10 WWE Champions Who Didn't Draw
10. Randy Orton
Along with John Cena, Randy Orton is one of WWE's constant presences. The mainstay first debuted in the company in 2002, first became a world champion in 2004, and has spent the past decade racking up accolades and main events.
Orton is a legitimate superstar, but his last run as champion - which encompassed the majority of the period from SummerSlam 2013 to WrestleMania XXX - can't be seen as much more than a failure. "The Viper" emerged from SummerSlam as the WWE Champion (and as a heel in the newly-formed Authority) after cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Daniel Bryan, but what started as a hot angle soon cooled off.
Through the fall, ratings and PPV buyrates declined with Orton on top - though admittedly, the title was vacant for part of that period. Once Orton got the belt back, though, he was responsible for the lowest Survivor Series buyrate of the pre-Network era - an abysmal event he headlined against The Big Show. The champion - and the title - rarely felt less important than they did during that match.
Ratings picked up in 2014 with the build to WrestleMania, but the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber events still drew lower than they did in 2013.
9. Sheamus
During Sheamus's first two reigns as WWE Champion, he was such an afterthought that it's almost hard to blame him for the company's woes. He captured the belt in a complete fluke at TLC 2009 and defended it in the undercard of the next two PPVs. His second title win came at Fatal 4-Way, one of the least-purchased WWE events of all time. His reign was short and notable for low buyrates.
Sheamus's real "accomplishment" as a horrible WWE Champion came just last year. At Survivor Series 2015, Roman Reigns won a tournament to crown a new champion, and immediately afterwards, Sheamus cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase for a title shot. He defeated Reigns and claimed the belt, stunning fans who watched him lose earlier in the show.
WWE thought they'd come up with a foolproof plan by putting the belt on someone even less popular than Reigns, but that fan antipathy translated into disgust, not interest. The episode of Raw the evening after Survivor Series drew the lowest non-holiday rating in nearly two decades, with only 2.95 million viewers tuning in. Typically, Raws following title switches do better in the ratings, but that wasn't the case here.
Ratings stayed low during the remainder of Sheamus's three-week reign.
8. The Miz
The Miz spent 2009 and 2010 improving his ring work, so when he finally captured the WWE Championship from Randy Orton, it was seen as a logical progression of his character arc. Unfortunately, he would soon emerge as one of the worst-booked WWE Champions in history, and that lack of credibility hurt his drawing power immensely.
As WWE Champion, Miz feuded with Randy Orton, Jerry Lawler, and John Cena. His programs with the latter two drew PPV numbers that were lower than shows from previous years, and while his WrestleMania main event with John Cena was a success, that was due primarily to the return of The Rock. Rock versus Cena became the hot story, and Miz was merely an afterthought.
Post-WrestleMania, Miz only got one more shot at the main event. At Extreme Rules, he, John Morrison, and John Cena battled in a triple threat cage match, with Cena capturing the WWE Championship. After that, Miz would never reign as WWE Champion again.
7. The Undertaker
Make no mistake - The Undertaker is a draw. From SummerSlam 1998 to WrestleMania 32, The Phenom has been part of central matches at some of the most successful shows in company history. However, most of his best-remembered matches have something in common - they weren't for the WWE Championship.
In 1997, Shawn Michaels vacated the title because he didn't want to drop it to Bret Hart. That led the company to put the belt on Sycho Sid, who dropped it to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 13. That show was the least-bought WrestleMania of all time, and subsequent PPV shows with Undertaker on top also drew poorly. TV ratings weren't any better - the company was in the middle of an 83-week-long thrashing at the hands of Monday Nitro, and only segments featuring Bret Hart and Steve Austin could compete.
Undertaker amassed many title reigns during the course of his career, but this was the only one that lasted more than a couple of months. The company clearly didn't want to take any more chances.
6. Sycho Sid
WWE fans turned on Shawn Michaels toward the end of his first title reign - so much so that when he lost the title to Sycho Sid at Survivor Series 1996, elated Madison Square Garden fans cheered the hero's defeat. Unfortunately, that auspicious start wasn't enough to make Sid anything other than a flop as champion.
He defended the title against Vader at In Your House: It's Time, which drew the second-lowest buyrate of the In Your House era. After that, he defended the title against Michaels at the Royal Rumble. With the show taking place in HBK's hometown of San Antonio, WWE booked the Alamodome, but they couldn't fill it. The PPV buyrate was down from the previous year.
Michaels won at the Rumble, but when he vacated the title rather than lose it to Bret Hart, Sid ended up with the belt once again. That set up a Sid-Undertaker WrestleMania main event, which stands, to this day, as the lowest drawing 'Mania headliner of all time. Sid would never hold the WWE Title again, but he amassed a few WCW Championship reigns during the organization's dying days.
5. Seth Rollins
Few title reigns in recent memory have begun with as much fanfare as that of Seth Rollins. Using the Money in the Bank briefcase, Rollins joined the WrestleMania main event of Roman Reigns versus Brock Lesnar, pinning Reigns to win the title. The darling of the hardcore fans was on top of the wrestling world, and people were happy.
Unfortunately, Rollins was a flop as champion. It wasn't his fault - like The Miz, he was booked like a complete loser. His wins, even over mid-level talent, came off as flukes, and he suffered routine non-title losses. The only thing that kept him over was his incredible skill, which made him the MVP of a very bad year for the company.
With the WWE Network replacing Pay-Per-View, it's been harder to measure the company's finances on a month-to-month basis. Still, Rollins's seven-month title reign saw TV ratings dip to new lows, and they still haven't recovered. It's little wonder - when fans see the best wrestler in the company carrying the top title and still looking like a joke, nothing really seems important.
4. Roman Reigns
Part of the reason that WWE didn't care enough to book Seth Rollins properly as champion was that he wasn't the brass's top priority - Roman Reigns was. While Rollins was repeatedly made to look like a paper champion, the company tried to strengthen Reigns to the point that they could eventually put the title on him without a backlash.
It didn't really work, but Reigns won the title anyway - first at the Survivor Series, then on the Raw after TLC. Both of those reigns were brief, and only designed to set him up for a big win at WrestleMania. At the show, he defeated Triple H to begin his first proper run as champion. Finally, WWE had a titleholder they could truly get behind.
It didn't help ratings. Whether it was because fans hated Reigns or because too much damage had already been done, TV numbers were still treading new lows. Furthermore, house show numbers on the Reigns-led tour were lower than those on shows headlined by Dean Ambrose, despite Reigns's push and the involvement of the WWE Title. The Roman Reigns experiment, two years in the making, was a flop.
3. Shawn Michaels
History has been very kind to Shawn Michaels. While nobody can deny "The Heartbreak Kid's" talent or his place as one of the most remarkable athletes in wrestling history, stories of his success as WWE Champion are just that. With Michaels on top, WWE first truly fell behind WCW in the Monday Night Wars.
HBK first captured the title from Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII, which was the third-lowest-bought 'Mania in history. Shortly after Michaels won the belt, Nitro's 83-week-long winning streak began, and PPVs that "The Heartbreak Kid" headlined were routinely outdrawn by WCW shows. SummerSlam 1996, where Michaels defended the title against Vader, was actually down nearly 25% from the Diesel-Mabel show the year before.
While many (correctly) point out that the company was in worse financial shape from 1992 to 1994 - when Bret Hart was on top - Hart was a better draw globally than Michaels ever was. His popularity in Canada, the Middle East, and Asia helped WWE expand as a worldwide entity. Michaels, meanwhile, ended up costing the promotion a lot of money.
2. JBL
At No Way Out 2004, the unthinkable happened - Eddie Guerrero defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. There have been few wrestlers as organically popular as Guerrero in WWE history, and with him on top, attendance for Smackdown house shows began to rise.
Unfortunately, there were many reports that the pressures of carrying the brand began to get to Guerrero and that - combined with a massive bladejob at Judgment Day that put the champion into shock - led WWE to take a different path. At The Great American Bash, Guerrero lost the title to JBL.
Fans were stunned, as only a couple of months earlier, JBL was part of a midcard tag team. Nobody took him seriously as a main-eventer or as a world champion, and that translated into doom for Smackdown. TV ratings and house show numbers fell back to pre-Guerrero numbers, and PPVs also weren't as strong. Despite all that, WWE kept the belt on JBL for nine months.
All in all, JBL's reign was a financial failure - so much so, that some sources claimed that he had broken the decade-old record for lowest-drawing WWE Champion ever.
1. Diesel
And to whom did that ignominious record as "worst drawing WWE Champion" belong? None other than shameless self-promoter and master politician Kevin "Diesel" Nash.
Diesel won the title from Bob Backlund at a Madison Square Garden house show in November of 1994 and went on to headline a WrestleMania that got 320,000 buys (down from 400,000 the previous year). Other shows had similar drops - King of the Ring went from 185,000 buys to 150,000, SummerSlam went from 300,000 buys to 205,000, and Survivor Series - where Nash finally lost the belt - went from 254,000 buys to an astounding 128,000, a drop of almost half.
TV ratings and house show numbers were similarly bad, all coming together to create a very poor year for the company financially. According to lore, Diesel once asked Gerald Brisco why he was the lowest-paid WWE Champion of all time. Brisco responded, "Because you're the lowest-drawing WWE Champion of all time."
Diesel lost the title in November of 1995, but he wasn't done doing horrible things as world champion. Three years later, he unseated the undefeated Goldberg for the WCW Championship, helping kill the promotion in the process.
10. Randy Orton
Along with John Cena, Randy Orton is one of WWE's constant presences. The mainstay first debuted in the company in 2002, first became a world champion in 2004, and has spent the past decade racking up accolades and main events.
Orton is a legitimate superstar, but his last run as champion - which encompassed the majority of the period from SummerSlam 2013 to WrestleMania XXX - can't be seen as much more than a failure. "The Viper" emerged from SummerSlam as the WWE Champion (and as a heel in the newly-formed Authority) after cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Daniel Bryan, but what started as a hot angle soon cooled off.
Through the fall, ratings and PPV buyrates declined with Orton on top - though admittedly, the title was vacant for part of that period. Once Orton got the belt back, though, he was responsible for the lowest Survivor Series buyrate of the pre-Network era - an abysmal event he headlined against The Big Show. The champion - and the title - rarely felt less important than they did during that match.
Ratings picked up in 2014 with the build to WrestleMania, but the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber events still drew lower than they did in 2013.
9. Sheamus
During Sheamus's first two reigns as WWE Champion, he was such an afterthought that it's almost hard to blame him for the company's woes. He captured the belt in a complete fluke at TLC 2009 and defended it in the undercard of the next two PPVs. His second title win came at Fatal 4-Way, one of the least-purchased WWE events of all time. His reign was short and notable for low buyrates.
Sheamus's real "accomplishment" as a horrible WWE Champion came just last year. At Survivor Series 2015, Roman Reigns won a tournament to crown a new champion, and immediately afterwards, Sheamus cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase for a title shot. He defeated Reigns and claimed the belt, stunning fans who watched him lose earlier in the show.
WWE thought they'd come up with a foolproof plan by putting the belt on someone even less popular than Reigns, but that fan antipathy translated into disgust, not interest. The episode of Raw the evening after Survivor Series drew the lowest non-holiday rating in nearly two decades, with only 2.95 million viewers tuning in. Typically, Raws following title switches do better in the ratings, but that wasn't the case here.
Ratings stayed low during the remainder of Sheamus's three-week reign.
8. The Miz
The Miz spent 2009 and 2010 improving his ring work, so when he finally captured the WWE Championship from Randy Orton, it was seen as a logical progression of his character arc. Unfortunately, he would soon emerge as one of the worst-booked WWE Champions in history, and that lack of credibility hurt his drawing power immensely.
As WWE Champion, Miz feuded with Randy Orton, Jerry Lawler, and John Cena. His programs with the latter two drew PPV numbers that were lower than shows from previous years, and while his WrestleMania main event with John Cena was a success, that was due primarily to the return of The Rock. Rock versus Cena became the hot story, and Miz was merely an afterthought.
Post-WrestleMania, Miz only got one more shot at the main event. At Extreme Rules, he, John Morrison, and John Cena battled in a triple threat cage match, with Cena capturing the WWE Championship. After that, Miz would never reign as WWE Champion again.
7. The Undertaker
Make no mistake - The Undertaker is a draw. From SummerSlam 1998 to WrestleMania 32, The Phenom has been part of central matches at some of the most successful shows in company history. However, most of his best-remembered matches have something in common - they weren't for the WWE Championship.
In 1997, Shawn Michaels vacated the title because he didn't want to drop it to Bret Hart. That led the company to put the belt on Sycho Sid, who dropped it to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 13. That show was the least-bought WrestleMania of all time, and subsequent PPV shows with Undertaker on top also drew poorly. TV ratings weren't any better - the company was in the middle of an 83-week-long thrashing at the hands of Monday Nitro, and only segments featuring Bret Hart and Steve Austin could compete.
Undertaker amassed many title reigns during the course of his career, but this was the only one that lasted more than a couple of months. The company clearly didn't want to take any more chances.
6. Sycho Sid
WWE fans turned on Shawn Michaels toward the end of his first title reign - so much so that when he lost the title to Sycho Sid at Survivor Series 1996, elated Madison Square Garden fans cheered the hero's defeat. Unfortunately, that auspicious start wasn't enough to make Sid anything other than a flop as champion.
He defended the title against Vader at In Your House: It's Time, which drew the second-lowest buyrate of the In Your House era. After that, he defended the title against Michaels at the Royal Rumble. With the show taking place in HBK's hometown of San Antonio, WWE booked the Alamodome, but they couldn't fill it. The PPV buyrate was down from the previous year.
Michaels won at the Rumble, but when he vacated the title rather than lose it to Bret Hart, Sid ended up with the belt once again. That set up a Sid-Undertaker WrestleMania main event, which stands, to this day, as the lowest drawing 'Mania headliner of all time. Sid would never hold the WWE Title again, but he amassed a few WCW Championship reigns during the organization's dying days.
5. Seth Rollins
Few title reigns in recent memory have begun with as much fanfare as that of Seth Rollins. Using the Money in the Bank briefcase, Rollins joined the WrestleMania main event of Roman Reigns versus Brock Lesnar, pinning Reigns to win the title. The darling of the hardcore fans was on top of the wrestling world, and people were happy.
Unfortunately, Rollins was a flop as champion. It wasn't his fault - like The Miz, he was booked like a complete loser. His wins, even over mid-level talent, came off as flukes, and he suffered routine non-title losses. The only thing that kept him over was his incredible skill, which made him the MVP of a very bad year for the company.
With the WWE Network replacing Pay-Per-View, it's been harder to measure the company's finances on a month-to-month basis. Still, Rollins's seven-month title reign saw TV ratings dip to new lows, and they still haven't recovered. It's little wonder - when fans see the best wrestler in the company carrying the top title and still looking like a joke, nothing really seems important.
4. Roman Reigns
Part of the reason that WWE didn't care enough to book Seth Rollins properly as champion was that he wasn't the brass's top priority - Roman Reigns was. While Rollins was repeatedly made to look like a paper champion, the company tried to strengthen Reigns to the point that they could eventually put the title on him without a backlash.
It didn't really work, but Reigns won the title anyway - first at the Survivor Series, then on the Raw after TLC. Both of those reigns were brief, and only designed to set him up for a big win at WrestleMania. At the show, he defeated Triple H to begin his first proper run as champion. Finally, WWE had a titleholder they could truly get behind.
It didn't help ratings. Whether it was because fans hated Reigns or because too much damage had already been done, TV numbers were still treading new lows. Furthermore, house show numbers on the Reigns-led tour were lower than those on shows headlined by Dean Ambrose, despite Reigns's push and the involvement of the WWE Title. The Roman Reigns experiment, two years in the making, was a flop.
3. Shawn Michaels
History has been very kind to Shawn Michaels. While nobody can deny "The Heartbreak Kid's" talent or his place as one of the most remarkable athletes in wrestling history, stories of his success as WWE Champion are just that. With Michaels on top, WWE first truly fell behind WCW in the Monday Night Wars.
HBK first captured the title from Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII, which was the third-lowest-bought 'Mania in history. Shortly after Michaels won the belt, Nitro's 83-week-long winning streak began, and PPVs that "The Heartbreak Kid" headlined were routinely outdrawn by WCW shows. SummerSlam 1996, where Michaels defended the title against Vader, was actually down nearly 25% from the Diesel-Mabel show the year before.
While many (correctly) point out that the company was in worse financial shape from 1992 to 1994 - when Bret Hart was on top - Hart was a better draw globally than Michaels ever was. His popularity in Canada, the Middle East, and Asia helped WWE expand as a worldwide entity. Michaels, meanwhile, ended up costing the promotion a lot of money.
2. JBL
At No Way Out 2004, the unthinkable happened - Eddie Guerrero defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. There have been few wrestlers as organically popular as Guerrero in WWE history, and with him on top, attendance for Smackdown house shows began to rise.
Unfortunately, there were many reports that the pressures of carrying the brand began to get to Guerrero and that - combined with a massive bladejob at Judgment Day that put the champion into shock - led WWE to take a different path. At The Great American Bash, Guerrero lost the title to JBL.
Fans were stunned, as only a couple of months earlier, JBL was part of a midcard tag team. Nobody took him seriously as a main-eventer or as a world champion, and that translated into doom for Smackdown. TV ratings and house show numbers fell back to pre-Guerrero numbers, and PPVs also weren't as strong. Despite all that, WWE kept the belt on JBL for nine months.
All in all, JBL's reign was a financial failure - so much so, that some sources claimed that he had broken the decade-old record for lowest-drawing WWE Champion ever.
1. Diesel
And to whom did that ignominious record as "worst drawing WWE Champion" belong? None other than shameless self-promoter and master politician Kevin "Diesel" Nash.
Diesel won the title from Bob Backlund at a Madison Square Garden house show in November of 1994 and went on to headline a WrestleMania that got 320,000 buys (down from 400,000 the previous year). Other shows had similar drops - King of the Ring went from 185,000 buys to 150,000, SummerSlam went from 300,000 buys to 205,000, and Survivor Series - where Nash finally lost the belt - went from 254,000 buys to an astounding 128,000, a drop of almost half.
TV ratings and house show numbers were similarly bad, all coming together to create a very poor year for the company financially. According to lore, Diesel once asked Gerald Brisco why he was the lowest-paid WWE Champion of all time. Brisco responded, "Because you're the lowest-drawing WWE Champion of all time."
Diesel lost the title in November of 1995, but he wasn't done doing horrible things as world champion. Three years later, he unseated the undefeated Goldberg for the WCW Championship, helping kill the promotion in the process.
.
