Greatest Wrestler to never win a World Singles title

[Undertaker's Urn]

*spam removed*

 

I thought Hot Rod Piper was the greatest to not hold the world belt, but what do the wise men at Smart Marks think?

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS!]

Piper is a good one. Jake The Snake, Davey Boy Smith, Curt Hennig and Ted DiBiase are all worth mentioning.

[The Truthiness]

Curt Henning was a World Champion.

 

My Picks would be Dibiase, Tully Blanchard, Andre, Jake Roberts and Piper.

 

Honorable Mention to Magum TA, Arn Anderson, Dick Murdoch, Scott Hall, and Scott Norton.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS!]

I forget about the AWA Title. Ha!

 

Conversely, Andre was a World Champion.

[Cheech Tremendous]

We've done this thread so many times over the years. Here are the first ten that come to mind.

 

Ted Dibiase

Curt Hennig

Scott Hall

Roddy Piper

Paul Orndorff

Jake Roberts

Bam Bam Bigelow

Arn Anderson

Raven

Jeff Hardy

 

I don't count ECW or latter-day AWA as a legit world title.

[The Buzz]

Isn't the IWGP considered a world title? Scott Norton held that.

 

My pics would be Piper, Hall, Roberts.

[JST]

We've done this thread so many times over the years. Here are the first ten that come to mind.

 

Ted Dibiase

Curt Hennig

Scott Hall

Roddy Piper

Paul Orndorff

Jake Roberts

Bam Bam Bigelow

Arn Anderson

Raven

Jeff Hardy

 

I don't count ECW or latter-day AWA as a legit world title.

 

Raven has briefly held the NWA World championship in TNA.

 

[CanadianGuitarist]

Jake, Owen, Dibiase, Raven and Arn Anderson. Arn or Dibiase were the only ones I could really see with a world title, though.

[The Truthiness]

Raven is a former TNA and ECW World Champion.

 

 

I forgot Norton's IWGP title reign, I consider that a World title.

[Cheech Tremendous]

I don't consider ECW or TNA to be a world title, but your mileage may vary.

 

Thought of a few others:

 

Owen Hart

Rick Rude*

Nikita Koloff

British Bulldog

Magnum TA

Christian

Barry Windham*

Jerry Lawler**

 

 

*Depending on how you view the NWA title post-WCW split

**Depending on how you feel about latter-day AWA

[cabbageboy]

Lawler was the AWA champ, and I am going to include it. Was the AWA title ever stripped of world title status?

 

Two guys I am unsure of are Windham and Rude. Rude won the WCW Intl. world title, but I am unsure of how to consider that. For instance can we toss out Rude's title run and yet count the various post brand split champs in WWE? Or Windham's NWA title run?

 

This is easy to me: Davey Boy Smith. Bulldog won almost every other title he ever went for aside from the WWF (or WCW) world title. Won multiple tag titles. IC champ in 1992. First European champ in 1997. Got some DQ and non title wins over Vader in 1993 era WCW, but never quite won the world title from him. Actually had the title in his hands in 1996 during that crappy HBK feud, but never was technically the champ.

 

There's also Piper to consider, but for the most part Piper was more of a mic worker than a great wrestler. Still, he should have gotten the title from Hogan in 1996-97 even if it was to job it back.

[The Truthiness]

I don't consider ECW or TNA to be a world title, but your mileage may vary.

 

True, I don't consider TNA's championship a world title, but I think ECW earned the the right to be called such.

[The Ghost of bps21]

That doesn't make much sense seeing as TNA has worldwide penetration that the original ECW never had.

[blue2]

Da Bad Guy- Scott Hall , preferably as Razor Ramon

[King Kamala]

Lawler was the AWA champ, and I am going to include it. Was the AWA title ever stripped of world title status?

 

IIRC- PWI stripped it of its World title status at the bitter end of the promotion's run (Late '90/early '91).

[JST]

I repeat: Raven held the NWA World championship. When the agreement with TNA ended, the NWA stripped the title holders, true, but TNA just awarded the same men "their" titles. Same champions, different titles. So, Raven has been World champion of a major organization.

[Cheech Tremendous]

I repeat: Raven held the NWA World championship. When the agreement with TNA ended, the NWA stripped the title holders, true, but TNA just awarded the same men "their" titles. Same champions, different titles. So, Raven has been World champion of a major organization.

The NWA hasn't been a major organization since the the WCW split back in 1991. It's a glorified indy title.

[The Truthiness]

That doesn't make much sense seeing as TNA has worldwide penetration that the original ECW never had.

 

 

Yeah, but TNA wasn't dealing with the 2 biggest companies in the industry, it could be debated that at time the ECW title was probably more credible then the TNA title is these days.

[cabbageboy]

ECW's world champions largely sucked though. The TV title holders are a virtual who's who of wrestling, but Heyman always had the world title on guys who weren't exactly having good matches or anything. Hell, ECW did its best business in 1998 when Shane Douglas was an MIA world champion that never wrestled. That's how little the ECW world champion meant.

 

Here's the criteria for being considered a world title in my book:

 

--Is the show on national TV?

--Do they have PPVs all over the country?

--Does the champion occasionally defend overseas?

 

TNA clearly qualifies on all 3 counts.

[The Truthiness]

Raven or Taz didn't suck.

[bob_barron]

Cheech seems to discount any world title that hinders his argument.

[Cheech Tremendous]

Cheech seems to discount any world title that hinders his argument.

That's funny, I didn't realize that I was making an argument. I just listed great wrestlers who never held a world title. If you feel differently about ECW, TNA or AWA, that's fine. Just take them off the list. It's not like I care that much.

[Guest]

I agree with Cheech's position on the matter for the most part. TNA maybe counts, I'd have to think about that one for a while longer.

 

Me personally, I'd put Windham and Rude in the World Champion category.

[King Cucaracha]

TNA has national TV and PPV, has toured abroad and has TV coverage in a number other countries. How is it NOT a World Championship? They call it the TNA World Championship, thus surely it's a World Championship, hence the name? And, if you like, all the major news sites seem happy enough to recognise it as such.

 

What's the arguement against, exactly?

[King Kamala]

Here's the criteria for being considered a world title in my book:

 

--Is the show on national TV?

--Do they have PPVs all over the country?

--Does the champion occasionally defend overseas?

 

TNA clearly qualifies on all 3 counts.

 

Yeah, that's why I qualify TNA as a World title but not ECW. ECW fulfills the first two requirements (well...at least in the last year or two) but I don't think it fulfills the last one. I can't recall the ECW World Champion ever defending the belt overseas.

 

I also count AWA as a World Title up until the bitter end even though it didn't really fulfill that 2nd requirement (Regular PPVs weren't really feasible).

[Nighthawk]

Tanaka and Awesome never wrestled for it in Japan?

 

I thought I remembered them saying they did, but it may have been in reference to them feuding in FMW.

[Star Ocean 3]

TNA has national TV and PPV, has toured abroad and has TV coverage in a number other countries. How is it NOT a World Championship? They call it the TNA World Championship, thus surely it's a World Championship, hence the name? And, if you like, all the major news sites seem happy enough to recognise it as such.

 

What's the arguement against, exactly?

 

Cuz TNA suxx!!!

[lee_hero]

I don't consider ECW or TNA to be a world title, but your mileage may vary.

 

Thought of a few others:

 

Owen Hart

Rick Rude*

Nikita Koloff

British Bulldog

Magnum TA

Christian

Barry Windham*

Jerry Lawler**

 

 

*Depending on how you view the NWA title post-WCW split

**Depending on how you feel about latter-day AWA

 

Don't know how you feel about it's legit World Title status, but Lawler also held the World Class World Title. He won it in a unification match against Kerry Von Erich after defeating Curt Hennig for the AWA strap.

 

[Dobbs 3K]

Jerry Lawler could probably be considered the last meaningful AWA and World Class champion. After that, both belts and promotions pretty much lost their relevance. Plus, you can't really feel sorry for Jerry since he held his own promotion's belt like 30 times.

 

[lee_hero]

Agreed. He held probably a thousand Memphis territory titles in his career.

 

I always liked Lawler though. Hell I grew up watching him at the city park. He was involved in some of the best feuds I've ever seen, mainly Austin Idol.

 

It's a shame that Memphis never had good quality videos of the "Big" matches. They always occurred at the Mid-South Coliseum where they had the shittiest camera crew ever. A lot of the major matches are pretty much unwatchable by today's standards.