On paper, the world title should mean a lot in wrestling. For decades, the NWA title was a huge one that was recognized as the biggest and most important belt in the industry. That changed with the rise of WWE and WCW, both of whom boasted their own World champions. That’s not to mention AWA, ECW and even TNA and ROH all recognized as World championships as well. Even as the NWA’s presence is lowered, their title counts as a World belt thanks to its long lineage. This means a lot of guys have held championships, many memorable for the wrong reasons. Their reigns were terrible for business and bad bouts and a few truly hurt their company. But at least they’re remembered when others aren’t.

The long history of the NWA belt alone means there are a lot of titleholders fans don’t know of. WWE, WCW and other promotions have also boasted World championship reigns that even wrestling trivia experts can be glossed over easily. Some were quite brief, a few lasting months but just made little impact. In some cases, the wrestler himself might be well known but somehow his World title reign is ignored by his own fans. There are a lot of contenders but a few stand out rather well. Here are 25 World title reigns wrestling fans petty much forgot about to show winning the big belt doesn’t always mean wrestling immortality.

25 Kane - WWE Champion (1998)

Kane was as over as any star in the Attitude Era, but due to being a notch behind guys like The Rock, Stone Cold and Triple H, he never got to enjoy a legacy building title reign. Kane held the title for one day in 1998, following a messy win over Austin at King of the Ring. He would drop the title the next night, as the whole affair was really just to set up an Austin/Taker feud for the summer. It would be over 10 years before Kane would win a world title again.

24 Dolph Ziggler - World Heavyweight Championship (2011)

Dolph Ziggler was always the guy that fans felt deserved more than what he got, particularly around five to seven years ago. Well, Ziggler was finally rewarded with a legit world title win in 2013, following a Money in the Bank cash-in, but many will forget the 2011 reign where he was world champion for just under two hours. Due to Edge using the spear, a move that had been banned by GM Vickie Guerrero, Ziggler was awarded the vacated title, only to lose it to Edge at the end of the show.

23 Andre the Giant - WWE

It's a little bizarre as to why the WWE recognizes Andre the Giant's title win, but not Ted DiBiase's shortly after. As the story went, Andre won the title from Hulk Hogan on The Main Event in 1988. Less than a minute after winning the title, Andre sold it to DiBiase, thus having the shortest title reign in the belt's history. It definitely is strange that Andre never got a legitimate title reign, but anyone who watched HBO's documentary on Andre heard Vince's thinking that someone like Andre really didn't need the title to be a draw.

22 Abyss - TNA

TNA can call few guys a home-grown star but Abyss has to count. He broke out as a monster in a mask who could put on good matches alongside wild brawls. He’s remained loyal to the company despite numerous WWE offers and they’ve rewarded him with multiple championships. In November of 2006, Abyss challenged Sting for the NWA World title in a wild battle. It ended with Sting getting disqualified using a bat and knocking Abyss into barbed wire. But due to a loophole, this cost Sting the title.

Winning the belt like this was hardly the way to start a good reign and Abyss didn’t do much with the title. He lost it to Christian Cage just weeks later. For all his memorable moments in TNA, winning the belt wasn’t one for Abyss.

21 Eric Young - TNA

For years, Eric Young had been a comedy guy in TNA. He had reigns as tag team and TV champion but also goofball bits like holding the Knockouts tag title with ODB and fighting Scott Baio (yes, really). In 2014, with no buildup, Young won a gauntlet match, and then upset Magnus for the TNA World title. It was obvious TNA was trying to capture the Daniel Bryan fever by having a bearded underdog become champion. His reign was poor and was set to drop the belt to MVP. When MVP got injured, Lashley won the title instead. Young is now leading Sanity in WWE but his title run was a lot more forgettable than Bryan’s.

20 Sabu - ECW

The  madman was one of ECW’s biggest early stars. His table smashing and ability to bleed buckets and come back for more helped put hardcore wrestling on the map. Sabu did hold the ECW World title as he did his best to showcase his great style around the world. In late 2000, Sabu managed to win the NWA World Title over Mike Rapada. Granted, the belt was in a very low period at the time, mostly defended in the South but still had that lineage. Thus, Sabu gets to be named among the greats who held that famous ten pounds of gold despite a reign of just weeks and odd to see it around the waist of the legendary madman.

19 Jack Swagger - World Heavyweight Champion

It’s been noted that Jack Swagger could have benefited from NXT. He had great skills as a worker, he just needed time to polish them and also work on his mic abilities. WWE was high on Swagger, pushing him as ECW champion and thinking he could be a star. After he won Money in the Bank, Swagger cashed it in to beat Chris Jericho for the World title. His reign was not what it was hoped as he just failed to connect with fans and some rough matches.

He lost the belt three months later to Rey Mysterio. Swagger was to get another shot at champ a couple of years later but it scrapped following backstage issues. He’s now out of WWE as his run just wasn’t that notable.

18 Tommy Dreamer - ECW Champion

When Tommy Dreamer started out in ECW, he was a smiling babyface the crowd hated. He won their respect taking a caning from the Sandman and was soon the star of the company. He came close many times but could never get a title. In an interview, Dreamer said he actually preferred it that way and only got belts because of guys leaving the company.

At CyberSlam 2000, Dreamer won the ECW World title off of Tazz only to be challenged by Justin Credible who beat him for the belt 30 minutes later. Dreamer got another shot at ECW gold in the WWE version. However, he likes to forget his reign as champion of the company so it's no surprise a lot of fans do as well.

17 Matt Hardy - TNA

As amazingly talented as he was, Matt Hardy just was in the shadow of Jeff for much of his career. That includes singles work as Jeff was able to get the WWE and TNA World titles but Matt was stuck with tag team and smaller belts. In 2015, Matt won the belt in a three-way match with ECIII and Drew Galloway by pinning Galloway. Leave it to TNA to throw in a whacky twist as ECIII filed an “injunction” to keep the title. He and Hardy would go at it with Hardy winning the title for real. His reign was rather short as he lost it to Drew Galloway a few months later. That paved the way for Hardy’s wild “Broken Matt” identity which was a lot more memorable than his run as TNA champion.

16 Bray Wyatt - WWE

It’s almost sad in a way. After a forgettable run as Husky Harris, Bray Wyatt brilliantly remade himself in NXT. His ring work was good but better were his incredible promos that captivated crowds. On the main roster, Bray took off facing John Cena and others and many feeling he should be champion. He faltered but he finally reached it as he won the title at Elimination Chamber in 2016. The fans loved it and were happy about Bray being on top of the world at last. Sadly, his reign was quick, as it was all to put over Randy Orton at WrestleMania. Bray has faltered since and it’s too bad his WWE title reign was such a letdown.

15 Mikey Whipwreck - ECW

Paul Heyman was always great making his ECW guys look much better than they actually were. Mikey Whipwreck had been introduced as a jobber who looked like a teenage kid. He actually won over fans by taking high amounts of punishment in the ring but kept coming back for more. Having already held the tag team and TV titles, Whipwreck ended up defeating the Sandman in a ladder match in 1995 for the ECW World title. He held it until December when he lost a triple threat match with Sandman regaining the title. He remained a fan favorite for a while yet some prefer to remember his partnership with Cactus Jack more than Mikey getting the big belt.

14 Vince McMahon - WWE

To be fair, Vince McMahon is hardly the only promoter/owner in wrestling history to make himself champion. By late 1999, he was open about being the owner and was feuding with Triple H, the company's top heel. This led to a SmackDown encounter between them with Hunter in total control. Steve Austin came out and attacked Hunter which allowed Vince to win the WWE title. To his credit, Vince would openly state he had no standing as a wrestler and vacated the title. He later had a run as ECW champion that was done more for laughs. Again, Vince isn’t the only guy to hold his own belt but fans prefer to ignore it happened.

13 Kurt Angle - WCW Champion

Wrestling fans all remember how much of a mess the 2001 Invasion storyline was, and how all it did was serve as another McMahon family feud, while seeing whatever stars from WCW did cross over to WWE were quickly rendered irrelevant. WCW's world title was carried by Booker T and in a match with no buildup on SmackDown, Kurt Angle won the title from Booker, only to drop it to him the next week on RAW. Thus, Kurt Angle is forever on the list of former WCW world champions.

12 The Big Show - WWE (1999)

The Big Show has been in the WWE for nearly 20 years and while he's a surefire hall of famer, his signature moments in the WWE haven't really revolved around a world title. Big Show's title wins were usually meant as transitional reigns, such as the case of him winning the WWE Championship in 1999. Following Stone Cold being pulled from the Survivor Series main event, the WWE went with the decision to have Big Show win the title in Austin's place, only for him to drop the title just over a month later, back to Triple H.

11 Stan Stasiak - WWE

He may well be the most obvious transitional champion in WWE history. For three years, Pedro Morales had done a great job as WWE Champion, beefing up business and a good worker. WWE wanted a change, however by letting Bruno Sammartino have the belt again. They were aware it would be bad for Bruno to win it right over Pedro as it might lead to a backlash. So in late 1973, Pedro dropped the title to Stan Stasiak, known for his “heart punch.” Stasiak knew the deal as just nine days later, he lost the belt to Bruno. He seemed to have a good attitude about his short reign even if it’s not remembered well by wrestling fans.

10 Bob Backlund - WWE (1994)

Obviously, Bob Backlund isn't a forgettable WWE Champion, as he was the company's top babyface for several years before the arrival of Hulk Hogan. However, Bob Backlund winning the WWE Championship in 1994 was really a head scratcher. Backlund won the title from Bret Hart at Survivor Series in what was all a way to get the title off of Hart, while transitioning it to Diesel, who Vince McMahon wanted to push as his babyface champion. Well, we all know how that went.

9 Raven - TNA

Raven was always a good performer with his great promo work and fantastic matches. After a long run with ECW and brief time with WWE, Raven went to TNA in 2003. He was pushed in a main event feud with Jeff Jarrett for the NWA title but couldn’t win it. In 2005, Jarrett was to challenge for the title in a King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary. But after attacking a “fan,” Jarrett was dragged out. Raven was put into the match instead and won the title.

He made a big deal of “fulfilling his destiny” and feuding with Abyss and Rhyno. Of course, Jarrett would win the belt back in just a few months and Raven would be ignored again. He’s known for his great act but Raven’s World title reign is mostly ignored.

8 Ron Simmons - WCW

In 1992, Bill Watts was brought into WCW and began making a lot of changes for an “old school” mentality. Some ideas were good but too many were stuck in the past. The company has Vader as the champion but Watts wanted to shake things up. After Sting was taken out by Jake Roberts, Watts drew Ron Simmons’s name out of a hat to challenge Vader for the belt. Simmons won the title and made history as the company's first black champion. Sadly, his reign was hardly historic.

Simmons just didn’t connect to fans enough to carry the company. It wasn’t helped that the best Watts could provide as a challenger was The Barbarian. Simmons dropped the belt to Vader just as the year ended. It’s too bad a historic win couldn’t pay off in a good title run.

7 Randy Savage - WCW

Given that Randy Savage was in WCW for quite a while, one would think he would've gotten an extended world title reign. However, to look through Savage's reigns with the title, one has to look hard. Savage held the title three times, for a cumulative 22 days. Two of those title wins were one-day reigns and in both those instances, he dropped the title to Hulk Hogan on a Nitro episode after winning at Spring Stampede '98 and Bash At The Beach '99 respectively.

6 Jeff Hardy - WWE

Jeff Hardy recently had a 20-year tribute on SmackDown, but many fans are likely to forget Jeff Hardy's short WWE title reign back in 2008. Hardy was always seen as the daredevil midcarder that wouldn't ascent to the top but at Armageddon 2008, he defeated Edge and Triple H in a triple threat match to win the title. The reign would only last a month, as Matt Hardy would cost his brother the title to set up their WrestleMania XXV match.