Biggest World Champion Flop

[romanstylesiii]

To me, it's not even close. If you see which champion had the biggest impact on business, it was Sgt Slaughter's run. He had come off an extended spell of not wrestling and seemed out of shape.

Fans were also not buying the storyline.

It was so bad that they went from expecting to sell out a 100k stadium, to barely being able to get 15k in an arena. It also saw the biggest PPV drop off the WWE had ever seen to that point.

This was Hogan's lowest drawing PPV as a main eventer, and was beat by Bret on two separate occasions (WM 9 and 10)








Other thoughts and opinions. I strictly mean from a business perspective, as yeah, there have been other lame world champs

[government mule]

Diesel

[Hit Girl]

Del Rio

He was shite.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

WRESTLEMANIA NINE OUTDREW THAT?

Holy shit!

[Deleted]

Dec 8, 2020 18:13:02 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

Del Rio

He was shite.

You could remove him from WWE history and loose nothing.

Swagger is a close second.

[Fake Jesus]

I don't think there's any argument against Slaughter. You could maybe argue Triple H's reign of terror, but imo things were on the decline with or without him

[Starshine]

I don't remember specifics, but there was something going around in the last year or so that argued that Eddie Guerrero was the worst drawing champion the company had ever had, and the numbers they pointed to backed it up. IIRC the worst were almost all SmackDown brand-split champions.

[Crappler El 0 M]

I don't live in India, but I question whether Jinder Mahal became a huge star for the market, nor had much at all to do with WWE's TV deal in India. The whole idea of giving him a sudden mega push was a play to increase its business in India, and to create a big Indian superstar.

Again, I'm not expert on the Indian market, but I question whether the Jinder experiment was a success.

[Deleted]

Dec 8, 2020 18:17:41 GMT -5 Crappler El 0 M said:

I don't live in India, but I question whether Jinder Mahal became a huge star for the market, nor had much at all to do with WWE's TV deal in India. The whole idea of giving him a sudden mega push was a play to increase its business in India, and to create a big Indian superstar.

Again, I'm not expert on the Indian market, but I question whether the Jinder experiment was a success.

He’s so much of a flop I forgot he was even champion.

[Andee9001]

I would argue Sheamus. Guy is like a 4x champion but just doesn't seem credible as a main eventer.

[Venti]

It may have not done good business, but at least Slaughter's heel run with the belt was memorable enough that people still talk about it nearly 30 years later(for better or worse)
Plus it gave Hogan another feel-good Wrestlemania win.
Also I might just be saying that because I'm a bit of a mark for Sarge.

I gotta go with Del Rio.
Did him holding the WWE belt in 2011 accomplish anything?

And then there's the World Heavyweight Championship. I've never liked them having two world title belts, but at least in the 2000s when guys like Benoit, Triple H, Batista, and Undertaker held the WHC it felt meaningful.

As soon as guys like Sheamus, Swagger, and Del Rio started holding it, to me it became the glorified Intercontinental belt.

I couldn't name a single Universal champion besides Brock, and honestly no matter what WWE or anyone else tells me, in my mind that's not a world title. There's no meaningful lineage(at least the WHC somewhat had ties to the WCW and NWA titles) they just pulled it out of thin air.

As for the WWF/E title, I think Diesel can be another contender. He did an alright job being champ, but I think if you consider the standards set, he was supposed to be the next Hogan-esque top babyface and it just wasn't happening. So in that context, that reign was kind of a flop.



Edit: just realized OP specifically said from a business perspective. That's another strike against my bad attention span not fully reading things and tangenting off.

[Deleted]

Dec 8, 2020 18:17:40 GMT -5 Starshine said:

I don't remember specifics, but there was something going around in the last year or so that argued that Eddie Guerrero was the worst drawing champion the company had ever had, and the numbers they pointed to backed it up. IIRC the worst were almost all SmackDown brand-split champions.

[A Platypus Rave]

Jinder.

Guy couldn't even get cheap heat.

Was designed to be a big star for the India tour. It sold poorly and he lost the belt before even getting to it.

[fw91]

May sound like a silly question, but from a fan standpoint, can we call Jinder a flop? It's not like any of us had high hopes/expectations to begin with. It kind of met expectations.

[romanstylesiii]

Dec 8, 2020 18:14:58 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

WRESTLEMANIA NINE OUTDREW THAT?

Holy shit!

Hogan was starting to get booed and I don't think fans wanted anything to do with that storyline

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Dec 8, 2020 18:54:50 GMT -5 fw91 said:

May sound like a silly question, but from a fan standpoint, can we call Jinder a flop? It's not like any of us had high hopes/expectations to begin with. It kind of met expectations.

Yes we can because they booked him.as champion to sell two big shows in India and had to combine them into one show because he drew nothing.

[Deleted]

Dec 8, 2020 18:54:50 GMT -5 fw91 said:

May sound like a silly question, but from a fan standpoint, can we call Jinder a flop? It's not like any of us had high hopes/expectations to begin with. It kind of met expectations.

The fact he won it in the first place... yes.

[Bang Bang Bart]

Dec 8, 2020 19:01:58 GMT -5 romanstylesiii said:

Dec 8, 2020 18:14:58 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

WRESTLEMANIA NINE OUTDREW THAT?

Holy shit!

Hogan was starting to get booed and I don't think fans wanted anything to do with that storyline

Having a guy pledge allegiance to Iraq and claim he was friends with Saddam at a time when Operation Desert Storm was just about to get underway probably hit way too close to home for many.

[Crappler El 0 M]

Dec 8, 2020 18:54:50 GMT -5 fw91 said:

May sound like a silly question, but from a fan standpoint, can we call Jinder a flop? It's not like any of us had high hopes/expectations to begin with. It kind of met expectations.

In the same way that the recent Ben-Hur remake was a big flop. In the weeks/months before its release, it seemed everyone expected it to fail and thought it looked terrible. Well, it did fail. Still, some studio exec somewhere gave it the greenlight, it got made, and it got a big theatrical release. Just because the public never thought it would succeed doesn't make it less of a flop.

Same with Jinder. Just because fans didn't expect him to be a success as champ doesn't make him less of a flop.

[Shark]

Given that the goal was to draw big in the Indian market and grow that fan base and launch him as this next big international star, Jinder absolutely flopped and flopped hard. Diesel flopped too, but WWE themselves were trending downward already, the people he had to try and draw with also didn't help while Jinder flopped against established stars like Randy Orton and a rising popular star in Shinskue Nakamura. He had a huge and very profitable WWE behind him and he could not live up to expectations.

You can argue Austin winning in 2001 was a flop too since business and ratings took a huge fall when they gave him the title, but arguably it was the heel turn that caused it instead of him being champion so that's a little murky.

I don't know that it's fair to include Slaughter on here since he was only ever going to be a transitional champion. All he was there to do was keep the title warm for 2 months until Hogan conquered him at Mania. The guy he took it from though could be on this list. Warrior didn't keep the business going as strong as Hogan had and he flamed out pretty badly.