Winning a championship in WWE should be a big deal, a momentous occasion that marks the talent of a WWE Superstar and allows them to stand out from the rest of the locker room. Yet for some wrestlers, not even a title belt could help them gain prestige in the eyes of fans.
Bad booking, a lack of charisma and forgettable title defenses can spoil a championship reign. An absurd champion can damage a title belt's credibility. Here are ten Superstars who fans couldn't take seriously, even with gold around their waist.
10 Jillian Hall (Divas Championship)
Jillian's reign with the butterfly belt was hard to be seen as anything resembling credible, as it lasted only five minutes. The wrestler and singer's triumphant celebration was cut short but a returning Melina, who promptly pinned Hall to win her first Divas Championship.
Hall was never a character to be taken seriously, played mostly as a comedic heel with a voice that purposely grated on fans' nerves. Her reign lent no validity to an already disreputable title belt.
9 Sheamus (WWE World Heavyweight Championship)
Sheamus cashed in his Money In The Bank contract at Survivor Series 2015, defeating Roman Reigns after The Big Dog had just won a tournament for the championship. His most recent world title reign was brief, as The Celtic Warrior dropped it back to Reigns on an episode of Raw after an underwhelming feud.
Sheamus' championship run was a blip on the radar intended to make Reigns, who was struggling with fan reception, more sympathetic. The League of Nations also made lackluster antagonists for the former Shield member.
8 Jinder Mahal (WWE Championship)
Jinder Mahal defeating Randy Orton for the WWE Championship at Backlash 2017 came out of nowhere. The Modern-Day Maharaja was a jobber at the lowest totem on the WWE pole only months prior, becoming the company's top champion in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it incline.
Considering Mahal was never built up to be a believable champion, fans struggled to take him seriously with the gold belt and instead became disenfranchised from the WWE product.
7 Hervina (Women's Championship)
This was a bold move that accomplished little except to further disrespect the women's division and turn its existence into a comedy act. Manager Harvey Wippleman dressed in drag and challenged The Kat for the Women's Championship in a Lumberjill Snow Bunny match - and won.
Thankfully, Hervina's reign lasted only one day before she was defeated in less than a minute by Hall of Famer Jacqueline, who was the first-ever African-American woman to win the championship.
6 Vince McMahon (WWF Championship)
The chairman of WWE captured the WWF Championship from Triple H after Stone Cold Steve Austin interfered and stunned both HHH and Chyna. It was a rare example of a heel being tricked out of his title, as McMahon was currently a babyface at the time.
Fans struggled to accept McMahon as champion, as he was neither a regular in-ring competitor or a natural babyface. He vacated the championship a week later on Raw, much to the crowd's relief.
5 The Miz (WWE Championship)
Former Tough Enough contestant The Miz was a tough champion to take seriously, given his origins as a reality TV star. The A-Lister won the Money In The Bank briefcase in 2010 before cashing in on Randy Orton to win his first and only WWE Championship.
Not only was The Miz WWE's titular titleholder but he also defeated John Cena in the main event of WrestleMania XXVII to successfully retain his belt (with an assist from The Rock). He eventually dropped the title to Cena at Extreme Rules after a grueling steel cage match involving John Morrison.
4 Alberto Del Rio (United States Championship)
Alberto Del Rio made a surprise return to WWE at Hell In A Cell 2015, where he challenged John Cena for the United States Championship - and won. Weirdly, Mexico's Greatest Export made his return with Zeb Colter in his corner, promptly making them WWE's new odd couple.
It pushed the boundaries of plausibility too much. The pairing of Del Rio and Colter was hard to accept and explained poorly. The US title was briefly dubbed the MexAmerican Championship, before Colter and Del Rio parted ways and The Mexican Aristocrat joined foreign faction The League Of Nations.
3 Stephanie McMahon (Women's Championship)
The Billion Dollar Princess defeated Jacqueline with the help of Tori and D-Generation X to capture her first Women's Championship during what is now dubbed as the McMahon-Helmsley era. McMahon and real-life husband Triple H became the kayfabe owners of WWE after Vince McMahon was temporarily written off TV.
Like her father, fans refused to accept her as champion due to her lack of in-ring experience, though in this case it at least made sense given her cowardly, spoilt heel persona. McMahon later dropped the championship to Lita after taking a spine buster from The Rock.
2 Jason Jordan (Raw Tag Team Championships)
There were many reasons why fans refused to support Jason Jordan's push in 2017. The storyline that revealed him to be Kurt Angle's secret son was poorly received and garnered little interest, plus Jordan replaced fan-favorite Dean Ambrose to team with Seth Rollins and capture the Raw Tag Team Championships.
The former American Alpha member could not get the crowd to take him seriously despite his best efforts. Fans were determined to root for Ambrose - and only Ambrose.
1 Goldberg (Universal Championship)
Goldberg winning the Universal Championship was a bold and controversial move. Not only had the Hall of Famer been absent from the company for twelve years, but he also managed to defeat Brock Lesnar, who had at that point been booked solely as an unstoppable monster, in under two minutes.
If this was supposed to make Goldberg look good then it failed. It sapped credibility from the Universal Championship - which had already been met with a poor reception upon its debut - but it also highlighted Goldberg's ring rust and scuppered Lesnar's monstrous reputation, if only temporarily.