good to distinguish himself.

 

William McGuire

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Chris Jericho: C

He had a fantastic first half (A), and a horrible second half (F). Everyone knows the Jericho story by now.

 

Triple H: F

He beat a woman in his only successful defence, and lost the title to a 49 year old man. One of the worst title reigns I have ever seen. Ron Garvin level of bad.

 

Hulk Hogan: D-

Only because his only successful defence came against an actual wrestler (Jericho). Almost as bad as HHH.

 

Undertaker: B-

I liked the reign, but the match quality wasn't there, and it was still too short. Good for what it was.

 

The Rock: C+

Way to short, whether he loses tonight or next week, but the match quality was really good. I liked it to a degree, but I felt underwhelmed by it.

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

Me personally, I think Brock is gonna be the worst Champion (IF he wins) since Deisel.

 

As far as best, I like Jericho the most out of all of them. However, for the little month that Rock has been Champion, he has been pretty damn good.

 

Until I came to this board, I was a Rock "Hater" and wouldn't take off my "smark glasses" and actually see that Rock DOES have talent.

 

Sucks Rocky is leaving again. Never thought I would say this, but I'd like to see Rock keep the belt for a while since he's been having such good matches.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Is there any chance if I clean up the spelling errors, I can get that published on the main site along with everybody's grades?

[Guest The Superstar]

Jericho: B+. Best Undisputed Champion thus far.

 

Triple H: F. Incredibly weak title run.

 

Hogan: D. Was this nostalgia run really necessary?

 

Undertaker: B. Second to Jericho, I thought his run was awesome.

 

Rock: C+. He hasn't actually defended the title at all, but he's been working a match every single show since winning it. Of course because he's leaving after Summerslam.

 

Prediction, Brock Lesnar: D. He'll be keeping the title for a while, unfortunately.

[Guest Angle-plex]

Jericho- C

Triple H- D

Hogan - D

Undertaker -C (Didn't do anything great)

Rock- C

[Guest jimmy no nose]

Jericho-- C Decent run, but it ended pretty bad.

Triple H-- D- Short and pointless. He went over pretty much no one.

Hogan -- D Again, short and pointless, but he did beat Jericho, right?

Undertaker-- B- A decent run. I think the best yet.

Rock-- C Too short, but some good matches.

[Guest Anglesault]

Jericho: D-: I HATED the whole reign, I'm sorry.

Triple H: F: Just horrible.

Hogan: D-: Closer to HHH than Jericho, though

Undertaker: A-: Great reign, not so good matches.

Rocky: B: Too short.

[Guest HollywoodSpikeJenkins]

Jericho - B-

HHH - F(uck You Paul)

Hogan - F(uck You Vince AND Paul)

Taker - B+ (Best reign so far.)

Rock - B (Entertaining Matches with Eddy and Benoit)

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Jericho - C. I liked it at first before HHH decided Jericho had enough

HHH - D

Hogan - D. The only reason he had it was nostalgia.

Undertaker - A. Defended the title, and put over other young guys (although they were Jeff Hardy & Randy Orton)

Rock - F. No title defenses = F, regardless of the quality of his matches

[Guest the 1inch punch]

Undertaker - A. Defended the title, and put over other young guys (although they were Jeff Hardy & Randy Orton)

Pretty much my beliefs as well

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Jericho C (he got the bad end of booking/a shitty HHH, an unmotivated Austin and Stephanie being...while Stephanie...but he was gold for the first month...)

 

HHH F (Terrible...heatless...terrible)

 

Hogan D (He was over...I'll give him that)

 

Taker C+ (Worked with midcarders...but his only big defense was the worst match of the year. Best there has been though)

 

Rock F (Hasn't even defended it. Unless he wins tonight...waste of a title reign)

[Guest the 1inch punch]

At Royal Rumble 2002, Triple-H made his return and, won what is considered by many the worst Rumble in years.

Was it, i would have thought 99 had that one easy