WWE has gone through many transformations over the years. Sure, a lot of them have been for the better, like, for instance, the introduction of new belts and new types of matches. Nevertheless, as the company evolves it also has to leave behind some of the most entertaining competitions it has ever hosted. One of those was the WWE Divas Championship. Yes, these days female wrestlers have new titles to compete for, like the RAW Women’s Championship, the SmackDown Women’s Championship, and the Women’s Tag Team Championship.
While those are all entertaining, it is impossible for WWE fans not to miss the legendary WWE Divas Championship that the company had from 2008 until 2016. So, for nostalgia’s sake, here are 10 of the best Divas’ champions.
10 Layla
Let’s start off this list with one of the most interesting Divas entrants of all time. According to the record books, Layla had one reign during her career serving as WWE Divas Champion. It was a period of 140 days in which she was the queen of the WWE.
Nevertheless, that was not the only time she supposedly held that belt, as, during one of Michelle McCool’s reigns, Layla claimed that she was a co-holder of the belt. Unfortunately for her, the WWE did not recognize the period, but given how entertaining she was during the entire period, it would be fair to at least acknowledge the fact.
9 Kelly Kelly
She is not one of the women who spent the most time holding this title, but it is hard to deny that Kelly Kelly was one of the wrestlers who most ferociously defended her belt. Don’t get us wrong, there are a lot of wrestlers who held that belt who were worthy to be on this list, but it would feel unfair to leave Kelly out. Much of that is because she defended her belt against one woman who was also a fierce defender of her title, and one who had to fight countless times against Kelly herself to win that championship for the first time. We are talking about the next entry on our list, Beth Phoenix.
8 Beth Phoenix
As we mentioned in the previous entry, it took quite some time for Beth Phoenix to finally get her hands on the coveted WWE Divas Championship belt. She was ferocious in her attempts to take the belt away from Kelly Kelly and finally managed to do it in amazing fashion as she defeated Kelly in one of the most memorable women’s Hell in a Cell match back in 2011.
From there on, she reigned supreme as Divas Champion for an astounding 204 days until she finally got her belt taken away by one of the greatest Divas Champions who will certainly be featured later on in this list: Nikki Bella.
7 Paige
Sometimes it is not about how long you can maintain the belt, but it is about how many times you can fight back and regain what was taken from you. Paige did that once. Yes, her combined reigns as WWE Divas Champion lasted 121 days. Nevertheless, it was a memorable 121 days, starting off with how she won the title. After going onto the ring to congratulate AJ Lee for retaining the belt after WrestleMania, the champion berated Paige and said she was going to take her out right there and then like she did 13 others the day before. To add to the occasion, this was Paige’s first day in the main roster. As fate would have it, she defeated the overconfident champion and, in her first day out of NXT, she became WWE Divas Champion.
6 Maryse
One of the hardest things to do in the WWE and the wrestling world as a whole is to hold your titles. Yes, it is unbelievably hard for someone to become a champion of anything. Nevertheless, once you become that Champion, you have the eyes of the entire world on you. You have people coming from all sides trying to take what is yours, which makes what Maryse did as WWE Divas Champion all the more impressive.
After all, she was for a long time the Diva who had the longest reign as WWE Divas Champion. For 216 days she reigned supreme over the other divas until she was taken down by Mickie James, ending one of the most amazing runs in WWE history.
5 Michelle McCool
This list would never be complete without the first-ever Divas Champion. When the title was introduced back in 2008, it was none other than Michelle McCool who rose to the challenge and took the belt for herself and became the WWE’s first Divas Champion. That was just the beginning of the first of her two reigns as champion of the division and of the astounding 222 days that she spent as WWE Divas Champion.
It is hard to find someone who benefited as much from the new division as McCool since, even after she lost the belt, she would go on to have some of the most successful times in her career teaming up with Layla.
4 Charlotte
It seems like if you have the name Flair, you are bound to be great. Ric Flair was one of the greatest wrestlers this world has seen, and the fruit did not fall far from the tree, as his daughter Charlotte has a case for being one of the most successful female wrestlers of all time. Going along those lines, she was without a doubt one of the most memorable WWE Divas Champions.
Charlotte only had one reign with the Divas belt, but everything about that reign was memorable. She fought all of the big names to retain her title, from Paige, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks; they all tried to take it away, but Charlotte was supreme and she would probably have kept it going longer if the WWE had not done away with the Divas Championship.
3 Nikki Bella
The second to last woman to hold the WWE Divas belt before it was done away with, Nikki Bella is arguably one of the most impressive people who have held that belt. Yes, she is a multi-champion, but there was something about the Divas belt and her that seemed to click. Nikki loved that thing, and she fought for it as if it was her birthright. She even resorted to shady tactics when defending her belt from Charlotte before she finally got it taken away.
In total, Nikki held the belt twice and was the runner-up in terms of a diva who held the belt for the longest time, as her total combined reign tallies up to 307 days.
2 Eve Torres
One of only two people to hold the WWE Divas Championship three times in her career, Eve Torres was one of the most memorable WWE Divas champions. In a way, we can say that her entire career revolves around her connection to this particular belt, as she pretty much quit the WWE after she lost the belt for the third and last time.
Nevertheless, her time as Divas Champion was memorable as she held the belt for a whopping 261 days in total. Sure, she was not as successful as the only other woman who held the belt three times, but still, taking a championship that many times is not easy and her success has to be recognized.
1 AJ Lee
Making a list about the WWE Divas Championship without putting AJ Lee on top would be nothing short of blasphemy. This woman is the personification of this championship. She is the belt because she has held it three times, and she has held it for as long as you can imagine. Don’t believe us? Just look at the stats.
Lee reigned for three times and had a combined 406 days as champion. That is more than an entire year. No one has come even close to her combined record, and she has to be recognized as the greatest WWE Divas Champion of all time.