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While theWWEChampionship is considered the most significant World Title in professional wrestling , there was once a metre when theWCW World Heavyweight Championshipfelt even bigger . WCW as a mark may not have live as long as WWE and , thus , its main claim did not conduct the same level of history . However , the best grappler on the planet competed for the WCW World Championship .
In time when WCW was putting on better equal than WWE , and even in meter when WCW was hotter than WWE was , that meant something . Even when WCW close up into WWE , the latter still showed respect for its prestigious championship , to the point that it ’s still used as a independent event statute title today .
WWE superstars are often praised for their promos , but what about the interview and mic work cut by the matman of WCW during their heyday ?
The WCW World Heavyweight Championship was established in 1991 when Ric Flair defeated Sting for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship , which had fare along in 1988 with the Jim Crockett Promotions skill by Turner Broadcasting . It stay the main title of the company for all its life sentence until it was acquired by WWE in 2001 . The follow adept are the grappler who make the legacy of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship before the society ended .
10Ron Simmons
Total of 150 Days as WCW Champion Across One Reign
Ron Simmons is best recollect as Farooq in WWE , most notably when he serve as one - one-half of the APA , but before he was guzzle beer with Bradshaw or even mentoring The Rock in the Nation of Domination , he was crap story in WCW . When he defeat Vader for the World Championship , he became the first sinister man to get ahead any professional wrestling World Heavyweight Championship on interior television receiver . That ’s not an honour that can be downplay .
Under one sovereignty cranking at 150 days , the moment and honor alone is historic enough to rank him among the effective champions . It does n’t stop there , either , as he proved to be a solid in - ring actor during his sovereignty . While he would n’t deliver a mate as memorable as his win and rematch over the Big Van , Ron Simmons is far more than just a " DAMN ! " catchphrase .
9DDP
Total of 29 Days as Champion Across Three Reigns
The original People ’s Champion is recognise as one of the good World Champions in WCW history . It ’s ironic , becausehis reigns were always incredibly short , which explains why he ’s modest on the tilt despite his impact . Across three reign , his combined day as sensation just ring for a calendar month long . Still , though , DDP was insanely over with or without the whang in a time when that was hard to do without sport black and white spray rouge . He was a rhomb in the rough , and it help that he had some exceptional matches as champ , particularly against Randy Savage .
More than anything , Diamond Dallas Page was also just insanely likable . He was immensely charismatic to the point that everyone wanted to see him come after . So , even if his meter on the top only lasted bare day , it still felt like a big consequence because for WCW fans , theirguy became the wiz , and that ’s all that matter for the moment .
8Scott Steiner
Total of 120 Days as Champion Across One Reign
There ’s a call that can be made for Scott Steiner being the last major singles star that WCW produced , and it ’s a claim that ’s concentrated to argue against . Scott overachieve in his blackguard singles persist , breaking aside from brother Rick by completely remolding himself as The Big Bad Booty Daddy . In WCW ’s die days , Big Poppa Pump was easily the most consistently harbor aspect of Nitro ’s terminal shows , with his title reign being the cherry on top .
The only thing that stifled Steiner ’s main event push was WCW ending . WCW went under just when Steiner ’s run was starting to get function , and before it could really leave a dent in the history ledger , he lost the form of address to Booker on the final episode of Nitro . Had WCW not end , Steiner might ’ve unfeignedly cemented himself as a legend with an even longer reign , if not multiple reigns .
7Lex Luger
Total of 235 Days as Champion Across Two Reigns
Lex Luger did not have many reign as WCW Champion , but it ’s case like these where quality is good than quantity . His winnings over Hollywood Hulk Hogan on the August 4 , 1997 , episode of Monday Nitro at the Palace of Auburn Hills isone of the most feel - in force moments in WCW account , even more so think it was the same venue that Luger failed to beat Yokozuna for the WWE Championship four year earlier at SummerSlam . Hogan would win the championship back five days later at the Road Wild PPV , but again , tone over quantity . Everyone remember the second even more than the pay - per - view .
For what it ’s worth , Luger did have an all-encompassing 230 - solar day sovereignty the first metre he admit the rubric in 1991 . Granted , going back to tone over quantity , his longer reign was far from memorable , as the companionship was much smaller at the time and skin to reach a national audience . Oftentimes , hearing would intonate " We require Flair ! " during Luger ’s claim matches in 1991 . Ouch .
6Goldberg
Total of 174 Days as Champion Across One Reign
It ’s absolutely lurid to think thatGoldberg only held the World Title in WCW on one function . He was on top for so long during his undefeated run , that it ’s loose to think that he was champion for a heap longer . Indeed , though , upon defeat Hollywood Hulk Hogan for the form of address in front of his local Atlanta , Georgia , crowd on the July 6 , 1998 , episode of Nitro , Goldberg apply the title of respect right up until his bar ended at the hand of Kevin Nash ( which still holds weight as one of WCW ’s worst booking decisions ) .
It speaks to the impact and attending that Goldberg harbour in the palms of his manus that his sovereignty mat up bigger and longer than it actually was . The magnitude of his fictional character gripped audiences from the moment he debuted , and he carried it throughout his title sovereignty . Without it , his reign might ’ve been impossible to sit through since his match were n’t very good - aside from a standout Halloween Havoc binge with DDP .
5Big Van Vader
Total of 377 Days as Champion Across Three Reigns
Vader is a name that does n’t get talked about extremely enough when it comes to WCW . Yes , he ’s always praise as one of the unspoiled openhanded men to enter the ring , butit ’s always been understate just how important his bearing was to WCW . Some of the most important stars in WCW chronicle were made because of their feuds and wins over Vader . Even the great unwashed on this listing , namely Sting and Ron Simmons , greatly profit from the mastodont falling at their groundwork .
Big Van Vader was booked like a behemoth every step of the path , and the few times that a babyface was able to topple the giant , that babyface became a mega - genius for life . Meanwhile , besides his share to someone else ’s pushing , the deceptively spry monstrosity was reproducible in giving unbelievable performances and great matches with whoever he step in the ring with ( particular shoutout to his feud with Cactus Jack ) . The late Leon White coiffure the legal community for the ideal big human in this athletics , and Sting vs. Vader set the saloon as to what a David vs. Goliath competition should look like .
4Hulk Hogan
Total of 1,177 Days as WCW Champion Across Six Reigns
Hulk Hogan conjoin WCW was unquestionablyone of Eric Bischoff ’s good decisionsand a secret plan - changer for the party . The company jazz it from the start , hence why his first peer in WCW was kill Ric Flair for the WCW Championship . Still wear the crimson and yellow attire , Hulk Hogan ’s streamlet as WCW Champion - even consider the fatuity propose in feuds with The Giant and Dungeon of Doom -was influential in making WCW a competitor against WWE . Without Hogan , there may not have been a Nitro .
By the same logic , his anointing as nWo ’s leader under the disgraceful and white proved to be even more pivotal for WCW , as Hogan ’s heel campaign as champion was a key reason why the company wash up WWE in the ratings war for 83 weeks . His matches pass on a plenty to be desired , but the storylines and quality work were enough to keep audience invest .
3Ric Flair
Total of 501 Days as Champion Across Eight Reigns
When people think of the Big Gold Belt , Ric Flair is the first human beings that usually comes to listen . He was practically matrimonial to that belt back in the former Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of WCW , as it scarcely left his waist . It ’s easy to understand why , look at that Flair always made for the perfect obstacle in any babyface ’s way . Whether he was alone or with the Four Horsemen when it was still the NWA Title , Flair oozed the air of a champion . Like a final honcho who players shin to defeat every clock time , crowds would pour in to see someone wipe that smirk off Flair ’s face .
A volume of his 16 World Championship reigns ( or more officially 21 ) were WCW World Heavyweight Championships for that reason , but it was n’t just character employment . As a heel and even as a face , he delivered inst classics in the pack . Whenever he called himself the best wrestler in the world , masses believed him because of his electric performances against Ricky Steamboat , Terry Funk , and Sting , and that does n’t even scratch the surface of all of his all - time classic .
2Sting
Total of 250 Days as Champion Across Six Reigns
If Ric Flair was the prototypic heel of WCW , Sting was the prototypic babyface . He lived and suspire WCW as few others could . What ’s most telling is that he continued to deliver consistently both in the doughnut and on the mic in both his Surfer character and his starkly different Crow fiber . While he ’d turn up to be a better chaser than adept , he still made a credible champion during all his 250 days .
Like many champions on this leaning , Sting ’s reigns were choke a flake by misfortunate booking . Arguably his most significant profits do at Starrcade 1997 when he became the man who finally shell the vile Hollywood Hulk Hogan and the nWo , but the strange shenanigans of the friction match and the swift denudation of the championship from him two weeks later ferment the winnings . Still , though , everyone loved Sting , and even in his bad reigns , he did his estimable to plow manure into Au .
1Booker T
Total of 253 Days as WCW Champion Across Five Reigns
Not everyone will be quick to say that he ’s a better in - band grappler than Ric Flair or Sting , but it ’s voiceless to argue against the estimate that Booker T is definitively WCW in ways that not even Sting or Flair are . Thanks to their land tenure under the NWA banner , Ric Flair and Sting were already megastars . booking agent T rose to superstardom under the WCW brandfollowing his debut as Harlem Heat and organically got over as a single star .
What also place Booker at the top is that he feels more closely link up to the WCW Championship than anyone else on this list , to the item thathis signature " FIVE TIME ! " catchphrase and hand gesture refers to being a five - fourth dimension WCW World Champion . As a resolution , when people hear the run-in WCW orWCW World Heavyweight Championship , Booker ’s name is the first to come to mind for a stack of mass .
