While the WWE Championship is considered the most important World Title in professional wrestling, there was once a time when the WCW World Heavyweight Championship felt even bigger. WCW as a brand may not have existed as long as WWE and, thus, its main title did not carry the same level of history. However, the best wrestlers on the planet competed for the WCW World Championship.
In times when WCW was putting on better matches than WWE, and even in times when WCW was hotter than WWE was, that meant something. Even when WCW folded into WWE, the latter still showed respect for its prestigious championship, to the point that it's still used as a main event title today.
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The WCW World Heavyweight Championship was established in 1991 when Ric Flair defeated Sting for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, which had come along in 1988 with the Jim Crockett Promotions acquisition by Turner Broadcasting. It remained the main title of the company for all its life until it was acquired by WWE in 2001. The following champions are the wrestlers who built the legacy of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship before the company ended.
10 Ron Simmons
Total of 150 Days as WCW Champion Across One Reign
Ron Simmons is best ed as Farooq in WWE, most notably when he served as one-half of the APA, but before he was guzzling beers with Bradshaw or even mentoring The Rock in the Nation of Domination, he was making history in WCW. When he defeated Vader for the World Championship, he became the first black man to win any professional wrestling World Heavyweight Championship on national television. That’s not an accolade that can be downplayed.
Under one reign cranking at 150 days, the moment and accolade alone is historic enough to rank him among the best champions. It doesn't stop there, either, as he proved to be a solid in-ring worker during his reign. While he wouldn't deliver a match as memorable as his win and rematch over the Big Van, Ron Simmons is far more than just a "DAMN!" catchphrase.
9 DDP
Total of 29 Days as Champion Across Three Reigns
The original People’s Champion is recognized as one of the best World Champions in WCW history. It’s ironic, because his reigns were always incredibly short, which explains why he’s low on the list despite his impact. Across three reigns, his combined days as champion barely rang for a month long. Still, though, DDP was insanely over with or without the belt in a time when that was hard to do without sporting black and white spray paint. He was a diamond in the rough, and it helped that he had some exceptional matches as champion, 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 succeed. So, even if his time on the top only lasted mere days, it still felt like a big moment because for WCW fans, their guy became the champion, and that's all that mattered for the moment.
8 Scott Steiner
Total of 120 Days as Champion Across One Reign
There's a claim that can be made for Scott Steiner being the last major singles star that WCW produced, and it's a claim that's hard to argue against. Scott overachieved in his heel singles run, breaking away from brother Rick by completely remolding himself as The Big Bad Booty Daddy. In WCW's dying days, Big Poppa Pump was easily the most consistently entertaining aspect of Nitro's final 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 going, and before it could truly leave a dent in the history books, he lost the title to Booker on the final episode of Nitro. Had WCW not ended, Steiner might've truly cemented himself as a legend with an even longer reign, if not multiple reigns.
7 Lex Luger
Total of 235 Days as Champion Across Two Reigns
Lex Luger did not have many reigns as WCW Champion, but it's cases like these where quality is better than quantity. His win over Hollywood Hulk Hogan on the August 4, 1997, episode of Monday Nitro at the Palace of Auburn Hills is one of the most feel-good moments in WCW history, even more so considering it was the same venue that Luger failed to beat Yokozuna for the WWE Championship four years earlier at SummerSlam. Hogan would win the title back five days later at the Road Wild PPV, but again, quality over quantity. Everyone re the moment even more than the pay-per-view.
For what it's worth, Luger did have an extensive 230-day reign the first time he held the title in 1991. Granted, going back to quality over quantity, his longer reign was far from memorable, as the company was much smaller at the time and struggling to reach a national audience. Oftentimes, audiences would chant "We want Flair!" during Luger's title matches in 1991. Ouch.
6 Goldberg
Total of 174 Days as Champion Across One Reign
It's absolutely shocking to think that Goldberg only held the World Title in WCW on one occasion. He was on top for so long during his undefeated streak, that it's easy to think that he was champion for a lot longer. Indeed, though, upon defeating Hollywood Hulk Hogan for the title in front of his local Atlanta, Georgia, crowd on the July 6, 1998, episode of Nitro, Goldberg held the title right up until his streak ended at the hands of Kevin Nash (which still holds weight as one of WCW's worst booking decisions).
It speaks to the impact and attention that Goldberg held in the palms of his hands that his reign felt bigger and longer than it actually was. The magnitude of his character gripped audiences from the moment he debuted, and he carried it throughout his title reign. Without it, his reign might've been insufferable to sit through since his matches weren't very good - aside from a standout Halloween Havoc bout with DDP.
5 Big Van Vader
Total of 377 Days as Champion Across Three Reigns
Vader is a name that doesn't get talked about highly enough when it comes to WCW. Yes, he's always praised as one of the best big men to enter the ring, but it's always been understated just how important his presence was to WCW. Some of the most important stars in WCW history were made because of their feuds and wins over Vader. Even people on this list, namely Sting and Ron Simmons, greatly benefitted from the mastodon falling at their feet.
Big Van Vader was booked like a behemoth every step of the way, and the few times that a babyface was able to topple the giant, that babyface became a mega-star for life. Meanwhile, besides his contributions to someone else's push, the deceptively agile monster was consistent in giving incredible performances and great matches with whoever he stepped in the ring with (special shoutout to his feud with Cactus Jack). The late Leon White set the bar for the ideal big man in this sport, and Sting vs. Vader set the bar as to what a David vs. Goliath contest should look like.
4 Hulk Hogan
Total of 1,177 Days as WCW Champion Across Six Reigns
Hulk Hogan ing WCW was unquestionably one of Eric Bischoff's best decisions and a game-changer for the company. The company knew it from the start, hence why his first match in WCW was defeating Ric Flair for the WCW Championship. Still donning the red and yellow attire, Hulk Hogan's run as WCW Champion - even considering the silliness offered in feuds with The Giant and Dungeon of Doom - was influential in making WCW a contender against WWE. Without Hogan, there may not have been a Nitro.
By the same logic, his anointing as nWo's leader under the black and white proved to be even more pivotal for WCW, as Hogan's heel run as champion was a key reason why the company beat WWE in the ratings war for 83 weeks. His matches left a lot to be desired, but the storylines and character work were enough to keep audiences invested.
3 Ric Flair
Total of 501 Days as Champion Across Eight Reigns
When people think of the Big Gold Belt, Ric Flair is the first man that usually comes to mind. He was practically married to that belt back in the early days of WCW, as it hardly left his waist. It's easy to understand why, considering 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 boss who players struggle to defeat every time, crowds would pour in to see someone wipe that smirk off Flair's face.
A bulk of his 16 World Championship reigns (or more officially 21) were WCW World Heavyweight Championships for that reason, but it wasn't just character work. As a heel and even as a face, he delivered instant classics in the ring. Whenever he called himself the best wrestler in the world, people believed him because of his electric performances against Ricky Steamboat, Terry Funk, and Sting, and that doesn't even scratch the surface of all of his all-time classics.
2 Sting
Total of 250 Days as Champion Across Six Reigns
If Ric Flair was the prototypical heel of WCW, Sting was the prototypical babyface. He lived and breathed WCW as few others could. What's most impressive is that he continued to deliver consistently both in the ring and on the mic in both his Surfer character and his starkly different Crow character. While he'd prove to be a better chaser than champion, he still made a believable champion during all his 250 days.
Like many champions on this list, Sting's reigns were stifled a bit by poor booking. Arguably his most significant win came at Starrcade 1997 when he became the man who finally vanquished the vile Hollywood Hulk Hogan and the nWo, but the strange shenanigans of the match and the swift stripping of the title from him two weeks later soured the win. Still, though, everyone loved Sting, and even in his worst reigns, he did his best to turn manure into gold.
1 Booker T
Total of 253 Days as WCW Champion Across Five Reigns
Not everyone will be quick to say that he's a better in-ring wrestler than Ric Flair or Sting, but it's hard to argue against the idea that Booker T is definitively WCW in ways that not even Sting or Flair are. Thanks to their tenure under the NWA banner, Ric Flair and Sting were already megastars. Booker T rose to superstardom under the WCW brand following his debut as Harlem Heat and organically got over as a singles star.
What also places Booker at the top is that he feels more closely linked to the WCW Championship than anyone else on this list, to the point that his signature "FIVE TIME!" catchphrase and hand gesture refers to being a five-time WCW World Champion. As a result, when people hear the words WCW or WCW World Heavyweight Championship, Booker's name is the first to come to mind for a lot of people.
