To be a champion in professional wrestling is a goal not many accomplish. To be a world champion in professional wrestling is something even fewer are able to accomplish. In the WWE, there have been three different World Title belts. Those belts being the World Heavyweight Championship, Universal Championship, and the WWE Championship. There have been many great champions over the years that have earned those belts and a place in wrestling history.

Men like Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Steve Austin, and The Rock have all held the honour of being the WWE Champion. Men like Edge, The Undertaker, and Booker T have held the honour of being World Heavyweight Champion. And in it's two year history, men such as Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, and Goldberg have been Universal Champion. However that is all on the positive side of the spectrum.

These men have brought a level of distinction and legitimacy to the championships they held. Sometimes there is a time in each year where many fans ask the question "why on earth is this man World Champion?". Or, you may look back at a reign and say to yourself "Wow that was really pointless". Sometimes there may even be an injury that cuts a title reign way shorter than it was supposed to be.

Here are 15 of the worst World Title reigns since 2000.

19 2000: Big Show

Big Show held the WWE title for all of 3 days in the year 2000. However, his reign in late 1999 makes it hard to leave him off the list. His reign began at Survivor Series 1999 where in his second match of the night he defeated both The Rock and Triple H in a triple threat match after filling in for an injured Steve Austin. After beating two of the biggest stars at the time one would think that Big Show was going to become a bigger star than the both of them. Sadly, this was not the case. At the next pay-per-view, Big Show faced the Big Boss Man in a 3 minute match that saw him victorious. Big Show was not even in the main event of his first pay-per-view as champion.

Less than a month after his first pay-per-view title defense, Show dropped the title to Triple H on the first Raw of the new millennium.

Many would consider Show's run to be a transitional period. Big Show would go on to take part in the main event of WrestleMania 2000. He, The Rock, Cactus Jack, and Triple H would compete in a Fatal 4-Way elimination match for the WWE Championship. On top of that, there was a McMahon in every corner with Shane representing Big Show. Big Show was the first man eliminated.

18 2001: Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho was an ultra fan-favourite among wrestling fans. Fans enjoyed Jericho's rock-star persona, his promo work, as well as his fabulous ring work. Fans hoped that Jericho would be given the opportunity to be a part of the upper echelon of wrestlers the WWE had. In late 2001, Jericho was given that opportunity. In the same night, Jericho earned pinfall victories over both The Rock and Steve Austin to become the first ever WWE Undisputed Champion. The company strapped the rocket to Jericho and it seemed as if he was going to become a top star.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. Jericho wrestled way too many matches during his title reign, and whenever he would win it was never clean. At WrestleMania X8, Jericho faced the returning Triple H in feud centred around Triple H and Stephanie McMahon opposed to Jericho the champion. Jericho's reign also came to an end that night. Afterwards, Jericho was dropped out of the main event picture quicker than a hot potato. He was  not even featured on the next pay-per-view. He and Triple H had a blood feud after Triple H dropped the title to Hulk Hogan. The feud culminated in Triple H performing the pedigree on Chris Jericho on top of the Hell in a Cell.

17 2002: Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan made his long awaited return to the WWE in early 2002 as a member of the newly reformed New World Order. He, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall ran roughshod over the WWE leading up to WrestleMania X8. Hogan would lose to The Rock but would make his face turn after the match. Hogan earned a shot at the WWE Championship against Triple H at Backlash 2002. He picked up the victory and had his first reign with the WWE Title in almost 10 years. Hogan then had a feud with The Undertaker leading up to Hogan's defense of the title at Judgement Day 2002.

Hogan's reign would come to an end after being on the receiving end of one of the worst choke slams in history. This reign lasted a mere 28 days and is just blip on the legendary career of Hulk Hogan. Surprisingly, Hulk Hogan would fall out of the main event scene and became essentially a mid card act. He and Edge won the WWE Tag Titles from Billy and Chuck on an episode of Smackdown. Edge and Hogan would drop the titles to the Un-Americans. Hogan's last appearance on WWE television in the year 2002 saw him mauled by Brock Lesnar and left a mangled mess. Hogan would return in early 2003.

16 2003: Triple H

Triple H in the year 2003 was one of the most difficult and frustrating wrestlers during this time period. He was awarded the World Heavyweight Title in late 2002 and other than losing it to his pal Shawn Michaels in late 2002, had a seemingly never-ending grasp on the title. During his reign, a case could be made that he should have lost the title to everyone he defended against. He first defended against Rob Van Dam who was incredibly over yet Triple H won. Then he fought Kane in a feud where Triple H made him look dumb and Triple H still came out victorious.

At WrestleMania XIX he wrestled Booker T in a one-sided feud that Triple H still managed to go over in.

Last but not least, Triple H gave Goldberg his first pinfall loss in WWE SummerSlam 2003. By the time WWE had Triple H drop the title it was far too late. Goldberg had seemingly lost some of his steam and appeal to the audience. After a mediocre reign he would drop the title back to Triple H. Triple H would hold the title until WrestleMania XX. Triple H's boring 2003 reign in which he held many others down is a great reason for him to end up on the list.

15 2004: JBL

JBL made the transition from a beer-drinking redneck to a Wallstreet businessman with a few weeks in the year 2004. After the transition was made he was pushed to the moon. JBL defeated beloved wrestler Eddie Guerrero for WWE Title at The Great American Bash pay-per-view. JBL then began a long, drawn-out, Triple H-like championship reign. The longer-and-longer the reign went the more people wanted him to lose the title. He developed one of the more ineffective stables in wrestling, JBL's cabinet. His stable featured Orlando Jordan and The Basham Brothers. JBL has the third longest WWE Title reign in the 2000's behind John Cena and CM Punk.

His reign ended at WrestleMania XXI to the next man on the list. This reign would be JBL's one-and-only run with the World Title. He became just another wrestler on Smackdown. His cabinet split up and was given future bad singer and Diva's Champion Jillian Hall. The two had minuscule success on Smackdown. JBL would win the US Title at WrestleMania XXII, but would drop it soon after. He faced Rey Mysterio at Judgement Day 2006 and enter a short retirement until 2008. Until his return in 2008, JBL did color commentary for Smackdown alongside Michael Cole.

14 2005: John Cena

At WrestleMania XXI, John Cena earned his first reign for the WWE Title after he defeated JBL. He was universally loved by fans at this time as was genuinely entertaining and a joy to watch on TV. When he would finally go on to win the title, many fans were looking to see on of their faves have a great run on top of the company. No one expected that it would be the beginning of a never-ending strangle hold of the main event scene. WWE changed Cena's character completely and instead of the brash and entertaining John Cena we got the John Cena we know today.

Fans began to boo this character immediately and every time he defended the title the fans hoped to see him lose it.

Whether it was against Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, or Shawn Michaels, fans hoped to see him drop the title. Ironically, both Cena and JBL held the title for 280 days. Cena's reign came to an end after Edge became the first superstar to cash in the Money in The Bank briefcase. Unfortunately for Edge, Cena won the title back almost immediately and defended it successfully in the main event of WrestleMania XXII against Triple H.

13 2006: Rob Van Dam

Rob Van Dam missed almost all of WWE in 2005 to repair his knee. Almost all WWE fans would agree that he was not utilized correctly in his run prior to winning the title. Similar to Daniel Bryan today, Van Dam had a cult of fans and wanted to see him in a prominent position in the company. Van Dam won the second ever Money in the Bank Ladder match at WrestleMania XXII. At the second ever One Night Stand pay-per-view he defeated John Cena for the WWE Title. He was also given the ECW Championship when it was brought along as a third brand. Van Dam's title reign was incredibly disappointing.

He was suspended after he and Sabu were pulled over and found to be in violation of the WWE wellness policy. Van Dam lost the WWE Title to Edge and the ECW Title to Big Show in back-to-back nights making his reign on of the most lacklustre of all time. Van Dam was forced back into mid card hell in ECW. He would never come back to sniffing a world title and took place in the dreadful Extreme Elimination Chamber at December to Dismember 2006. Van Dam's 6 year run with WWE came to an end in 2007 and would mainly work in the indies until joining TNA in 2010.

12 2007: Triple H

Triple H makes his second appearance on the list, but this time it's for the WWE Championship. He made his return from his second quadriceps surgery at SummerSlam 2007. After defeating Carlito at Unforgiven of that year he was scheduled for a match against Umaga. On the other side of the equation there is Randy Orton. Orton was involved in a feud with John Cena. On the Raw prior to the No Mercy event Cena was injured and forced to vacate the WWE Title. Vince McMahon awarded the Title to Orton and Triple H challenged Orton to a match in which he was victorious.

Triple H wrestled his scheduled match against Umaga and was again victorious. In his third match of the night Triple H and Orton re-matched in a Last Man Standing match where Orton won his championship back. Both Orton and Triple H had a reign that lasted less than a day on that night. At Backlash 2008, Triple H would win the WWE Title back from Randy Orton and held it  all the way until Survivor Series of that same year. It's safe to say he made up for the lost time in which he did not have a world title.

11 2008: CM Punk

CM Punk was brought up to the main roster in 2006 and according to the man himself he was expecting to be released not to long after he was called up. Luckily, Punk was wrong and was obviously able to make a decent name for himself in the WWE. WWE believed in Punk to the point where they gave him the Money in the Bank briefcase in 2008 at WrestleMania XXIV. Punk cashed in the briefcase on an episode of Raw and to the surprise of many won the World Heavyweight Title. After that winning the belt, it seemed as if they refused to let Punk be successful.

He had two pay-per-view matches against Batista and JBL and both matches were saw Punk retain in lacklustre ways. Punk was also never pinned for the title as he was attacked by Legacy and forced to vacate it. Jericho would go on to win the title later in the night in a Championship Scramble match. Punk would become the first superstar to win the Money in the Bank match twice as he would do so at WrestleMania XXV. He would cash in on Jeff Hardy and win his second World Heavyweight Championship. This would also mark the beginning of a phenomenal heel run.

10 2009: Batista

Batista's career was one that was riddled with several injuries. He was what John Cena's character should have been. A babyface character with a lot of "edge" to it. In 2009, he was just floating around the main event scene. He received a title shot at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view against Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. Because of the pay-per-view being Extreme Rules, the match took place inside of a steel cage. Batista would be victorious, but was forced to vacate after a torn left biceps. This would make the second time in Batista's career he would be forced to vacate because of a legitimate injury. Randy Orton would win the vacate WWE Championship back on an episode of Raw.

Batista would make his return later in the year as a member of the Smackdown brand.

During Batista's Smackdown run he turned heel for the first time in 5 years. He unleashed a brutal beat down on Rey Mysterio. He then lost a Chairs Match to the Undertaker by disqualification. Batista would regain the WWE Championship to John Cena at the Elimation Chamber pay-per-view only to drop it back to Cena at WrestleMania XXVI. After 2 straight pay-per-view losses to Cena, Batista would leave the company until 2014.

9 2010: Jack Swagger

Jack Swagger's first push in the main event scene came in 2010. He would win the Money in the Bank Ladder match after taking seemingly forever to unlatch the briefcase. The following Smackdown, Swagger changed brands and cashed in his briefcase on Chris Jericho winning his first and only World Championship. The year prior to this Jack Swagger was a complete jobber on Raw. He hardly got any victories and it came as a complete shock to me at least to see him win not only the ladder match but successfully cash in as well.

During his reign, he defeated Randy Orton at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view and he and Big Show went to a disqualification at the Over the Limit pay-per-view. At the Fatal 4-Way pay-per-view, he would lose to Rey Mysterio ending his reign after about two months. Swagger would seamlessly go back to the mid card on Smackdown. Swagger would be given a second chance at a main event push in 2013. He was paired with Zeb Colter and they were attempting to get all of the illegal immigrants out of America. Swagger faced Alberto Del Rio and lost after not even getting a full WrestleMania entrance.

8 2011: Rey Mysterio

Rey Mysterio was caught in the middle of CM Punk's legendary storyline where he was walking out of the company. Punk and John Cena faced off in WWE's last main roster five-star match at Money in the Bank 2011. CM Punk came out victorious and left through the crowd with the WWE Title in hand. The next night on Raw a tournament was made to crown a new WWE Champion. The tournament featured superstars such as Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, R-Truth, The Miz, Alex Riley, Kofi Kingston, Alberto Del Rio, and lastly Rey Mysterio.

Mysterio defeated Ziggler in the first round and R-Truth in the second round leading to a final match between The Miz and Mysterio the next week on Raw. To open the show, Rey Mysterio defeated The Miz to win his first ever WWE Championship. John Cena defeated Mysterio later in the night making his title reign less than a day. Soon after losing the title, Mysterio would get injured and miss the rest of 2011. In early 2012 Mysterio would receive his second Wellness Policy Violation and was suspended for 60 days. He came back in late 2012 and was placed in a tag team with Sin Cara. The team would lack much success.

7 2012: Sheamus

After every internet dirtsheet site predicted Chris Jericho winning the 2012 Royal Rumble match, the WWE changed their plans to have Sheamus winning. Sheamus was doing his best as a babyface character but was a very boring character. At WrestleMania XXVIII, Sheamus faced Daniel Bryan, who despite being heel was still very well-liked by most fans. The crowd in Miami received a huge surprise when Bryan was defeated in 18 seconds. So not only was Sheamus struggling to get over as a face, they did him no favours by having him squash Daniel Bryan. During this reign faced Alberto Del Rio four different times over the course of four different pay-per-views.

His 211 day reign came to an end after losing to Big Show at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view.

Sheamus would then receive a major demotion and never maintain a main event position again in WWE. Sheamus went from a prominent position as World Heavyweight Champion to opening WrestleMania 29. He would feud with other mid card acts like Mark Henry and Damien Sandow until a torn labrum left him out of action until 2014. He returned during the Royal Rumble in 2014 and was placed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal for that year and was in the final four.

6 2013: Dolph Ziggler

Dolph Ziggler in 2018 is the complete opposite of Dolph Ziggler in 2013. In 2013, the audience tuned in to Ziggler and were very interested in whatever he was involved in. In 2018, the fans turn the channel whenever Dolph Ziggler is on television. Ziggler like so many others on the list was a Money in the Bank briefcase winner in 2013. He held the briefcase from the 2012 Money in the Bank pay-per-view to the Raw after WrestleMania. Ziggler cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase on Alberto Del Rio after going through a match with Jack Swagger.

Ziggler would successfully cash in and hold the title for 70 days. During this time he did not successfully defend the title once as he was concussed during an episode of Smackdown. In his first defense he would lose the title back to Alberto Del Rio. Dolph Ziggler's career would proceed to fall off a cliff. He lost his bodyguard in Big E and his valet in AJ Lee. He would never sniff a World Title again. Ziggler would go on to win several mid card titles but the fans would never garner the same interest they had in Ziggler in 2013. Lately, Ziggler's been paired with Drew McIntyre with the hopes of having fans care about him once again.

5 2014: Daniel Bryan

Daniel Bryan's recent return to in-ring action has fans forgetting his awful reign after WrestleMania XXVIII, but here's a quick reminder. Daniel Bryan had members of his "Yes Movement" hold Raw hostage demanding that he be given a chance to win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania XXVIII. At WrestleMania XXVIII, he defeated Triple H in the opening match to be entered into a Triple Threat Match involving Batista and Randy Orton. Daniel Bryan won after overcoming all of the odds imaginable. In his first defense of the title Bryan would defeat Kane at Extreme Rules. Bryan would then be forced to take time off because of a neck injury.

The neck injury saw Bryan lose all strength in his left arm. After Bryan's injury required surgery, Bryan was stripped and we have yet to see a payoff to one of the better stories in WWE history. Since Bryan's return, he has proven that he is still one of the best wrestlers in the world and had an much better match with AJ Styles on the Smackdown after WrestleMania compared to Shinsuke Nakamura's match with AJ Styles at WrestleMania. Bryan also had a very impressive performance in WWE's 50 Man Royal Rumble match in Saudi Arabia.

4 2015: Sheamus

Sheamus joins the list for the second time making him and Triple H the only two wrestlers featured on the list twice. Sheamus won the 2015 Money in the Bank ladder match after being one of the least suspected wrestlers to win it. Like many of the wrestlers to win the match, Sheamus went on a serious losing streak. By the way he was booked, it seemed as if there was no good time for him to cash in the briefcase. His time came at Survivor Series 2015. A tournament was set to have a new WWE Champion crowned. Roman Reigns defeated Dean Ambrose in the final match. Sheamus attacked Reigns from behind and cashed in the briefcase to win the Title.

Sheamus' reign as WWE Champ was the definition of being a transitional champion. He lost the title to Reigns on an episode of Raw and his reign lasted a mere 3 weeks. Sheamus is now one-half of the Bar with Cesaro. The two work very well with each other and compliment each other nicely. They are four time Raw Tag Team Champions and have proven to be 2 of the better workers in the tag division. Unfortunately for Sheamus, it appears that he will never return to his main event position.

3 2016: Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns third run as World Champion came after he defeated Triple H to a chorus of boos at WrestleMania 32. Prior to that, he won a triple threat match involving Dean Ambrose and Brock Lesnar which also led to him getting booed. His first title defense was against AJ Styles. Reigns defeated AJ in a competitive match but no one is going to cheer Roman Reigns over AJ Styles. So rather than having him go against someone the fans can they had him face Styles again with Reigns once again coming out victorious. Reigns last attempt to defend the title came against the returning Seth Rollins.

Rollins, who had to vacate because of injury, defeated Roman Reigns cleanly.

Dean Ambrose cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase the same night he won it and won the WWE Title. Roman Reigns has not held a World Title since this lame title run. Instead, WWE is continuously failing Roman Reigns in the effort to get him cheered. They continuously have him positions where the fans don't want to cheer the man and you have to begin asking if they are doing it on purpose considering how poorly he's been booked.

2 2017: Jinder Mahal

Jinder Mahal a few weeks prior to winning the WWE Title was hardly used on Raw and when he was, was usually in a losing role. When he came over to Smackdown, they booked him as though we were supposed to forget about all the losing he did in the year before. Mahal came over to Smackdown and was given The Singh Brothers as his lackeys. To the surprise of many including myself WWE went completely through with it and allowed him to beat Randy Orton for the WWE Title. It turns out, this was only done to get a pop out of the WWE's Indian fan base.

The problem with that is that it hardly got a pop out of them and Jinder is not really Indian. Jinder would go on to defend his the same way each time with assistance from the Singh Brothers. He would lose the title to AJ Styles on an episode of Smackdown and it appears Mahal has returned to the position he was in before 2017. He's back to being the jobber that everyone knew him as before. After his victory at WrestleMania 34 in which he won the United States Championship, he has failed to win any matches of significance and on his first night on Raw, he dropped the title to a returning Jeff Hardy.

1 2018: Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar as of typing this has been WWE Universal Champion for close to 400 days. He's only defended the title a total six times in close to 400 days. A part-time wrestler is the owner of one of your major titles. That simply cannot happen. Brock has lost his ability to wrestle any normal style matches. Brock has done only two wrestling moves since winning the Universal Title. Those moves being German Suplexes and F-5s. Brock's long and never-ending run as the Universal Champion has led to guys like Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe, and Roman Reigns missing their chance to be at the helm of Raw.

His match with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34 was a complete atrocity. He needs to drop the title as soon as possible. Not only does he need to drop the title but he needs to leave the company entirely. He doesn't put on good matches, and he doesn't benefit the WWE whatsoever. It's obvious he has interest in going to the UFC and regaining championship gold there so WWE should have let him walk after WrestleMania 34. He puts in lazy performances in the ring and WWE continuously wastes time and money into this guy.