The Winged Eagle WWE champion was used by the WWF for 10 years, the longest ever in the storied wrestling promotion's history. During that time, it switched hands more than a dozen of times and helped push up-and-coming wrestlers over the top.
Some of the names that have held the Winged Eagle title like Hulk Hogan, Andrew the Giant, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and Ric Flair.
Even "Stone Cold" Steve Austin got a chance to hold on to it and was the one to officially retire it (more on this later).
Given how much history is behind the Winged Eagle and the fact that Cody Rhodes wants to bring it back, we decided to rank the wrestlers who got a chance to hold on to the said title belt, starting from Hulk Hogan all the way to Stone Cold.
Andre the Giant
The Eighth Wonder of the World was a spectacle in and of himself, so the 7-foot-4 wrestler didn't need belts to draw crowds. But, that doesn't mean he didn't win at least one.
Andre's sole championship reign came in 1988 when he dethroned Hulk Hogan for the top title in the WWF. However, he was only a champion for all but a minute (literally) after he sold the belt to Ted DiBiase.
To date, Andre the Giant holds the dubious record for the shortest title reign in WWE history.
Bob Backlund
Bob Backlund is the first wrestler to hold a WWE and WWF Championship in three different decades after he reigned as the champ in the late 70s, early 80s, and mid-90s. Backlund holds the WWE record for the third-longest championship reign at 2,135 days. But, unlike his initial runs as the champ, the fans didn't really take too much to Backlund when he came back to the WWF in 1992.
A relic from the days when Vince McMahon Sr. still ran the show, Backlund was no longer the specimen that he once was in his return. Still, the WWF gave him a push, and his schtick as an unstable self-centered narcissist in 1994 helped as well.
At Survivor Series 1994, Bob Backlund would end up defeating Bret Hart in a throw-in-a-towel submission match with help from Owen Hart.
Unfortunately, the reason why Backlund ranks this low is that he only got to spend three days with the Winged Eagle title. After stunning the world and clinching the title, Diesel would only need 8 seconds to drop Backlund and win the title in front of thousands of fans at Madison Square Garden.
Sgt. Slaughter
Another one of the stars who peaked in the 80s, Vince McMahon brought Sgt. Slaughter back in the 90s to take advantage of the public's support for the military. Unfortunately, Sgt. Slaughter was no longer someone the younger folks could rally behind.
Significantly older, slower, and more sluggish than his younger, spry self, Sgt. Slaughter still got a chance to headline the 1991 Royal Rumble where he beat The Ultimate Warrior and ended up being the champion. 64 days later and a not-so-sold-out LA Memorial Coliseum for WrestleMania 7 later (pre-sale ticket numbers were so poor that the venue had to be changed to the LA Sports Arena), Sgt. Slaughter bid the Winged Eagle farewell against Hulk Hogan.
Diesel
"Transitional champions" are a term used within the WWE (and possibly other circles) to define the wrestlers who receive a push if only to fill the void between big names. Sgt. Slaughter and Bob Backlund are the best examples of this.
We aren't quite sure if Diesel is a transitional champion but he's certainly not transcendent.
Diesel reigned at a time when the WWF wasn't doing too well. This isn't to say that Kevin Nash was to blame for this but he certainly didn't help. His lack of wrestling skills (he's a lumbering giant who's best known for giving opponents a big boot to the face, big whoop) and general lack of believability as a babyface made his 358-day run atop the food chain one of the least memorable runs in WWE history.
But, when you throw so much at the proverbial wall, some are bound to stick if only temporarily and he did have a handful of good moments.
Say what you will about the Diesel, but his feud with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels made WWF bearable to watch at a time when nothing else noteworthy was going on. Plus, he's one of the few to complete the Triple Crown and in record time at that (7 months, to be exact).
Ric Flair
Ric Flair might share the record of being a 16-time World Champion with John Cena but his title runs are nowhere near as memorable. In particular, The Nature Boy held the Winged Eagle twice in the early 90s, first at the 1992 Royal Rumble and again later in the same year.
As the face of the NWA for years, Vince McMahon had high hopes for Flair when he finally joined the WWF and he didn't exactly impress.
Perhaps the only reason why Ric Flair ranks this "high" is due to the fact that he got two title reigns at a time when Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and The Ultimate Warrior all peaked while Bret Hart was at the cusp of greatness.
Maybe if Ric Flair had more time in the WWF, he'd gotten more time to get accustomed to the audience and become a better draw. But, this didn't happen, and Flair was already back in the WCW two years after lasting outlasting everyone at the Royal Rumble.
The Ultimate Warrior
The Ultimate Warrior was supposed to take the torch from Hulk Hogan and take over the WWF in the 90s, but things didn't pan out exactly how Vince McMahon would've wanted it.
Less than a year into his clean win over Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 6 in 1990, The Ultimate Warrior was passed over by a returning Hulk Hogan and a bunch of other more iconic wrestlers of the era.
Make no mistake, The Ultimate Warrior had everything the WWF could have hoped for in someone who could carry the weight of the WWF on his shoulders. Perhaps it was just bad timing, wrong booking decisions, or Hulk Hogan not wanting to cede the spotlight just yet, or a combination of all three. Either way, The Ultimate Warrior lacked the longevity to get up to the upper echelon of our lineup.
If it's any consolation, The Ultimate Warrior still reigned for 293 days and he'll be remembered for taking part in one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time.
Randy Savage
Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior are two peas in the same pod - they both had to share the spotlight with Hulk Hogan.
However, unlike The Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage had a higher peak, claiming the title (both literally and figuratively) at WrestleMania 8 over Ric Flair with the Hulkster leaving the WWF. His feuds with Flair and The Ultimate Warrior as well as his later team-up with the latter as the Ultimate Maniacs helped keep WWF fans occupied with Hogan off in Japan and slugging it out with The Great Muta.
The Macho Man worked well both as a heel and as a babyface and in total, he reigned over the WWE for 371 days.
His 90s run might not have been as good as his late 80s performance but most audiences today will still associate him with the Winged Eagle.
Sycho Sid
It's no secret that Vince McMahon has a weird fascination with big sweaty men, regardless of their wrestling and acting chops. More often than not, Vince's plan to put such men over end up falling flat on its face, but when they work, they're a sight to behold.
Sycho Sid is the perfect example of the exact opposite of Murphy's Law.
Everything that could go right, went wrong for Sycho Sid in the mid-90s. He'd failed to headline main events before and it wouldn't have been surprising for fans not to rally behind him when he returned in 1996. Except, he won over fans with his "dominance" and promos, even winning the Winged Eagle belt over Shawn Michaels in front of a rumbunctious Madison Square Garden crowd. Sycho Sid might not have been able to retain the title for long but he kept on winning it as often as he dropped it.
Ultimately, Sycho Sid's main claim to fame is being one of the only guys to beat both Shawn Michaels and Bret Hard for the coveted WWE Championship at the prime of their respective careers.
Yokozuna
Yokozuna didn't fit your stereotypical wrestler but he wasn't a big, sweaty guy that had put the WWF under the microscope for steroid distribution and, more importantly, he was effective.
While Yokozuna wasn't the best wrestler, his heel run from 1993 through 1994 remains one of the best in the promotion's history.
Very few champions have effectively retained their titles as heels and refuse to become a babyface, which is why Yokozuna ranks this high. The Samoan giant (contrary to popular belief, Yokozuna didn't come from Japan), terrorized the WWE for 280 days, overcoming Lex Luger and The Undertaker. Yokozuna also proved to McMahon that long-term heel champions work, setting the tone for similar runs from wrestlers like Triple H, Edge, and, most recently, Roman Reigns.
Coincidentally, Yokozuna and Reigns both belong to the great Anoa'i wrestling family, which has since produced a handful of iconic wrestlers like The Rock, The Usos, and Solo Sikoa, among others.
The Undertaker
The thing with The Undertaker is that he didn't need to be the WWE Champion. It was nice to see Taker hold the coveted belt, especially if it was the Winged Eagle, but it was never really part of his persona.
Still, The Undertaker worked well as a transitional champion that didn't need long reigns to be effective.
Case in point, The Undertaker conquered Hulk Hogan at the 1991 Survivor Series to become the youngest WWE Champion ever back when he was basically a giant zombie. Then, close to six years later, The Undertaker, now the Lord of Darkness, put an end to Sycho Sid's run at WrestleMania 13.
What makes The Undertaker's short reign unique is that he didn't fight against the usual crop of contenders, squaring off against Mankind, Faarooq, and Vader.
Taker ended up winning a third WWE Championship in 1999 but it was no longer the Winged Eagle at the time.
Stone Cold
Stone Cold is the greatest WWE champion of the 90s - there's no arguing that.
The only reason why the future Bionic Redneck isn't ranked any higher is that he didn't really reign as the champ with the Winged Eagle belt.
Stone Cold finally got a title shot at WrestleMania 14 against none other than Shawn Michaels, who helped him put on a show for the ages despite nursing an injury. The end result remains one of the best WrestleMania matches ever, which Austin capped off with a Stunner to go home with the belt.
Austin held the iconic Wingled Eagle version of the WWE Championship belt for 24 hours and effectively (and literally) kickstarted the Attitude Era just a day later.
Hulk Hogan
Much like Stone Cold defined the WWF and the WWE in the late 90s and early 2000s, Hulk Hogan was wrestling personified in the 80s and early 90s. The Hulkster enjoyed several title reigns for over a decade and was actually the one who debuted the Winged Eagle design.
Hogan would've easily ranked at least one spot higher if he handled his "exit" from the WWF better.
After multiple title reigns, Hogan held the Winged Eagle for one last time in 1993 after defeating Yokozuna at WrestleMania 3 following the newly-minted champ's win over Bret Hart. Hogan's sporadic appearances for several months before dropping the belt to Yokozuna and eventually leaving the WWF for nearly a decade is definitely one way to end a run - just not the best.
If you focus solely on Hogan's golden era from 1988 to 1992, it's easy to see why Hulkamania was so huge at the time. You can't really blame Vince McMahon for trusting Hogan with the WWE Championship so many times when he kept on filling stadiums and selling tickets.
Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels realized his lifelong dream in 1996 after he beat one of the top guys over at the WWF for the right to hold on to the Winged Eagle. This started Michael's run of multiple title reigns and successful defenses against the likes of Diesel, Mankind, and Bulldog.
For the better part of the next two years, Michaels brought his A game to the ring and demanded that his opponents keep up with him and fans absolutely loved it.
Unfortunately, Michaels' time as a champion came with a lot of caveats. For example, the WWF was losing to the WCW in his first championship run because of now-heel Hulk Hogan and the nWo. Then, Michaels refused to lose the title to Bret and instead "lost his smile" by faking a severe knee injury so that he'd vacate the title instead of losing. Finally, who could ever forget the Montreal Screwjob?
Despite the controversies and later injuries, Shawn Michaels held the WWF fort well enough until the Attitude Era started with Stone Cold becoming the face of the company, which is why the Heartbreak Kid is this high up on our list.
Bret Hart
If Shawn Michaels helped hold the WWF fort, Bret Hart was the one who steadied the ship. Hart was as solid as a rock and was effectively the go-to guy of the WWF for much of the 90s.
As the WWF tried to shed its image that its wrestlers are these roided hulking beasts, Hart stepped forward to become the prototypical wrestler. The Hitman could actually wrestle and outwork most if not all the opponents he's ever squared off against inside the wrong. Day in and day out, Bret was the one solid crowd-drawing machine that Vince McMahon could always count on when it was stuck in a rut and had nowhere else to go.
Throughout this run, the Excellence of Execution won the WWE Championship a total of five times, defending it from the likes of Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, and The Undertaker, among others. More importantly, Hart took over once the star power of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, and Ric Flair all dwindled prior to their departures.
Very few wrestlers have the right to call themselves "the best there is, was, and ever will be" and Hart is one of them.
The WWE doesn't recycle belt designs, so it's highly unlikely it will start doing this anytime soon. But, there's always a first and if there's a belt design the WWE should consider bringing back, it's the one that stayed with the promotion for the longest time.
