I finished this over at the old PW right before it went completely to hell (I can't access it at all anymore). Figured I'd post the Top 20 here in case any of the participants missed it.

1. Hulk Hogan

8 Votes- 93 Points (One #1 Vote)

WWF Champion

1/23/84 to 2/5/88

2. Rob Van Dam

7 Votes- 75 Points (One #1 Vote)

ECW TV Champion

4/4/98 to 3/4/00

3. Lou Thesz

4 Votes- 50 Points (High Vote: #2)

NWA Champion

11/27/49 to 3/15/56

4. Ric Flair

4 Votes- 43 Points (Two #1 Votes)

NWA Champion

5/24/84 to 7/26/86

5. Ric Flair

3 Votes- 40 Points (High Vote: #2)

NWA Champion

5/7/89 to 7/7/90

6. Samoa Joe

4 Votes- 39 Points (High Vote: #3)

ROH Champion

3/22/03 to 12/26/04

7. Bruno Sammartino

4 Votes- 39 Points (One #1 Vote)

WWWF Champion

5/17/63 to 1/18/71

8. Randy Savage

4 Votes- 32 Points (High Vote: #6)

WWF Intercontinental Champion

2/8/86 to 3/29/87

9. Steve Austin

3 Votes- 27 Points (High Vote: #3)

WWF Champion

3/29/98 to 6/28/98

10. Bryan Danielson

3 Votes- 24 Points (One #1 Vote)

ROH Champion

9/17/05 to 12/23/06

11. Triple H

2 Votes- 24 Points (One #1 Vote)

WWF Champion

1/3/00 to 4/30/00

12. Demolition

3 Votes- 23 Points (High Vote: #4)

WWF Tag Team Champions

3/27/88 to 7/18/89

13. Shawn Michaels

3 Votes- 21 Points (High Vote: #5)

WWF Champion

3/31/96 to 11/17/96

14. Ric Flair

2 Votes- 19 Points (High Vote: #6)

NWA Champion

11/26/87 to 2/20/89

15. (tie) Steve Austin

3 Votes- 18 Points (High Vote: #4)

WWF Champion

4/1/01 to 9/23/01

15. (tie) Honkytonk Man

3 Votes- 18 Points (High Vote: #9)

WWF Intercontinental Champion

6/2/87 to 8/29/88

17. (tie) Vader

3 Votes- 17 Points (High Vote: #9)

WCW Champion

3/17/93 to 12/27/93

17. (tie) Mitsuharu Misawa

3 Votes- 17 Points (High Vote: #9)

All Japan Triple Crown Champion

8/22/92 to 7/28/94

19. Raven

3 Votes- 15 Points (High Vote: #10)

ECW Champion

1/27/96 to 10/5/96

20. Bret Hart

2 Votes- 15 Points (High Vote: #7)

WWF Champion

3/20/94 to 11/23/94

My List

1. HHH: WWF January-April 2000 (#11)
2. Hulk Hogan: WWF 84-88 (#1)
3. Samoa Joe: ROH (#6)
4. Ric Flair: NWA 89-90 (#5)
5. Shawn Michaels: WWF 1996 (#13)
6. Ric Flair: NWA 87-89 (#14)
7. Bret Hart: WWF 1994 (#20)
8. RVD: ECW TV (#2)
9. Honkytonk Man: WWF IC (#15 tie)
10. Raven: ECW January-October 96 (#19)
11. Randy Savage: WWF IC (#8)
12. JBL: WWE 2004 (#51 tie)
13. Ric Flair: NWA 84-86 (#4)
14. Steve Austin: WWF 2001 (#15 tie)
15. Bruno Sammartino: WWWF 63-71 (#7)

Damn, I'm surprised to see RVD's TV title reign so high, even over Thesz and Flair's legendary reigns! That's awesome. I can't remember exactly what my rankings were but I do remember putting Flair's 84-86 reign at #1.

Some interesting stuff indeed in the Top 10.

I guess that's the kinda cool effect that down traffic can have on a countdown.

Also a side effect of how wide open this was as far as potential considerations.

Part of me would be interested in doing this again from a favorites perspective instead of a greatest perspective.

In fact, I might come back in a bit and drop my favorite reigns list just for fun.

Oct 3, 2017 2:14:17 GMT 🤯 said:

Part of me would be interested in doing this again from a favorites perspective instead of a greatest perspective.

In fact, I might come back in a bit and drop my favorite reigns list just for fun.

Stuff would get switched around a little but my favorites list wouldn't look all that much different from my greatest list for once. A lot of the title reigns I enjoyed that didn't make my ballot were just that- reigns. Two longish reigns broken up by quickie title switches when one long reign would have been list worthy- Zbyszko AWA, Regal WCW TV 93-94, Michaels IC 92-93, and even Vader WCW suffered from this by losing out on the Sting strap match. Had it just been one long December-December reign Vader absolutely makes my list. 

If I had to do a Top 20 it would have went....

16. Vader: WCW March-December 93
17. Demolition: WWF Tag 88-89
18. Johnny Jeter!- OVW 2005
19. Rock: IC 1998
20. John Cena: WWE 2006-2007
20. Giant- WCW 1996

With the bottom 3 being 'favorite' choices in the same way that HTM, Raven & JBL were. I mean, yeah, they were personal favorite reigns. But they also ruled.

One thing I sort of knew, but this countdown made abundantly clear, how robbed Austin was of a dominant title reign by the Monday Night Wars Era. Even WM14 to October '98 would have went a long way. I still rated him high just because of the turnaround that happened during that (short) first reign. WWF went from losing to WCW for almost two years to beating them practically overnight after Austin got the strap.

In the interest of keeping things interesting for myself, I only voted for one Flair reign (the epic 1989-1990 one). The quality of those big matches, and the availability to see them make it arguably the greatest ever for quality. All mid-80's Flair stuff, where he's doing broadways in variou towns are rightfully mythical, but I can't watch them like I can watch those Steamboat and Funk matches.

How odd is it that Triple H had the definitive Title reign of the Attitude Era? But he did. As thick as they laid it (Retiring Foley, Walking out WM as a heel, "Unifying" the belts in one week defeating Benoit/Taz), as a heel run, the thicker the better, and most of the matches delivered to justify it. It's one of the greatest outlier years because I didn't really give a shit about Trips before or after that reign, but dude had one of the greatest WWF World Title reigns ever.

I'm glad Demolition still gets repped. A lot of reigns benefit from time, because if you watch a random couple of matches and they're good, all the real time bad of it is lost, and things like Shawn Michaels 1996 reign make the Top 15. I feared that the opposite would happen with Demolition. Dominant reigns don't always do great on rewatch. Especially ones that took place in the 80s, in a non-workrate friendly environment like the WWF. But nobody was cooler than Demolition in the WWF in 1988.

I didn't vote for it #1 but RVD's TV Title reign might be my favorite reign of all time. The length during that time made it standout, and RVD's style, still new, made every match he had seem like an event. RVD in ECW, during that reign, is the most over wrestler I've ever seen. I can't reiterate this enough. Take ECW icons like Sandman/Tommy Dreamer, tremendously over, and RVD was exponentially more over. It was insane. That TV title reign was where that happened, with the Jerry Lynn rivalry its masterpiece.

I saw Baker's post over at PW before I was frozen out from replying where he mentioned his first champions were Hogan (World), Savage (IC), Hart Foundation/Bulldogs (Tag Team). There was a time in 1987 where Hogan, Savage and Hart were all WWF champions at the same time. Goddamn. I'm just going to combine the Mega Powers here, the two most definitive champions for those belts, happening at the same time, while they would become bigger than anybody is capable of becoming today. Hogan was an automatic number one from me. It could be nothing else. With all due respect to the legendary runs of previous eras, I wasn't alive for them, so I can't appreciate them on the same level. The growth of the WWF during that Hogan reign can never happen again. Savage eventually running shotgun as IC champ, it's really no wonder WWF put nearly everybody out of business.

Great job by Baker. Shit job by the PW server.

Oct 3, 2017 3:50:09 GMT Kilgore said:

One thing I sort of knew, but this countdown made abundantly clear, how robbed Austin was of a dominant title reign by the Monday Night Wars Era. Even WM14 to October '98 would have went a long way. I still rated him high just because of the turnaround that happened during that (short) first reign.

Austin is another guy who was hurt by having a pointless quickie title switch. I didn't even consider either of his '98 reigns due to their practically identical short lengths. An oversight on my part, to be sure.  They sort of cancelled each other out in my head. After thinking about it for a few seconds just now, his first was definitely better. Memorable beginning, the sports entertainment masterpiece vs. Dude Love, even a better ending (losing to Kane via shenanigans beats ending it with a whimper the way he did the second time around). Only thing the second reign has that compares do the peaks of the first is the bigness of the 'Taker Summerslam match.

But, yeah, Austin with a continuous 6 month title reign, at the height of his power, during the peak of the Attitude Era, would have to be Top 5, right? Hell, probably Top 3. Stupid Kane. Ruining everything even when he was "good." 

I wrote out blurbs for every champ over at Bad PW. Can't access it now though. And not going to repeat myself.