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Rating The Champ

WWE World Titles – 2015

Welcome to my blog. This is the start of a new series, where I’ll be looking back at the history of WWE World Titles (not counting ECW) and ranking all the World Title reigns since the “Modern Era”. The “Modern Era” goes all the way back to the birth of Hulkamania in 1984, and that’s where we’ll end. Today we look back at the year 2015, and we’ll continue to go back from here.

In front of my star ratings for the matches, you’ll either see “HR”, “R” or “RTA”. “HR” means the match is highly recommended ; “R” means the match is recommended ; “RTA” means recommendation to avoid. In case nothing appears, the match is watchable but nothing spectacular.

WWE CHAMPIONSHIP

Seth Rollins (March 29, 2015 – November 4, 2015)

  • Televised matches: 53
  • Record: 22-30 (1 draw)

My match ratings:

  • Seth Rollins def. Brock Lesnar(c) and Roman Reigns in a MITB cash-in – WrestleMania 31 (****1/2) *HR*
  • Seth Rollins def. Neville – RAW April 6 2015 (***1/4)
  • Seth Rollins(c) def. Randy Orton in a Steel Cage Match – Extreme Rules 2015 (***1/2) *R*
  • Seth Rollins(c) def. Roman Reigns, Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose – Payback 2015 (***3/4) *R*
  • Dean Ambrose def. Seth Rollins(c) by DQ – Elimination Chamber 2015 (***1/2)
  • Seth Rollins(c) def. Dean Ambrose in a Ladder Match – Money in the Bank 2015 (****1/4) *HR*
  • Brock Lesnar def. Seth Rollins(c) by DQ – Battleground 2015 (**1/2)
  • Seth Rollins(c) def. Neville – RAW Aug. 3 2015 (***3/4) *R*
  • Seth Rollins(c) def. John Cena – WWE & US Titles – SummerSlam 2015 (****1/2) *HR*
  • John Cena def. Seth Rollins(c) – WWE US Championship – Night of Champions 2015 (****) *R*
  • Seth Rollins(c) def. Sting – Night of Champions 2015 (***1/2) *R*
  • John Cena(c) def. Seth Rollins – Steel Cage Match – WWE US Championship – WWE Live From MSG 2015 (***3/4) *R*
  • Seth Rollins(c) def. Kane – Hell in a Cell 2015 (***)

This reign is a pretty hard one to rate. Usually I don’t let win/loss records influence my rating, especially with heels who lose most of their TV matches by DQ or count-out to set up PPV matches. With Rollins, however, that was not the case. Not only was he pinned on PPV by John Cena to lose the US Championship, he lost a number of TV singles matches by pin/submission to many people. Everyone from Dean Ambrose, to Roman Reigns, to John Cena, to Ryback got to pin Seth Rollins, not to mention the f*cking J&J SECURITY got to pin the Heavyweight Champion of the World. That is exactly how a World Champion should not be booked, as Rollins was booked as a joke for most of his reign. However, if you take a look at that list above, almost all of his matches are (highly) recommended and his worst matches during his first reign were decent. That is impressive, and is what elevates my rating for Seth Rollins’ first reign as the then-WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

Rating: 6/10

Roman Reigns (November 22, 2015)

  • Televised matches: 2
  • Record: 1-1

My match ratings:

  • Roman Reigns def. Dean Ambrose – Survivor Series 2015 (**3/4)
  • Sheamus def. Roman Reigns(c) in a MITB cash-in – Survivor Series (N/R)

After Seth Rollins got injured and vacated his WWE World Heavyweight Championship, the title was put on the line in the Deadly Games V2 at Survivor Series 2015. The four semi-finalists heading into Survivor Series 2015 were Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens and Alberto Del Rio. In the first two rounds on TV, Reigns had defeated The Big Show and Cesaro (in a fantastic match) ; Ambrose had bested Tyler Breeze and Dolph Ziggler ; US Champion Del Rio had defeated Stardust and Kalisto ; finally, the Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens had defeated Titus O’Neil and Neville. Earlier that night, Dean defeated Owens while Reigns bested Del Rio to advance to the final match. The match between Reigns and Ambrose was average and quite disappointing, and saw Reigns win the World Title for the first time in his career. Then, Triple H allowed Sheamus to cash-in Money in the Bank and win the gold with a Brogue Kick, ending Reigns’ first reign at a little over five minutes. Hated the Lex Luger-booking for Roman here, but the reign itself was too short anyway.

Rating: -/10

Sheamus (November 22, 2015 – December 14, 2015)

  • Televised matches: 9
  • Record: 3-6

My match ratings:

  • Sheamus def. Roman Reigns(c) in a MITB cash-in – Survivor Series (N/R)
  • Sheamus(c) def. Roman Reigns in a TLC Match – TLC 2015 (***1/2) *R*
  • Roman Reigns def. Sheamus(c) – RAW Dec. 14 2015 (***)

Did anyone want to see Sheamus as WWE Champion in 2015? The guy who was teaming with undercarder King Barrett and was wrestling on the pre-show of Hell in a Cell (the PPV before the one he won the title, by the way) after and endless feud with Randy Orton. That’s the guy who was now the champion, after going through a whole tournament to crown a new champion! Unsurprisingly, RAW reached some all-time low ratings up until that point and what we had were three weeks of multi-person tag team matches with The League of Nations. Sheamus’ match with Reigns at TLC did exceed expectations, though, so there’s that. He’d go on to lose the belt to Roman the next night on RAW anyway, unsuccessfully challenge him in a title match with Vince McMahon as the referee and then… went back to where he was, getting destroyed by legends at WrestleMania and losing to Apollo Crews on PPV. Just a few months after being the World Champion.

Rating: 2/10

ALL-TIME CHAMPIONS RANKING

  1. Daniel Bryan (WWE Championship, 13/11/2018 – 07/04/2019) 9
  2. AJ Styles (WWE Championship, 11/09/2016 – 29/01/2017) 9
  3. AJ Styles (WWE Championship, 07/11/2017 – 13/11/2018) 7
  4. Kevin Owens (WWE Universal Championship, 29/08/2016- 05/03/2017) 6
  5. Seth Rollins (WWE Championship, 29/03/2015 – 04/11/2015)
  6. Roman Reigns (WWE Championship, 03/04/2016 – 19/06/2016) 6
  7. Brock Lesnar (Universal Championship, 02/11/2018 – 07/04/2019) 5
  8. Seth Rollins (Universal Championship, 11/08/2019 – 31/10/2019) 5
  9. John Cena (WWE Championship, 29/01/2017 – 12/02/2017) 5
  10. Dean Ambrose (WWE Championship, 19/06/2016 – 11/09/2016) 4
  11. Kofi Kingston (WWE Championship, 07/04/2019 – 04/10/2019) 4
  12. Seth Rollins (Universal Championship, 07/04/2019 – 14/07/2019) 4
  13. Brock Lesnar (Universal Championship, 14/07/2019 – 11/08/2019) 3
  14. Brock Lesnar (Universal Championship, 02/04/2017 – 19/08/2018) 3
  15. Triple H (WWE Championship, 24/01/2016 – 03/04/2016) 3
  16. Roman Reigns (Universal Championship, 19/08/2018 – 22/10/2018) 3
  17. Jinder Mahal (WWE Championship, 21/05/2017 – 07/11/2017) 3
  18. Bray Wyatt (WWE Championship, 12/02/2017 – 02/04/2017) 3
  19. Roman Reigns (WWE Championship, 14/12/2015 – 24/01/2016) 2
  20. Goldberg (Universal Championship, 05/03/2017 – 02/04/2017) 2
  21. Sheamus (WWE Championship, 22/11/2015 – 14/12/2015) 2
  22. Randy Orton (WWE Championship, 02/04/2017 – 21/05/2017) 1
  23. Seth Rollins (WWE Championship, 19/06/2016) –
  24. Roman Reigns (WWE Championship, 22/11/2015) –
  25. Finn Bálor (WWE Universal Championship, 21/08/2016 – 22/08/2016) –