12 WWE Failures Who Became World Champion

Failure is a very strong word, but fortunately in professional wrestling it is very rarely

permanent. The sport is so crazy and so fast moving that wrestlers usually have the ability

to climb out of any creative hole. Sure, it often takes a deft booking hand, but those who are in

the business long term usually have to reinvent themselves at least a couple of times along the

way, in some cases taking them from the very bottom to the tippy top. Today we will speak

about some of those mountain climbers in WWE specifically. At one point, every person on this list has experienced failure

but was able to escape WWE's outhouse and make it to the penthouse

All of us, every single one of us, experience failure in some form during our lives

Often it teaches us things that no volume of success ever could

and proves a real, tangible catalyst for positive change. That is certainly the case with some wrestlers on this list

and in this video, but with others, let's be honest, we're still trying to figure out

what the hell Creative was thinking. I'm Andy from WhatCulture and here are 12 WWE Failures

Who Became World Champion. 12. Kane Glenn Jacobs surely knew that he was struggling as a cosplay version of Diesel as the calendars

turned to 1997. Kevin Nash, the original Diesel, had left the WWF for WCW in 1996, so Vince

McMahon stuck the gimmick on one of Jim Cornette's monsters from down in Smoky Mountain Wrestling

It was never going to work, but that dude somehow ended up becoming WWE Champion

Granted, Jacobs did not win the belt as Diesel, quote unquote, because he'd left that gimmick

behind for another one by October 97. Kane debuted by ripping the door from Hell in a Cell

as Shawn Michaels wrestled The Undertaker at In Your House Bad Blood, then smashed his

K-Fay brother with a tombstone and left. Nobody was quite sure whether or not Kane would be around after Undertaker inevitably

beat him at WrestleMania 14, but fans were in love with the character and it went from

strength to strength. Well, at least during the Attitude Era. Remarkably, Kane was beating Steve Austin in a first blood match at King of the Ring

by June. He ended up dropping the title back to Stone Cold on Raw the very next night, but regardless

Kane had been WWE Champion and that was something that nobody could take away from him

The same guy who'd been Jerry Lawler's Evil Dentist Isaac Yankum and who dressed up as

a literal Christmas tree in Memphis was now holding the biggest title in the biz

He had traded gimmicky flops and Halloween dress ups for a niche of his own and it led

to one of the longest and most fruitful runs for any character in WWE history

11. Dolph Ziggler Imagine being in one of the most flagrantly racist and unwanted gimmick packages of all time. Dolph Ziggler went through that before

he was even Dolph Ziggler. For a spell, he followed Chavo Guerrero's brutally offensive

Kerwin White character around as his golf caddy. Later, the caddy became a male cheerleader

in the Spirit Squad. That was slightly better, but it was also something that WWE were never

gonna take fully seriously. Foreheads were palmed once again when Nikki started introducing

himself as Dolph Ziggler. Then he introduced himself again, then again, then again, then again

and he got old pretty fast. But Ziggler was literally making a name for himself by just

saying it over and over. He became known as a very solid hand, but the stench of those prior

failures hung over him like a dark cloud. By 2011, WWE had Vicky Guerrero hand him the World

Heavyweight Championship on SmackDown. That was done so that Edge could put the heel in his place

and thumb his nose at Vicky. Dolph ended up dropping the belt he'd just been handed

on the very same episode. Ziggler had to wait until 2013 for a proper world title run. It was

infinitely more satisfying than his first, although a double turn with Alberto Del Rio

brought on Dolph's concussion issues and that stopped him from having any kind of lengthy

meaningful run. Regardless, he had successfully traded carrying golf carts and hanging around a

racist gimmick for toting the big gold belt. And that had to feel good for somebody who

had grown accustomed to being overlooked by the decision makers. Hi, I'm Dolph Ziggler. Worked. It actually worked

10. Bobby Lashley Calling Bobby Lashley a failure for his first WWE run could be a little bit harsh

and it's definitely something nobody would want to say to his face, so here's a softer approach

Lashley didn't live up to the expectations the management had for him between 2005 and 2008

But there were lots of shocked faces when the promotion announced his departure in February

2008. Big Bob had been on the bench rehabbing injuries and now he was gone? Just like that

Bobby didn't return to WWE until 10 years later in 2018. Even then, he sputtered along

offering decent performances but he was involved in some god storylines with otherwise awesome workers like Sami Zayn That whole Lashley sisters debacle had to be seen to be believed It didn quite provide the spark that Bobby career really needed But just when it

looked like Lashley might be a mid-carder for life, he beat The Miz to become WWE Champion

on the 1st of March 2021. That was a star-making night for Lashley, who looked like a million

bucks en route to winning the big one, and he'd go on to hold the prize for just shy of 200 days

A second WWE title run followed in 2022 when he beat Brock Lesnar at Royal Rumble. That run was a

bit shorter at about three weeks, but the first had been so strong that it didn't really matter

Lashley had finally come through on the promise he showed during his earliest months back in 2005

9. JBL The hard-nosed grind of the European circuit was fresh on Big Bradshaw's mind when he signed on with the WWE in late 1995. Back then

the company was going through a damped period, but there was still a little bit more hope for

a guy like Bradshaw than kind of toughing out on the German indies. An early undefeated streak gave

way to mediocrity as 1996 developed however. Vince McMahon's new Stan Hansen rip-off was as

low tier as you were likely to get from somebody that wasn't an outright jobber, and there didn't

seem to be much room for upward mobility. Then they stuck him with the new Black Jacks gimmick

with Barry Windham and the mediocrity continued. Things did pick up when Bradshaw started his

tag team with Farouk in late 1998, but it looked like he'd be a tag guy for life in

the Fed. McMahon's desperate need to create fresh new stars in 2004 then led to an unlikely

repackaged job and a main event push. Bradshaw became JPL and it turned out to be the role

that he was born to play. He had previously failed to get over after the Acolytes and

And now here he was, beating Eddie Guerrero for the WWE title

Not many people could have claimed to see that they saw that coming in 2004, but it's

exactly what happened and it wasn't a bad call either. JBL was legitimately the hottest heel in the industry for a while and those dismal memories

of jobbing for Savio Vega had all but faded away. The John Bradshaw Layfield era was nigh

Unpredictably nigh, but nigh nonetheless. He'd ride that train all the way through to the WWE Hall of Fame

8. Kofi Kingston Randy Orton once called Kofi Kingston stupid, and WWE gave up on his push. That's an abridged version of how Kofi Mania 1.0 fizzled out in 2010

but it also shows how one trusted worker's sway with the office can alter the entire trajectory

of another wrestler's career. After the Randy feud, Kingston was relegated by Dan McCart and

would flirt between inconsequential mid-card title runs and various tag teams. Then along came the

New Day. On the surface, this was yet another tag run for Kofi, but it offered peace of mind

both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Kofi had found his best friends in Big E and Xavier

Woods, and the trio would go on to shatter all kinds of records together. Happenstance threw up

an unpredictable main event reprise in 2019 as well, which was simply lovely to see. Mustafa Ali's

injuries forced WWE to change course when they had planned to push him. Uncharacteristically for

Vince McMahon, especially during one of WWE's worst years ever, he decided to listen to the

people and go with what they wanted. Thus, the deluxe version of Kofi-mania was born

and he ended up beating Daniel Bryan for the top prize in the game at WrestleMania 35. That will

forever be remembered as one of the most organically happy WWE title wins ever

Kofi had flopped earlier in his career through no fault of his own. Fast forward to 2019 and he

was riding the crest of a wave as one of the most beloved babyfaces around. The less said

however, about the way his WWE title dream ended, the better. 7. Naomi From Funkadactyl to proceed with caution

and a cheery family moment. That's the lengthy journey that Naomi has been on since dancing onto

WWE screens as part of Brodus Clay's new Funkasaurus gimmick in 2012. At first

WWE viewed Naomi and her partner Cameron as little more than an accompanying dancer for Brodus

They were exclusively there to dance and smile as Clay tried to mesh Flash Funk with a dinosaur

that was also an alien or whatever the hell this was supposed to be. Nonetheless, the gimmick had

some short term appeal but Naomi ended up sticking around and eventually spun into Team Bad alongside

Sasha Banks and Tamina. By the way, if you don't know, they used the Street Profits theme music

with different vocals. You should have a listen, it's pretty weird. But once that experiment ended

Naomi actually won the old Smackdown Women's title in early 2017. That isn't the world title win

that is needed to grace this list, however, which would only come after a lot of heartache

and a departure from WWE. Naomi left WWE with Sasha in mid-2022. She would seek solace in

Impact Wrestling slash TNA before launching a WWE return in 2024 Being honest in that early return she didn end up turning a lot of heads with the comeback Some of her matches were not the most pushed or promoted

things in the world and it seemed that she'd maybe be stuck in the midcard role for the rest of her

time. The Jade Cargill whodunit mystery however offered something completely fresh. Naomi was

outed as the aggressor, then she won the Women's World title after cashing in Money in the Bank

at Evolution 2025. Her reign was cut short in August but for a good reason. Naomi was expecting

her first child with Jimmy Uso, which is much bigger than pro wrestling. Creatively, it was a

bit of a shame. She was doing great work and was poised for an epic run. But some things are simply

bigger than a scripted sport and starting a family is obviously one of them

6. The Rock Despite having a top look and being considered a true blue-chip prospect

internally, young Rocky Maivia was on a highway to nowhere in 1996 and early 97. Fans grew tired of

his 70s style babyface antics very quickly and it was clear at that point that the inexperienced

rookie didn't have what it would take to get them back on his side. So he simply continued high-fiving

and kissing babies like a traditional good guy would. Chants like Rocky sucks and the vicious

infamous Die Rocky Die would follow, which can't have felt good for the rock. But he would throw

that back in everybody's faces after taking some time off in 1997. By the time he returned that

summer, he joined the nation of domination. Suddenly, he was more cocky than ever before

and he even started referring to himself in the third person from maximum heel points. The man

was clearly going for some kind of high score. Being aloof and arrogant, did great things for

The Rock during the second half of the year and into 1998. By then, he was coming into his own

both on the mic and in the ring. At Survivor Series 98, he beat Mankind to bag his first

ever WWE title. Shortly afterwards, he joined Vince McMahon as his corporate champ and this

only pushed him further up the ladder. He'd come a long, long way from wetting the bed as the

painfully chirpy Rocky Maivia just a few years earlier. That experience was rejected so hard that

WWE might have given up if it was someone else. Thankfully, they realised the Rock's potential

and gave him another chance to prove himself without pandering for cheers like his dad and

Tony Atlas had done 20 years beforehand. 5. Nia Jax The name Nia Jax used to be enough to send shivers up the spines of wrestling fans pre-2023

To that point, if you were a wrestler, seeing your name scribbled alongside Nia on a booking

sheet may have given you a few sleepless nights as well because, well, Nia's opponents had a habit

of getting hurt for a while there as well. Very little that Jax touched early in her WWE run

seemed to appeal to fans for quite a long time. She did win the old Raw Women's title from Alexa

Bliss at WrestleMania 34 in a genuinely sweet story, but then creative bizarrely killed her

body positive message and turned her heel all over again. It was very poorly handled

The groans were audible when Jax returned to WWE full time in September 2023, but something had

changed. Very quickly, Nia had gone from one of the least popular wrestlers around to somebody who

who was really contributing to the product in many positive ways. She looked great opposite Rhea Ripley

helped make the debuting Jade Cargill look awesome, and seemed to have improved in every single aspect of her work

Back-to-back Queen of the Ring and WWE Women's title wins at SummerSlam 2024 told the full story

Nia was a different animal during her second run. Her matches started clicking, her work on the mic was confident and had purpose

and she was even elevating fresh names while enjoying some time in the spotlight herself

It was all a win-win. Number 4, The Miz. The Miz is WWE's own Mr. Reliable

Need somebody to go out there and take a beating like a pro? He'll do it. Got a struggling young star who needs to associate with someone who has been on screen a little

bit longer? The Miz will do it. Need a quick fix champion who won't grumble when he's asked to drop the belt a few seconds later

Near enough. He'll do that as well. In short, Triple H could probably hand The Miz a toilet brush and tell him to get to

work in the box at Company HQ and he'd probably leave those balls sparkling

Wrestlers with this kind of self-determination spliced with the selfless approach that Miz

has had throughout his career do not come along every day. That's why he's been able to last so

long in WWE because a lesser person would have said screw this when they weren't even allowed

to get dressed up for matches in the locker room. Hello, Wrestlers Court. Miz ended up having the

last laugh when he became WWE Champion for the first time in 2010. His rise must have come as

real shocker to those who had written him off long before that point, whether they were on the roster

or in the stands. His jump over from reality TV to a tough enough contestant was shrewd in the

long term, but my goodness was this man hated on early in his career. People really wanted to see

The Miz fail, some people probably do, but he's gone from failed rock wannabe to one of the most

tenured stars in the entire industry and probably a WWE hall of famer whenever he hangs up the boots You got to admire the tenacity and the ability to make the most of everything he been handed 3 Jinder Mahal There no way in hell anybody thought the

third most interesting member in 3MB was ever getting close to the WWE title. In fact

the only way Jinder Mahal was getting near the biggest belt in the land was if somebody like

Brock Lesnar or John Cena happened to walk past him in the hallway and the gold might brush against

Mahal and give him a little taste of what it's like to be the man on top. But by 2017, Jinder

unthinkably strutted down the hallways with that belt over his own shoulders and you know what? Good

for him. There's no point in being around the bush here when it comes to the booking, however

Mahal will always be called one of the worst WWE Champions of all time, but he does deserve a lot

of praise for knuckling down and forcing management to see him differently. Jinder leveled up his

physique, chicken and broccoli baby, and his mindset after returning in 2016. This went a

long way with WWE because it showed that he was taking things seriously. Previously, maybe this

wasn't the case, who knows. He was lagging behind in terms of overall presentation and his matches

as part of 3MB, were nothing to write home about, necessarily, even if the stable was kind of fun

WWE let him go in 2014 and not many people thought they would ever see Jinder back in the company

at all, let alone carrying around the big belt. Mahal got his stuff together and earned his respect

behind the scenes. That lined up with WWE trying to expand into India, which meant that Jinder

beat Randy Orton at Backlash 2017. His title reign was not good, quite frankly, and Brock Lesnar

apparently didn't want to work with him as Survivor Series, but he still got to hold the belt

inexplicably. 2. Mark Henry There was a time when WWE's higher-ups were more concerned with Mark Henry's overall progress than

what he might do as a world champion. So much so that he was actually sent back to developmental

twice. Jim Ross has spoken about Henry's trials and tribulations on his grilling JR show. It's a

fascinating listen in general. WWE had very high hopes for Mark when they inked a deal in 1996

but for the first while, he struggled to live up to those. So Henry floundered whether he was in the

nation of domination being reborn as sexual chocolates so he could impregnate Mae Young

with a hand? Or performing impressive feats of strength as the world's strongest man on Smackdown

WWE just couldn't get much bang for their buck from the big man. Then, in 2011, something clicked

Well, maybe pinning it entirely on 2011 doesn't tell the full story. In truth

Mark had started to show signs of life while he was ECW champion a few years before that

But that was at a time when interest in ECW wasn't the highest and the belt was not as

credible as the main roster equivalent. By beating Randy Orton at Night of Champions

2011, however, Henry rocketed up the credibility scale. His hall of pain reinvention was fearsome

and believable, and it coincided with Mark doing the best work of his entire career

We're talking about a man that WWE sent back to developmental four years after debuting

a full 15 years into his career, that something eventually clicked, and the genuine strongman

proved that he belonged in the upper echelon of WWE. And at number 1, Drew McIntyre. It's hard to think about it today but at one point

Drew McIntyre was an under-confident and directionless member of 3MB. A lot of people

including me, really enjoyed the Jobber faction but they were a Jobber faction. However, running

with Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal was a far cry from being dubbed Vince McMahon's chosen one

a few years earlier. Come 2014, by his own admission, Drew McIntyre was drinking heavily

and understandably struggling with the weight of his mother's passing in 2012. WWE released

him and he had to rebuild his career on the independents. Later, he'd become WWE Champion

and one of the best all-rounders in the business. Drew turned his life around and his career

around to get in the best physical shape he'd ever been in, went on a crusade around the

globe outside WWE and showed that he was very much well worth re-signing in 2017. That's

when he made his comeback via NXT, but it wasn't long before McIntyre was tearing it up on the main

roster and winning gold once again. McIntyre graced a lot of lists, titled What Might Have

Been and similar, for discarded WWE stars between 2014 and 2017. It looked to many like he'd blown

his opportunity to become the first ever Scottish WWE Champion, but McIntyre maybe needed that kick

up the arse to set him on the right path. He deserves full credit for clawing his way back

to the company, then smashing through the barrier to become a multi-time WWE Champion

The Scott was all over the place mentally and probably physically when he left WWE in 2014

but he refused to throw in the towel on his career and he has reaped rich rewards for

backing himself. Publicly, he has praised his wife for standing by his side and helping him to reprioritize

his life. It's a tremendous redemption story and long may it continue