Every WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Ranked Worst To Best

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Despite the long history of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, there have only been twenty-two different holders of the belt. While it is already known that names like Ric Flair, Hollywood Hogan, and Booker T rank among some of the best, where do the other superstars rank? Let's go over the remaining champions that have had the honor of capturing the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, including the short stint the belt was featured on WWE television before being retired. Here is every single person who held the WCW World Championship, ranked from worst to best.

It might be hard to believe but not too long ago, it was WCW that was the top wrestling organization on the planet and not WWE. In fact, at one point in time, the Atlanta-based promotion even managed to push WWE to the verge of going out of business.

Of course, in the end, WWE came out on top and Vince McMahon went on to buy the company that was once his biggest competitor. As a result, revisionist history has not been too kind to WCW. For all its bad though a lot of good came out of WCW, including some tremendous world champions.

UPDATE: 2023/09/05 16:30 EST BY ETHAN SCHLABAUGH

Despite the long history of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, there have only been twenty-two different holders of the belt. While it is already known that names like Ric Flair, Hollywood Hogan, and Booker T rank among some of the best, where do the other superstars rank? Let's go over the remaining champions that have had the honor of capturing the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, including the short stint the belt was featured on WWE television before being retired. Here is every single person who held the WCW World Championship, ranked from worst to best.

23 Dishonorable Mention: Chris Benoit

22

Chris Benoit captured the WCW World Title at Souled Out in 2000 after beating Sid Vicious to win the belt for his first and only reign. The next day Benoit would decide to leave WCW and instead pursue a career with the WWE.

World Championship Wrestling then withdrew recognition of Benoit holding the belt on their website. It wouldn't be until WWE's purchase of WCW that the promotion officially recognized Benoit as a champion with a reign of one day. His inclusion here is purely for historical accuracy, as the actions Benoit committed at the end of his life make him the worst on any list.

21 Vince Russo

It typically doesn't make for a great World Champion when the promoter or booker of the show decides to crown themselves champion for whatever reason. The exact situation happened with Vince Russo when he decided to be WCW World Champion for a total of seven days.

Russo technically beat Booker T for the belt in a steel cage match after Goldberg speared him out of the ring, granting Russo the escape victory. He then vacated the belt the following week as he decided he did not want to be the champion and actually wrestle.

20 David Arquette

David Arquette posing with Diamond Dallas Page.

A famous actor in such movies as Scream and Ready to Rumble, the movie that granted him the chance to work with WCW, David Arquette is notorious as one of the worst champions of all time. The only reason he ranks higher than the previous names is that he actually defended the belt and seemed to treat it with some respect.

Arquette has admitted to not wanting to be champion but was talked into it by management. The reign made Arquette decide to try and right his wrongs later in his career by working on the independent scene in promotions like Border City Wrestling and CWFH.

19 Kurt Angle

Normally having a great such as Kurt Angle would be ridiculous to rank them as low as this. The only reason is that Angle held the belt for a total of six days when he won the belt on SmackDown and then lost to Booker T on Raw the following week.

Luckily for Kurt, a couple of months after losing the title he instead would be facing names like Steve Austin for the WWE Championship. Capturing the WCW World Title gave Angle the honor of being one of the few names to hold the world title in WCW, WWE, and Impact Wrestling.

18 Chris Jericho

A name that held multiple championships during his time in WCW was Chris Jericho. Funny enough though, it wouldn't be until working in the WWE that Jericho actually captured the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

Both of Jericho's reigns would come at the expense of The Rock plus the second reign would be when Jericho unified the WCW World Title with the WWE Championship officially ending the lineage of WCW's biggest prize.

17 Bret Hart

Bret Hart's WCW career wasn't the most outstanding as he was obviously feeling jaded towards the business after his messy exit from the WWE. Hart did still have some good work left in him during this time, but that was mostly relegated to the United States Championship, a belt he held four times.

Both his World Championship runs were connected to feuding with Goldberg for the belt. His first reign ended via the controversial finish of his Starrcade 1999 match against Goldberg. His second reign would end due to the injuries he suffered after beating Goldberg in a rematch for the title as he vacated the belt on January 16th, 2000.

16 Jeff Jarrett

Jeff Jarrett WCW World Heavyweight Champion

To many fans currently, Jeff Jarrett is one of the most over heels on AEW television, but during his time as the WCW World Champion things were far from what they are now.

Jarrett had four different reigns with the belt lasting a combined 58 days with his final reign ending at the infamous Bash at the Beach 2000 event where he laid down for Hogan before being given the title back and losing to Booker T later that night.

15 Sid Vicious

The first reign that Sid Vicious had with the belt is nothing as he won the title on Nitro and was stripped the following day on Thunder. This all came because Sid pinned the wrong Harris Brother in the match leading to his title match against Kevin Nash earlier on Nitro.

RELATED: Sid Vicious Vs. Kevin Nash Might Be The Most Confusing WCW Storyline EverThe second reign would be a bit more impressive, as if that first reign wasn't easy enough to top, due to Sid holding the title for 76 days. Sid's final day as champion came when Russo and Bischoff decided to reboot WCW and vacate every championship.

14 The Rock

None of these names feel as odd to say was the WCW World Heavyweight Champion as The Rock does. The man spent his entire wrestling career in the WWE and only held the belt due to WCW getting purchased. While the same is said for names like Jericho or Angle, Rock just feels especially odd.

Technically speaking during The Rock's second and final reign he would be the last WCW World Champion as WWE started referring to the belt as the World Heavyweight Championship once the Invasion angle started to end.

13 Kevin Nash

"Big Sexy" Kevin Nash was a big star during his time in WCW, he held the Tag Titles nine different times and the World Title on five separate occasions. Sadly, most of those World Title reigns were quite short ranging from less than a day to twenty days.

His longest stint with the belt was after Slamboree 1999 when he defeated Diamond Dallas Page at the event. Nash held the belt for 63 days before losing to Randy Savage at Bash at the Beach later that year.

12 The Giant

Before becoming The Big Show in the WWE, Paul Wight made his debut in WCW as The Giant. In that debut, he would be pushed heavily as he defeated Hulk Hogan for the World Championship at Halloween Havoc 1995 in an utterly bizarre affair which included monster trucks and The Yeti.

The Giant would be stripped of the title like so many names after him were due to the controversial finish of his match with Hogan. Luckily for him, his second chance as a champion saw him defeat Ric Flair on Nitro before holding the belt for 110 days. It would be the start of the nWo that saw The Giant lose the belt once and for all.

11 Lex Luger

Lex Luger's first reign as champion was a fairly decent run in the early 90s after capturing the vacant belt in a match against Barry Windham. Luger was champion for an incredible 230 days before losing to Sting at SuperBrawl 2.

While the first reign was long and had multiple pretty good matches against top stars, the second victory was the most exciting. Other than maybe Goldberg capturing the belt on Nitro, Luger ending Hollywood Hogan's 359-day reign on Nitro was the loudest that a WCW crowd ever got.

10 Scott Steiner

By the time Scott Steiner won the WCW Heavyweight Championship, it is safe to say that it was too little too late to make much of a mark. The company was on its last legs and would go out of business not long after.

After spending the majority of his career as a tag team specialist, with this reign, Steiner showed that he was a World Championship-level talent and someone that WCW should have put the world title on much earlier than they did.

9 Randy Savage

By the time Savage arrived in WCW, his best days were behind him. He might have still been one of the biggest names in the industry but that popularity was fast dwindling. Thus, it should not be a surprise that he never managed to quite become 'The Man' in WCW.

He might have had four reigns with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship but none of them managed to set the wrestling world on fire. He only enjoyed a combined 53 days as champion over those four reigns.

8 Diamond Dallas Page

One of the biggest success stories in WCW history, Diamond Dallas Page somehow managed to stand out in the company during a time when it was being dominated by wrestlers who had already enjoyed storied careers in the WWE before coming to Atlanta.

Page would go on to win the World Heavyweight Championship on three different occasions, something that nobody could have predicted when he started in the company. And while those reigns might have lasted only a combined 30 days, the fact that he is fondly remembered to this day just goes on to show how popular he was.

7 Ron Simmons

While WWE fans might know him today for his popular catchphrase and his APA days with Bradshaw, Simmons had made a name for himself in the Atlanta-based WCW.

Almost three decades before Vince McMahon decided to crown Kofi Kingston as the company's first-ever black WWE Champion, WCW had done the same with Ron Simmons, who beat Big Van Vader for the world title. That moment alone makes his reign more special than many on this list and will forever remain one of the most important moments in wrestling history. It is unfortunate that Simmons was lacking credible challengers at this time in WCW.

6 Booker T

Another one of the biggest success stories in WCW history. By the time Booker T became the World Heavyweight Champion, the company might have been a sinking ship but at least he got the chance to prove that he could be a main event star if given the chance.

Ultimately, he would go on to win the title on four occasions in WCW before winning it a fifth time but under the WWE banner. He would go on to enjoy a very successful career in the WWE as well, something that very few WCW stars can say for themselves.

5 Goldberg

Goldberg was without a doubt the biggest homegrown star in the history of WCW. At a point in time when they were not doing a lot right, they managed to book his run to the top of the company to perfection and he was the hottest thing in the business at its peak.

He did win the World Heavyweight Championship on only one occasion, but that was one of the most dominant reigns in the history of the company. His impact in such a short period is evident from the fact that he can just walk into the WWE two decades later and be viewed as a main event star.

4 Big Van Vader

Big Van Vader does not truly get the credit that he deserves. WWE fans might remember him from his lackluster run in the company when he was past his prime but before that, he was one of the most dominant heels in Japan as well as WCW.

Vader is without a doubt one of the greatest gaijins to ever compete in Japan, winning three world titles during his time there. Later he would join WCW and win the World Heavyweight Championship on three occasions as well, holding it for a combined 377 days.