Being the world champion comes with numerous responsibilities. The champion becomes the main representative of the company, must continuously draw fan interest (viewership, attendance) and merchandise sales, and also enhance the reputation of the championship. They also have to protect their value; not only as a champion but for their own persona and profile.

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Some champions did all these while also building stars through their opponents in the process. Other champions felt more strongly about themselves behind the scenes and ended up burying challengers.

10 BURIED: Brock Lesnar

WWE Brock Lesnar Walking Around Ring With Steel Cage Wearing Universal Championship

In Brock Lesnar's first run in WWE as champion, none of his three title losses were through a clean pin or submission involving him. There was rather a foreign object involved or a pin or a third competitor in the fight. It had to take shenanigans to defeat Brock,

In Lesnar's second WWE run, the same mostly occurred. There just had to be some usage of weapons, tables, low blows, and interference in his title losses to Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. His title loss to Drew McIntyre though at WrestleMania 36 was a rare occurrence in which raw talent and abilities dethroned The Beast as champion.

9 PUT OVER: Ric Flair

NWA Ric Flair In The Ring Holding Up Heavyweight Championship

The sixteen-time world champion Ric Flair is clearly no stranger to losing his title. There is the saying that if you've seen one Ric Flair match you have seen them all. In that case, you have seen many great matches. Flair held gold in the NWA, WWF, and WCW where he continuously worked with fresh opponents.

Flair put on great, show-stealing title matches with Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, and Sting in the NWA where the crowd always rejoiced in Flair losing. In the WWF, the same occurred when Flair lost to Randy Savage and Bret Hart. In WCW, Flair's 1994 title loss to Hulk Hogan helped rejuvenate Hulkamania after leaving wrestling a year prior.

8 BURIED: Triple H

WWE Triple H Standing On Turnbuckle Wearing Heavyweight Championship Posing To Crowd

Triple H was very protective of his usage and portrayal as a world champion. "The Game" did have times where he put over challengers such as Batista and Roman Reigns incredibly well in title matches, but a lot of Triple H's time as champion developed predictability and fan disapproval from common interference, low blows, and weapon usage in his defenses.

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In his title losses, there would usually be interference and weapon usage. Some of the most infamous moments of Triple H's champion burials were against Kane, RVD, Booker T, and Goldberg in 2002/03 and even Randy Orton in 2004/05, 2007, and 2009.

7 PUT OVER: Bret Hart

Bret Hart With WWE Championship

Bret Hart and Ric Flair have a similarity. Even in their title defenses, they made their opponents look like they were on the cusp of winning; even if Flair acted dirty in some of his wins. Hart was a big player in the New Generation Era of the WWF where Bret helped introduce a new style and look to the world champion.

Hart liked his fights technical, gritty, and competitive. Bret had really good defenses that helped the reputations of new and rising stars in the early '90s such as Yokozuna, Razor Ramon (Scott Hall), and Shawn Michaels; even if some outcomes were questionable or forced.

6 BURIED: JBL

WWE JBL With WWE Championship Posing For Photo

JBL's lone reign as WWE Champion resulted in a lot of burials due to circumstance and interference. SmackDown in 2004 was in need of a major heel and found that in JBL by surprisingly making him the champion and keeping it that way for almost a year.

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In that time, JBL put a damper on the first year of The Undertaker's second run as "The Deadman" by spoiling five of Taker's title challenges, using interference to stop Taker and other challengers like Kurt Angle and The Big Show but would finally do the honors of putting over John Cena at WrestleMania 21.

5 PUT OVER: Kurt Angle

WWE Kurt Angle Wearing WWF Championship Posing In The Ring

Once Kurt Angle found his place in professional wrestling he proved to be a major asset to the industry. Angle put over The Rock at No Way Out 2001 to allow him to go into WrestleMania X-Seven as champion, setting up Austin vs Rock II which helped Rock in a major way.

Angle also was WCW Champion in 2001 and dropped it to Booker T, easing the WWF rookie into the main title picture. Angle also did a tremendous job making a star out of Brock Lesnar in 2003. In TNA, Angle put over James Storm and EC3 to give the two their first TNA World Heavyweight Championship wins, respectively.

4 BURIED: Mike Awesome

ECW Mike Awesome Holding World Championship Posing For Photo

While reigning as ECW World Heavyweight Champion in 2000, an act made outside of the company buried all of the ECW talent. From what was believed to stem from payment issues, Mike Awesome decided to leave ECW for WCW despite still being their champion.

Paul Heyman was known to have payment issues with a lot of the ECW talent but faith and mutual respect kept the show going. This turncoat action by Mike strongly devalued ECW and in turn, harmed those who fought and struggled to keep the company alive and respectable. Although Awesome dropped the title, it was to a WWF contracted superstar.

3 PUT OVER: Chris Jericho

WWE Chris Jericho Holding Undisputed Championship Titles Posing For Photo

"Le Champion" Chris Jericho has sacrificed the high-standing of his career at times to benefit others for the sake of the championship. Jericho's first reign as Undisputed Champion was short-lived in order to push the returning Triple H in 2002 and had a short-lived reign as World Heavyweight Champion end to a returning John Cena in 2008.

In AEW as their inaugural World Champion, he did a great job of drawing attention to lesser-known stars such as Scorpio Sky and Jungle Boy but also helped get Jon Moxley into superstardom with a heated storyline and an entertaining title loss at Revolution 2020.

2 BURIED: Hulk Hogan

WWE Hulk Hogan Wearing WWF Championship Posing In The Ring For Fans

This entry was seen from a long way away with the man notorious for politicking many matches into his favor. Hulk Hogan may be one of the most legendary champions in all of professional wrestling but was overly protective of who he fought, how the match went, and most importantly, who won.

Even when he dropped the title to The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 6, he had to intervene in the attention Warrior was receiving. Hogan refusing to drop the title to Bret Hart in 1993 is disappointing and he also could not put over Yokozuna and Sting without shenanigans.

1 PUT OVER: The Rock

WWE The Rock Wearing The WWE Championship Posing On The Stage

"The People's Champion" was a great champion for the fans and his opponents. Numerous notable wrestlers including Undertaker have said that they enjoyed working with Rock. As champion, Rock put over Steve Austin twice at WrestleMania for the title and John Cena once. Even with weapons or interference, Rock's title losses got fan reactions.

Rock put over Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and Brock Lesnar for all of their first World Championship wins (WWF, WCW, WWE) with the Lesnar fight drawing a great reaction from the live crowd. All of Rock's matches drew great fan interest which always helped his opponents, title fight, or not.

NEXT: 10 Wrestlers Who Were Amazing, Until They Got To WCW