The WWE Championship is the biggest championship in American pro wrestling, the title that denotes the top stars in the sport. But during the Golden Era, the other top prize in the US was the NWA World Championship, defended all over the territories affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance and in the early years of World Championship Wrestling.
Over the years, there’s been some crossover between the two titles, as wrestlers like Ric Flair and AJ Styles have held both titles at different points of their careers. But there are loads of surprising stars who most fans don't know tried to capture both titles.
10 Billy Gunn
Best known as a tag team specialist in such teams as The New Age Outlaws and The Smoking Gunns, Billy Gunn’s singles career is best remembered as “won the 1999 King of the Ring” and sadly not much else. He did, however, have a couple of shots at the WWE Title, challenging Shawn Michaels on a 1996 Raw and Triple H on a 1999 Raw. As for the NWA World Title, Gunn took part in a #1 Contendership battle royal at TNA’s Bound for Glory 2005 and finally challenged for the title in 2018 against Nick Aldis.
9 Chris Masters
Known for his build and use of a full nelson he called The Masterlock, Chris Masters had two runs in WWE during the 2000s, the second of which is noted by fans for Masters’ surprising improvement as an in-ring competitor. But it was during his first run is when he challenged for John Cena’s WWE Championship, most notably in an Elimination Chamber match at New Year’s Revolution 2006. After leaving WWE a second time, Masters challenged Rob Conway for the NWA World Title at an NWA Houston show in 2013.
8 Steve Austin
The narrative of Steve Austin’s career generally goes like this: he was an awesome but unappreciated guy in WCW who got unceremoniously fired and had a brief stint in ECW before becoming a global Superstar and six-time world champion in WWE. But during his time in WCW, he actually got a single World Title shot.
It was at a 1992 New Japan show that Austin got his NWA World Title shot against champion Masahiro Chono, who had won it as part of the 1992 G1 Climax, where he defeated Rick Rude in the finals.
7 Giant Baba
An absolute legend of Japanese wrestling, Shohei “Giant” Baba is the founder of All-Japan Pro Wrestling and had three brief runs with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. AJPW was more affiliated with the NWA during the 1970s, but Giant Baba actually had a few shots at the WWE Championship during this decade, back when it was called the World Wide Wrestling Federation. In 1964, Baba unsuccessfully challenged Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF World Heavyweight Title, and 11 years later wrestled Sammartino to a draw at an AJPW Show in 1975.
6 Terry Funk
Before he was The Hardcore Legend, Terry Funk was an NWA staple, having held the NWA World Title for 424 days in the mid-to-late 1970s after defeating Jack Brisco. In the mid-’80s, Funk had a short stint with WWE, during which he had 10 WWE World Heavyweight Title matches against Hulk Hogan. One of these was actually televised and occurred on the fourth episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event. Guess who won. It wasn't Terry Funk.
5 Bob Backlund
Bob Backlund is not only a former WWE Champion, but he’s also one of the WWE Champions with an extremely lengthy reign, with his first run with the gold being a nearly six-year reign from early 1978 to late 1983. Before that, Backlund wrestled for the NWA territories, unsuccessfully challenging Jack Brisco and Terry Funk for the titles on numerous occasions. These attempts didn’t end with his signing to WWE, however -- Backlund, as WWE Champion, wrestled several “winner take all” bouts against NWA World Champions, including Ric Flair and Harley Race. These always ended without a decisive victor.
4 Jake Roberts
Before signing with WWE in 1986, Jake “The Snake” Roberts wrestled for the various NWA territories, with his first World Title shot being against Harley Race in 1979. From there, Roberts had a few more championship opportunities throughout the early-to-mid 1980s, unsuccessfully challenging Ric Flair each time.
In WWE, Roberts infamously never captured a single title but did challenge Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Title at several house shows. The feud never made it to television, unfortunately, because fans kept cheering for Roberts over Hogan.
3 Tatsumi Fujinami
A legend of Japanese wrestling, Tatsumi Fujinami was a two-time Junior Heavyweight Champion for both WWE and NWA before making the jump to the heavyweight division in the early 1980s. It wasn’t long before Fujinami started challenging the top Western champions, wrestling both Bob Backlund and Hulk Hogan a couple of times each for the WWE Championship. In 1991, Fujinami actually beat Ric Flair for the NWA World Title at the WCW/New Japan Supershow 1 event in the Tokyo Dome, which Flair would win back two months later at SuperBrawl.
2 Ricky Steamboat
Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat’s world title ambitions with the NWA are well-remembered. After all, his late-80s NWA World Title feud with Ric Flair is a classic rivalry that spawned several greatest-of-all-time matches and a 76-day reign as champion. Before that, however, Steamboat was in the World Wrestling Federation, where he mostly competed in the mid-card, most famously for the Intercontinental Title. That said, he did have a shot at the WWE World Title, taking part in the tournament for the vacant championship at WrestleMania IV. Unfortunately, he was knocked out of the first round by Greg Valentine.
1 The Undertaker
A four-time WWE Champion, The Undertaker is another one of those stars whose career is so synonymous with WWE that there are likely many fans who have no idea that he ever wrestled before signing with the company in 1990. Before that, he went under a number of names, including Mean Mark Callous during his time with WCW. In 1990, just before leaving the company, Callous had a brief run with Paul E. Dangerously (a.k.a. Paul Heyman) as a manager and even got to challenge Sting for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at a house show.