The legendary career of The Undertaker saw him have an upper card role from his start in WWE and it will remain that way until he retires. Fans of all ages have fallen in love with the act of Undertaker from the entrance to the wrestling style to the theatrics. Undertaker would find massive success as an all-time great WWE character and performer. The career accolades have seen him win the WWE Championship four times and the World Championship three times all coming at different points in his career between 1991 and 2010.
We will rank all the world title reigns to come for Undertaker throughout his career. Different characters like the start, the Ministry of Darkness, the American Badass and the legendary era version of Undertaker all would find him in the world title picture. Undertaker was viewed as a consistent worker that could have capable matches with opponents of any style or size from Rey Mysterio to Big Show. Find out just which of his title runs had the best overall legacy looking back at it. These are all seven of Undertaker’s WWE world title reigns ranked.
7 First title reign
The first WWE Championship reign of Undertaker ranks dead last despite a few impressive things. Undertaker ended the run of top superstar Hulk Hogan thanks to the help of Ric Flair. The fact that it was early in his career made Undertaker come off even more impressive in his title win.
Unfortunately, the controversy behind the win would see a rematch come a week later with Hogan winning it back in more controversial fashion. The WWE Championship was vacated heading into the 1992 Royal Rumble. Undertaker won it in a shady way and lost it just six days later. The win over Hogan did add to his overall momentum thankfully.
6 Ending CM Punk's reign
The most recent title run for The Undertaker came back in 2009 during a feud with CM Punk. This was the early days of Punk using his straight-edge character to get strong heel heat. Punk had a tremendous feud with Jeff Hardy that culminated with Undertaker returning to challenge him for the World Championship.
The two had a couple of disappointing matches with Undertaker winning the World Championship inside of Hell in a Cell. This match lasted under ten minutes with Punk barely getting any offense in. Undertaker’s World Championship reign was lackluster in general with few standout moments. Chris Jericho defeating Undertaker with the help of Shawn Michaels was the only memorable moment when it ended.
5 Ending Steve Austin's reign
Steve Austin was the face of WWE from the start of 1998 until the end of 1999. The Undertaker would become one of his main rivals with his character changes allowing him to start a new story when feuding with Austin usually at the top of the card.
This new version of Undertaker was leading the Ministry of Darkness faction with the McMahon family also backing him. Over the Edge 1999 would see Undertaker defeat Austin to win the WWE Championship. His title reign only lasted a little over a month before Austin regained the title on Raw. Undertaker was primarily a transitional champion in the Attitude Era.
4 Defeating Edge at WM
The WrestleMania 24 main event featured the great story of two wrestlers with undefeated WM streaks competing for the World Championship. Edge defended the title against The Undertaker with both men hoping to extend their streak and win the match that closed the biggest show of the year.
Edge continued to feud with Undertaker following WrestleMania. Undertaker lost the title about a month later when Smackdown General Manager stripped him of the belt for using a banned move. Edge would regain the World Championship in a TLC Match before Undertaker could do much as the titleholder.
3 American Badass
2002 was a wild year for WWE after the WWE and WCW Championships merged to become the WWE Undisputed Championship. Triple H defeated Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 18 before losing the title to Hulk Hogan. The Undertaker was next in line to end Hogan’s streak after one month giving him his first title reign during the American Badass chapter of his career.
This gimmick featured him losing the aspects of the Deadman character. Undertaker rode his motorcycle to the ring, rocked a shorter haircut and just destroyed his opponents in the ring. The win over Hogan gave him a huge win to get back to the top of the card with a new character. Undertaker held the title for three months before losing to The Rock.
2 Ending Batista's reign
WrestleMania 23 provided one of the few realistic stories of a wrestler having a chance to end The Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak. Batista was becoming a top tier superstar and defended the World Championship against Undertaker in a streak vs title match.
Fans cheered Undertaker and booed the usually beloved Batista on this night. Undertaker won the World Championship for the first time in his career to extend his WrestleMania streak. Batista and Undertaker had a couple of classic matches during this title reign. Undertaker lost the title after 37 days when Edge cashed in his Money in the Bank title shot on the weakened champion.
1 WrestleMania 13 win
The best WWE Championship reign of The Undertaker came in 1997 when he defeated Sycho Sid in the main event of WrestleMania 13. Considering his only prior title reign lasted six days, this was the first legitimate run for Undertaker as WWE Champion. The title reign lasted almost five months and was a success.
Undertaker had impressive defenses against Steve Austin, Faarooq, Mankind and Vader. Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were the top stars of the era and Undertaker became #3 with this title run. Hart was the won to end the WWE Championship reign of Undertaker at Summerslam 1997. Even when losing the title, Undertaker delivered a fantastic performance to end his reign on the highest note possible.