Everybody has that dream of one day winning the WWE Heavyweight Championship.

The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior and more had that dream. But, unfortunately, not everyone realises that dream. Simply, they will never have that opportunity to reach the summit. They are otherwise known as The Best of the Rest.

In this feature, I thought I would look at some of the wrestlers who didn’t quite make it - some of the wrestlers who were just short of that career highlighting moment.

Of course, the list is endless. Here, I thought I would give you some of my favourite wrestlers to just miss out.

The first one on my list has to be WWE Hall of Famer “Mr Perfect” Curt Hennig.

Long time readers of my columns will know that I was a big fan of Hennig growing up, and to this day, it still annoys me that he was never given that chance to headline the company with the belt.

In his prime, many would consider him the best in ring performer to ever live. He was brilliant. The only problem that halted his movement up the card was the number of star names in the company at the time. McMahon saw more potential in the likes of Diesel, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Yokozuna and Randy Savage than Hennig, who had found a nice position feuding with mid-card wrestlers.

That being said, I felt his feuds with Michaels and Lex Luger were certainly good enough to give the man a shot at the gold and if alive today, maybe we could have been talking about Hennig as a former WWE Heavyweight Champion.

I certainly won’t be alone in saying that if Hennig hadn’t left before the 1996 Survivor Series to go to WCW, then he could’ve been a champion. Without the likes of Bret Hart, Diesel and Savage around towards the end of the nineties, Hennig would have had his shot.

Unfortunately, he never and his death means that he will rest in peace as the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion of the nineties. The history books may not say he was the WWE champion, but for me, he was certainly enough of an idol, and wrestler, to headline with the title that evaded him.

Closely behind Curt Hennig is “Razor Ramon” Scott Hall. A fantastic worker with a great gimmick, Hall probably fell in to the same category as Hennig. There were simply more attractive names on the roster who Vince considered champion material.

 

His feud with Shawn Michaels must still be up there as one of the best feuds of all time and his ladder match against “The Heartbreak Kid” is still considered by many as the best match to ever grace a WrestleMania PPV.

In fairness to the WWE, he probably would’ve been one of the front runners for the gold had he stayed with the company rather than leave for WCW.

In the two years between his WrestleMania match with Michaels and his departure, he was mainly involved with Intercontinental Title matches against the likes of Dean Douglas, Goldust and Jeff Jarrett. During this time, he found himself as the most successful Intercontinental Champion of all time, with four title wins to his name. That was a positive sign that WWE had faith in Hall’s ability. Whether that would have pushed him on to a possible World title, we will certainly never know.

In 1999, D’Lo Brown became the first ever Euro-Continental Champion (European champion and Intercontinental champion) by defeating both Mideon and Jeff Jarrett. In the space of three days, Brown had created history. It was the type of push that comes around very rarely and more importantly, it came at a time when the WWE was at the height of their success.

With the likes of The Rock, Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Mankind and more at the top of the company, it was Brown who was stealing the spotlight. It really was something. Brown was doing things that many other guys his size couldn’t dream of.

 

He was a mid-card wrestler of around 250-300lbs who could pull off sit down powerbombs, moonsaults, frog splashes and shooting star presses. Whereas WCW was having their cruiserweights flying around the ring on Nitro, Brown was doing a similar thing around 100lbs heavier and more impressively, he was very much over with the audience.

 

So where did it all go wrong? It really is hard to believe how quick his career plummeted after his Euro-Continental victory, and in particular, after the Darren Drozdov incident. After teaming with The Godfather and later, becoming a tag partner Chaz Warrington, Brown was given a gimmick where he preached his race. It was terrible.

Many will point the figure at the Drozdov injury. This certainly gave WWE an excuse to demote him the way they did. That said, Brown has often stated that the departure of Vince Russo was one of the main reasons for his demotion.

Personally, I feel he was simply given the “he doesn’t know how to work” tag, something which is very far from the truth. Brown was definitely a wrestler who could’ve won the title and whereas Triple H, Big Show, Mark Henry and such, got pushes after him, he was one who certainly could’ve raised his game to the occasion. Another fantastic wrestler who was never given an opportunity.

What about Scott Steiner, Owen Hart, Rick Rude, Ted DiBiase, Jake Roberts, Big Boss Man, Roddy Piper, Rick Martel, Jimmy Snuka, Sean Waltman, Jerry Lawler and Raven? Certainly, you could probably write a book on why they should’ve been the WWE Champion at some point.

There’s one that stands out to me however, as being so blatantly obvious, its hard to believe he never won the gold.

My final choice of the “best of the rest” is a wrestler who many fans from England may be familiar with.

“The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith was a wrestler who should’ve, at least at some point, been given that chance to win the Heavyweight gold. A fantastic worker, with a gimmick that represented everything to do with his heritage, he was a wrestler who many idolized.

When will you ever see WWE capitalize on a wrestler’s popularity, by staging a PPV in their home country? Well WWE did for Smith. This, at a time when WWE was very much American based, was quite extraordinary. SummerSlam 1992 was held at Wembley Stadium in London in front of 80, 355 people. To think that WWE held a PPV in Smith’s national stadium just shows how popular he was.

Looking back as a child at the time, it was unbelievably exciting and was something that we struggle to see these days. Ask any British wrestling fan, over twenty years of age, their top five moments as a wrestling fan, and I’ll guarantee this is in there.

It was phenomenal.

Led to the ring by Lennox Lewis, Smith defeated Bret Hart to capture the Intercontinental Title. It was a great match and by far the highlight of his career. You have to see this match to realise how good wrestling was back in the day. The atmosphere in that stadium was electric.

Of course, Smith’s problems with steroids certainly didn’t help his chances of winning the WWE Heavyweight Title and just a couple of months after his win at Wembley, he was fired along with The Ultimate Warrior.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Bulldog would’ve won the title one day. Even on his return to the company in September 1999, he looked like a man who WWE were determined to give the belt to. With constant references to the Grand Slam, Smith won the Hardcore title and needed just the Heavyweight gold to cap an unbelievable career.

His feuds with The Rock and Triple H were very entertaining but once again, Smith found problems with prescription painkillers and he was sent to a drug rehabilitation centre before eventually being released from his contract. Smith’s ability and WWE’s writing team didn’t stop him winning the title, the drugs probably did.

There is hundreds and hundreds of names out there who could be looked at as being the best wrestlers to never win the WWE Heavyweight Title. There are some names not in here that I have probably forgotten. There is that many. Heavyweight champion or not, we should not forget the sacrifices these people make or made during their time as wrestlers. They all should be honored.

No doubt, in five years I’ll be looking back at the roster today and picking out names who maybe should’ve won the WWE Heavyweight Title. I’m not even sure what title is the WWE Heavyweight Title anymore. Back in the day, there was one champion and he was your “man”, your guy to beat. Today, there are three, which starts to devalue the prestige of being WWE Heavyweight Champion.

No matter what, being WWE Champion is certainly an honour. Let’s hope more dreams are realised sooner rather than later.