Embarrassing Championship Reigns WWE Is Hoping You Forgot

Championship reigns are the measure of a wrestler's success in the eyes of many fans and when it comes to who WWE wants to be at the forefront of their brand it's a pretty good indicator. The problem comes in when WWE tries someone in a championship role and either they tank it, or the surrounding story and shenanigans make the reign an embarrassment. The list of great reigns is lengthy, but where there is bright light there may also come great darkness. WWE has shown that certain sections of its past are not well looked back upon, the company glossing over details to hide the terrible decisions of the day, or outright pressure-blasting the incident from history, the only records to be found if you dig deep into their network and know exactly what you're looking for. Although, why you're looking for shockingly un-fun wrestling memories we leave up to you.

Some of these examples come from very memorable superstars but highlight terrible career moments. Some of these reigns are just entirely bad from the moment the bell rung to signify the title win, all the way to the three-count that accounted for their dethroning. Others didn't even end and begin in matches, belts getting handed over and traded like pokemon cards and with the same level of respect, or the holder was someone so anathema to the championship that it was either damaged in credibility or eventually put out of its misery altogether. Consider these memories WWE's little shames, where they tried to get something or someone passed us as fans, and instead everyone involved would prefer it had never happened and wasn't spoken of again. So let's speak about it!

20 Jinder Mahal - WWE Champion

The most recent entry on this list and half the reason SmackDown Live spiraled into a hellish mess this past year. Jinder Mahal's reinvention as The Modern Day Maharaja alongside his lackeys in The Singh Brothers was a Khallas-al failure (sorry) and WWE already regrets the decision. Whatever motivation was behind the move, whether it was expanding into the Indian market or not, Jinder failed on every level a champion can fail at. Smackdown Live's ratings and attendance tanked.

His segments on the mic were passable at best but paint-by-numbers generic foreign heel stuff all the same.

His in-ring output didn't improve one iota from his days losing to El Torito in 3MB. When he defeated Shinsuke Nakamura at SummerSlam with a resounding thud of a reaction, WWE knew they'd bet hard on the wrong horse. Taking nothing away from his physical improvement, Jinder otherwise was WWE's worst champion of 2017.

19 Hornswoggle - Cruiserweight Champion

The fact that Hornswoggle was the last Cruiserweight Champion before the title was re-introduced in the Cruiserweight Classic Tournament tells you all you need to know about his reign. Not only did he win the title by inserting himself in a match he had no business in, he went on to hold the title absurdly for over two months, beating established stars en route to the title being deactivated when he was 'revealed' to be Vince McMahon's illegitimate son.

For fans of the Cruiserweights this was one of several signals that WWE didn't know how to use the division properly, but unlike other questionable champions like Chavo Classic and Jacqueline, Hornswoggle provided no entertaining moments or even viable matches that fans could enjoy without their eyes rolling in their heads. If the new Cruiserweight Championship ever falls this low again, it will be a massive shame and a condemnation of WWE's perpetually cursed division.

18 Randy Orton - WWE Champion (2017)

Perhaps it's overshadowed by the man he lost the title to in Jinder Mahal, but Randy Orton deserves plenty of scorn for his terrible Championship reign coming out of Wrestlemania 33. Not only did he win the title in an anti-climactic match marred by Bray Wyatt's stupid bug-projector fiasco, he then didn't defend it in a boring House Of Horrors match against Bray (which he lost), then followed that up by losing the title to Jinder at Backlash. There was nothing redeeming about this Championship reign and the SmackDown landscape would've been immeasurably better had Bray held the title through the year and remained on the blue brand. Instead, Randy had to get the big win that nobody wanted him to have.

With one bad reign, Randy ruined Bray's long-awaited first run with the belt, stunk up three PPVs in a row.

Actually, five if you count the Jinder Mahal rematches), lost the title to one of the worst WWE Champions of all time, and left SmackDown floundering for the rest of the year until AJ Styles tried to resurrect it. Anyone who can claim to remember a positive moment from this reign is either lying or has voices in their head.

17 Jack Swagger - World Heavyweight Champion

People may not remember it but Jack Swagger was actually a very credible and interesting ECW World Champion during his debut year. The reason they may not remember that is twofold. First, they may not have ever known he was ECW Champion because of that brand's lackluster promotion and dwindling audience, and the second reason is that his World Heavyweight Championship reign after cashing in the Money In The Bank briefcase was horrendous.

For a brief moment when he actually cashed in and won the Championship, he showed a glimpse of the cocky athlete character he'd been in ECW, but that soon was overshadowed by stupid segments where he had a mascot in an eagle suit following him. On top of that, his title defenses weren't up to snuff and his pronounced lisp seemed to return anew, making his promos hilariously ineffectual. All in all, he is one of the few superstars to be a World Champion in WWE and manage to fall all the way back to the bottom of the totem pole. Several restarts of his career were attempted, most notably the 'Real American' push, but that first terrible World Heavyweight reign hung over his career until the end.

16 Dolph Ziggler - World Heavyweight Champion (2011)

Dolph Ziggler's Money In The Bank cash-in for the World Heavyweight Championship may be one of the best Raw moments of all time, but WWE would prefer you to think that it was, in fact, his first and only World Championship reign. Unfortunately, Dolph had a cup of coffee with the 'big gold belt' before, and it was a complete joke.

Running around as Vickie Guerrero's 'business associate' he was challenging then-champion, Edge around the start of 2011.

After losing a championship match where Edge's spear was banned, Vickie Guerrero stripped Edge of the title for using the move behind the ref's back and simply awarded it to Dolph Ziggler who celebrated as if he hadn't just had one of the formative moments for a wrestler skipped like a boring video game cutscene. In short order, Teddy Long returned as GM, ordered an immediate rematch, and Edge regained the title. Ziggler's brief brush with the championship did more harm than good and is never mentioned.

15 Rey Mysterio - WWE Champion

Rey's single hour as WWE Champion may be rough to pick on due to its brevity, but the reason WWE doesn't want you to remember it is that it involved an essentially 'interim' championship and was ended by John Cena displaying one of the least babyface characteristics imaginable. After Rey Mysterio won his way to the finals of the WWE Championship tournament to crown a new champion in the wake of CM Punk walking out with the title, Rey defeated The Miz for his sole time with WWE's greatest prize.

Cena derailed all the goodwill that moment conjured up by activating his rematch clause (technically for the wrong title) that same night, forcing Rey to wrestle twice in two hours, stealing the championship away from WWE's greatest ever high-flyer.

The combination of Cena's selfishness, Rey's complicity in his own demise, and the foul taste left in fans' mouths by WWE hot-shotting past something good for the sake of rushing into the CM Punk return was an early sign that the 'Summer Of Punk' wasn't going to end well, as it started with a terrible Rey Mysterio championship "reign".

14 Jillian Hall - Divas Champion

Another championship reign that didn't last the length of the show it happened on, Jillian Hall was one of WWE's batch of 'so annoying it must be great' characters. From her initial appearances where she had a massive brown growth on the side of her face, she transitioned into a bad pop-singer gimmick which somehow led her to win the Diva's Championship off of Mickie James.

Not only did she try a terrible song in the few minutes she held the title, she was interrupted by Raw Guest Host Nancy O'Dell who made her defend it against a returning Melina.

The definition of a transitional reign, Jillian spent the few minutes she held the title annoying every fan in the arena and watching at home, struggling to even hold the belt properly, and generally reinforcing the notion that the Diva's Championship was an all-around worthless decoration instead of a revered championship title.

13 Rey Mysterio - World Heavyweight Champion

Rey Mysterio doubles down on terrible title reigns in this list, and we could honestly have gone for three, but we'll lump his two World Championship reigns together for simplicity. If you're wondering why we don't refer to Rey as World 'Heavyweight' Champion, that's because that is exactly what WWE did to him in between losing non-title matches to The Great Khali and Mark Henry. WWE didn't understand that he was champion of the heavyweights (ie: everybody), not that holding the title made him a heavyweight himself.

That one small aspect alone was bafflingly stupid but the way they made Rey, who had made a career of overcoming comparative giants his whole career, suddenly being squashed multiple times only furthered the hole they dug. By the end of the first run, fans were ultimately glad it was over as besides the initial cathartic victory it served only to worsen Rey. His second reign was simply a transitional one from Jack Swagger to Kane and is completely forgettable except they once again undercut his reign by removing 'heavyweight' from his title. All in all, WWE likes you to know that Rey is a former champion, but under no circumstances do they want you to remember the actual reign's content.

12 Vince McMahon - ECW Champion

Unlike Vince's WWE Championship run which made sense during that chaotic time, his ECW Championship run damn near single-handedly ended that title's credibility. As the infamous 'Do-Rag Vince' phase settled in after he swindled the title off of Bobby Lashley, we were treated to a couple of months of Vince strutting around like a fool. Parroting African-American stereotypes in his effort to bring attention to ECW only distanced fans from wanting to watch the show.

Fans of the original ECW felt like it was a kick in the teeth seeing Vince representing their brand, even if it was only in name.

Fans of the new ECW (all dozens of us!) were still clamoring for CM Punk over Lashley and so the continued focus on Bobby and Vince made us grind our teeth down to the gums. A dark time for a zombified brand, it felt like the entire exercise was pointlessly antagonistic. Vince's portrayal now makes recalling that time a 'no-no' for the current era WWE as well.

11 Ezekiel Jackson - Intercontinental Champion & Last ECW Champion

Ezekiel Jackson debuted in one of the more interesting ways for a man his size. Flanking the diminutive 'The' Brian Kendrick and seeming to be more than a muscle-bound simpleton, his reigns as champion in ECW and on SmackDown sadly disproved that. WWE repeated one of their common mistakes when they took the ECW Championship off of Christian on the final show to bump interest in Ezekiel Jackson, much like they'd shelved CM Punk in favor of Bobby Lashley years earlier.

He immediately vacated the now-defunct championship and the next year dethroned his stable-mate Wade Barrett for the Intercontinental Championship, going on to hold it for less than two months while accomplishing next to nothing. Both reigns were designed to promote the physically impressive Jackson but instead revealed his limited skillset. WWE would much prefer you remember Christian as the last ECW Champion and that the Intercontinental Championship isn't seen as such an afterthought as it was on Ezekiel's shoulder.

10 John Cena - WWE Champion (2017)

Cena may be bumping up against the record for most world championship reigns (if you accept WWE's numbers) but his last one was an exercise in busywork to inflate his number. He beat AJ Styles in a great match (or a standard AJ Styles match) at Royal Rumble '17 and held the title for all of two weeks before losing it in the Elimination Chamber to Bray Wyatt. That match was also great, but there was a problem.

The reign itself was so perfunctory and clearly only for Cena's number-bump that WWE has quickly stopped any mention of the circumstances around it.

WWE may be obsessed with making Cena 'The Greatest Of All Time' on paper, but when they keep serving up meaningless moments where he short-circuits other people's momentum with no upside in entertainment it leaves a sour taste and illustrates the still prevalent frustrations with his character.

9 Chavo Guerrero- ECW Champion

Clearly a consolation reign, what it did to the still viable ECW Championship and brand essentially signaled the end of ECW over everything else. No one took Chavo Guerrero seriously as a World Title level wrestler, his ability in the ring and charisma just seemed mid-card at best in WWE. When he stole the championship from CM Punk while everyone just wanted to see Punk reign for a good long time, it lost fans left and right. When he lost the title at Wrestlemania XXIV to Kane in ignominious fashion, pinned in a matter of seconds without so much as a contest, the reign was cemented as one of the worst and worthy of being stricken from the record books. With Chavo basically lowering the title by holding it at that time, WWE wishes they'd not made the mistake.

8 Big E - Intercontinental Champion

Big E was rumored to be Vince' McMahon's initial choice over Roman Reigns for the 'chosen one' slot, and towards that effort, Big E was given a token Intercontinental Championship reign on Raw that he failed to do anything with.

Big E winning a big belt is a certainty once New Day runs its course. His ability on the mic and comfort he's developed onscreen in the faction has all but guaranteed him future success. Unfortunately, there's no story of success towards, say, a United States Championship because his mediocre run with the Intercontinental belt indicates that instead of a step up this would be a step sideways or even backward.

Often forgotten that he was the second ever NXT Champion, Big E has proven his entertainment value and due to his size and strength is the easiest of the three to imagine grappling for World Championship gold. However his path there is a little rockier because of that past failure and WWE would sooner have everyone forget that Big E technically failed his first singles push assignment.

7 Renee Dupree & Kenzo Suzuki - WWE Tag Team Champions

The moment a tag team championship really begins to lose its value is when nonsensical pairings happen to wander into the division and become champions despite negative amounts of talent. Such is the tandem of Renee Dupree and Kenzo Suzuki from Smackdown's tag team division circa 2004.

This pair of generic 'foreigners' came together out of nowhere and dethroned the future record holders for SmackDown's longest tag reign of the era, London, and Kendrick.

Displaying negative chemistry and clearly thrown together due to boredom or as a dare, they chugged along for three months in embarrassing matches with far better teams. By the time they lost the belts to Rey Mysterio and Rob Van Dam the Smackdown crowds had almost lost interest in the entire division.

6 Sycho Sid - WWE Champion

The Master And The Ruler Of The World is one of the enigmas of wrestling history, possessing an amazing 'look' while also having some of the funniest (and most brutal) botches across his time as well. This extends to his WWE Championship reign in 1997 where he won the championship from Bret Hart due to Stone Cold interference, and then lost the title to The Undertaker in a lacking WrestleMania 13 obliterated by injuries and circumstances.

What made this reign destined to be one for the please-forget-it-pile is the way it was never supposed to happen (Bret vs. HBK 2 was the plan) and when it did Sid managed to be thoroughly underwhelming. On top of all of that, a rumor persists to today that either before or at WrestleMania Sid soiled his trunks as Undertaker lifted him for a tombstone. That's the kind of stain WWE immediately wants forgotten about with their title holders.

5 David Arquette - WCW World Heavyweight champion

No list of reigns that need to be forgotten can skip the infamous David Arquette WCW travesty that as much as anything spelled doom for the company. Pulled into the WCW eco-sphere as part of cross-promoting the Ready To Rumble movie (which everyone involved also wishes to be forgotten), Vince Russo thought it was a good idea to have a skinny, unathletic, C-lister capture the big gold belt.

Not only did this rupture fans immediately as whatever investment they had in the belt was mocked openly onscreen, it lessened every competitor who was vying for the gold as well.

If WWE wasn't committed to giving comprehensive coverage to their WCW library we'd expect this part of wrestling history to be locked in the vault forever unseen, only occasionally opened again to make sure it hadn't escaped.

4 Chris Jericho - The Undisputed WWE Champion

WWE is fine with fans remembering the fact that Chris Jericho was the first man to unify the major world championships, but the reign was perhaps the worst of the era in spite of that achievement and they wish the details remained lost to history. After winning the championships with plenty of help and interference Jericho went on to become Stephanie McMahon's lapdog, to her lapdog!

In some strange decisions, the Triple H feud centered more around McMahon drama with Stephanie than Jericho, to the point he was a distant third wheel.

Not even carrying the pair of giant gold belts on each shoulder helped as Jericho spent weeks carrying her stupid little dog, cleaning up its messes, and generally making their upcoming WrestleMania match a dud before they even laced their boots for it. When Rock vs Hogan blew out the WrestleMania X8 crowd and left the main event nothing to work with, it was the sad end to a reign WWE glosses over every chance they get.

3 Rob Van Dam - WWE & ECW Champion

One of the purest shames in WWE history is the fact that Rob Van Dam's long road to the top came to such a rotten end. Many cite the One Night Stand '06 PPV main event as a great match, but the truth is that the in-ring action never got out of first gear due to preoccupation with the crowd and Edge's interference undercutting the moment of RVD's victory. From there it was a mere three weeks of RVD forgetting his vow to toss the stupid 'Spinner' WWE Championship, then getting caught in his car smoking up with Sabu, leading to him dropping both titles on back to back episodes of Raw and ECW.

After such a long wait for a beloved babyface to finally crest the mountain, RVD's simultaneous reigns came crashing to nothing.

This reign was so bad that it tarnished RVD's legacy in WWE, stopping him ever getting another chance with the belts and meaning that he is forever relegated below the level for which his talent warranted.

2 Otunga & McGillicutty - World Tag Team Champions

During the darkest times of the tag team division when there were almost no teams to speak of and no matches worth watching, along came this pair of underachievers. Somehow, both Otunga and McGillicutty have held other gold in WWE, but when paired together as a third string championship pair from The New Nexus they embarrassed the WWE with McGillicutty's lame swagger and Otunga's inability between the ropes to perform at championship levels.

Both men are indicative of bad WWE policies, Otunga likely employed for so long due to his famous former wife and the current Curtis Axel a legacy superstar who hit his ceiling as a lackey. So pointless was this team, that the stable they were in disbanded while they continued to hold the gold. WWE doesn't want attention brought to this pairing due to its proximity to CM Punk's ascension that essentially abandoned The New Nexus, as well as just generally being one of the worst teams ever.

1 Orlando Jordan -United States Champion

Orlando Jordan's United States Championship reign needs to be forgotten for such a strange combination of reasons that it had to top the list. Firstly, it was just outright bad, coming off of the back of JBL's Cabinet faction running all over Smackdown, he couldn't put on a good match of note. He held the title for far too long, a mind-bogglingly average 173 days of below-average matches and worthless angles.

The topper that takes this from embarrassingly bad to 'must-be-scrubbed-from-history' is how it ended. Engaging in a feud with Chris Benoit, Orlando Jordan somehow managed to have one of the worst PPV title defenses possible, getting 'boring' chants and stinking the house out against someone who rarely had a bad match. Not only was the match bad, but he won again, extending his horrendous reign as the crowd seemed to give up on the title completely. To finish off the parade of insane, WWE had him follow up the next night by losing in a comically short match to Benoit, making the previous night moot. Too little too late, and involving someone WWE never wants to talk about, all while wasting a championships legacy for nearly half a year, Orlando Jordan's US title reign would be mind-wiped if WWE had the technology.

NEXT: Ranking All 50 WWE World Champions From Worst To Best