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The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Heel World Champions Going Into WrestleMania

March 2, 2018 | Posted by Mike Chin
Brock Lesnar Brock Lesnar Survivor Series WrestleMania Image Credit: WWE

There’s a tradition within WrestleMania lore of a face challenging a reigning heel world champion to achieve his coronation as a top player—if not the guy–in WWE. The first iteration didn’t really go down until WrestleMania 5, and a top face winning a first world title at ‘Mania didn’t really become tradition until WrestleMania 12. Starting at that point, though, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Chris Benoit, John Cena, Batista, and Rey Mysterio each graduated to the world champion status in WWE for the first time at WrestleMania, while others like Randy Savage, Triple H, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, and Roman Reigns picked up additional world title wins that nonetheless felt like more of their formal coronations or reinventions of their face characters after previous title reigns.

The flip side of great face champions being crowned at WrestleMania tends to be great heel champions going into WrestleMania. This countdown is dedicated to these guys. There’s no scientific formula at play, but rather I tried to strike a balance between all around quality of performance as a heel champion and aura of greatness around them to facilitate the rise of a great face challenger. As always, my personal opinion weighs heavily.

#7. Edge at WrestleMania 24

After years as a top tag guy, followed by years as an upper mid-card talent whom it wasn’t clear would ever break the main event glass ceiling, Edge walked into the main event of WrestleMania 24 as an established main event talent, worthy challenge for The Undertaker to tackle, and, most importantly for this countdown, reigning World Heavyweight Champion.

By 2008, Edge was top tier worker and proven character at the top of WWE. Add in Vickie Guerrero as his heel authority advocate, plus Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins playing the Edgeheads, and you had a guy who held his own as an all time great top villain. The only thing holding him back in this countdown is that there was little question The Undertaker would overcome him, between The Dead Man’s WrestleMania streak, his size advantage, and the story told up to that point. Nonetheless, The Rated R Superstar would end up giving him one of his very best Streak matches.

#6. Ric Flair at WrestleMania 8

It’s strange to think of how short Ric Flair’s first full-time WWE tenure was. Given his NWA-earned credibility, he was an immediate main event threat and in a half year’s time had become one of the company’s most important acts. In just a half year, he’d won the WWF Championship and carried that belt into what was billed as a main event for WrestleMania 8 (though he never would close the show as a wrestler at ‘Mania).

Flair embodied so much of his character in his prime in 1992. Yes, he walked into WrestleMania the reigning heel champion—in and of itself a quintessential part of his identity—but he was also playing a sly womanizer who got at challenger Randy Savage’s psyche by claiming to have been with Miss Elizabeth before him, and to have lewd photos of her that he threatened to expose.

Randy Savage was at his best (at least in his face role) when defending or avenging Liz, and all the more so when he was an underdog. Thus, Flair’s heel champion gimmick was the perfect complement to get the most out of Savage as the Macho Man kick started his last real main event run with the WWF.

#5. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 14

Shawn Michaels walked into WrestleMania 14 as something akin to a new school Ric Flair. He had the gravitas of the WWF touting him as the greatest world champion of all time, and the added credibility of not just being a great worker, but also having his D-generation X stable behind him. Combine these factors, and you have a suitable mountain for rising face of the company Steve Austin to climb, and a dream match to think of these two locking horns in a WrestleMania main event.

Sadly, Michaels was performing far below a hundred percent for this match, suffering from the back issues that would result in his three-year-plus sabbatical from the ring. From most sources, it was incredible Michaels could wrestle at all, let alone at a main even level, in that condition, but he did himself proud, holding up his end of the bargain to suitably pass the torch to Stone Cold at this event. Were Michaels at his best and able to deliver one of the truly world-class performances he had in earlier years, and would again in years to follow, he could easily have climbed to a higher rank in this countdown. As it was, the match was merely good, and pretty predictable in its outcome, thus winding up in the middle of this pack.

#4. Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 19

Not unlike Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 14, Kurt Angle walked into the WrestleMania 19 main event the reigning champion, and the champ that insiders had their doubts about due to injury. Angle was badly in need of neck surgery, and many rumors had him missing WrestleMania altogether, or at best working hurt to see through his program with Brock Lesnar before he ducked out of action.

While Angle was indeed hurt, and would miss a few months following this event, if you were to watch this show in a vacuum, you’d never know it. He walks in a confident, established champion with all of the severity of his Olympic credentials and multiple WWE world championship reigns behind him. Angle cut a wicked pace, working a deceptively great match with The Next Big Thing. Unfortunately, the stellar performance from both men tends to get overshadowed by the specter of Angle’s condition going in and the spectacle of Lesnar crashing and burning on his shooting star press attempt at the end of the match. Just the same, it’s a testament to Angle’s status as a ring general (and Lesnar’s incredible physicality) that they still saw the rock solid four-star match through to a satisfactory, ad-libbed conclusion.

#3. Triple H at WrestleMania 16

OK, so plenty of fans hate the main event to WrestleMania 16 and how it wrapped up. I get it. The match, like most of that year’s card, suffered from wedging in too many guys, and probably would have been better cast as simply The Rock challenging Triple H, without The Big Show and Mick Foley involved (let alone the subplot of the McMahons all taking sides). Moreover, the match itself, while fine, didn’t feel like a WrestleMania main event caliber classic. Add onto that Triple H retaining and you have a thoroughly disappointing close to the show (particularly given the historical context that Helmesley would end up dropping the title to The Rock in short order anyway).

For all of the pieces that went wrong, Triple H was in his physical prime for this show, and was over as a more than worthy heel champ walking into ‘Mania. While we can fantasy book things any way we want, the fact that he won also did add to his heat and further the kayfabe/shoot mystique of him politicking and getting special treatment that kept him a viable heel for so many years to follow.

So, we have an entirely believable top heel champion, and he walked out of the biggest show even more hated than he walked in. Not bad for a night’s work.

#2. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31

Brock Lesnar has always been a pretty phenomenal physical specimen for the duration of his time in the wrestling business—supersized, with real, remarkable strength and athleticism, not to mention legit amateur wrestling skills and later MMA credentials to bolster both his in-ring game and his credibility as a character.

By WrestleMania 31, he represented the proverbial “final boss” for a hero to overcome. After ending The Undertaker’s WrestleMania undefeated streak a year earlier, he had a dominant year that included squashing John Cena for the WWE Championship, then successfully defending that title against Cena in rematches, as well as Seth Rollins. Lesnar showed up on TV sparingly, and was a dominating presence when he did appear on the scene.

Take Lesnar’s aura and add it to his very real skill set as a professional wrestler, particularly between the ropes, and you had a special heel champ and the ideal monster for an up and coming hero to overcome. Unfortunately, Roman Reigns wasn’t quite ready for the spot set up for him to triumph over Lesnar and become the face of the company (and fortunately Rollins was there with Money in the Bank in play), but that’s no fault of Lesnar’s as one of the all-time great heel champions heading into WrestleMania.

#1. Randy Savage at WrestleMania 5

WrestleMania 5 was a product of its time as the WWF was still riding a wave of Hulkamania and was settling into an era with annual, nationally broadcast super shows to plan around, and a stable enough roster to do some long-term booking. The result was that they could set wheels in motion a year out with Randy Savage winning his first world championship, with an assist from Hulk Hogan, and reigning over the company, particularly in Hogan’s absence to film No Holds Barred, only to ultimately turn heel and go to war with The Hulkster.

Savage was a great heel champion in the sense that he combined being an outstanding all-around wrestling talent with being the kind of heel who generated heat because he had believable motivations. Savage played the jealous boyfriend to Miss Elizabeth and as such, had reason to hate Hogan for the perception that he was moving in on his girl, not to mention stealing some of his world champion spotlight.

In addition to his individual qualities, Savage was a great complement to Hogan in the ring who offered him one of his all-time best one-on-one matches, particularly for that era. As a testament to Savage’s greatness in this role, he would remain a fringe main event level heel for two years to follow. You have to believe that in a more contemporary period, he’d have had at least one more world title run during that stint to revisit highlights of the character, not to mention milking more rematch money out of the Savage-Hogan feud. As it stands, after that great period of heel work and a stint of kayfabe retirement, Savage would come back and step directly into a main event face role.

Whom would you add to the list? Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 28 and Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 26 were my top runners up. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.