Best/Worst heel WWE champions #1

              My goal for this project is to analyze all the major heel WWE champions and figure out who was booked the strongest and the weakest overall.  Since the WWE booking has always favored babyface champions, dating back to Vince Sr., I really just want to focus on those champions.  There is no question that guys like Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, and Hulk Hogan were booked to look as strong as possible.  However, the same usually can not be said for previous heel champions.  Off the top of my head, guys like Yokozuna, Seth Rollins, and Alberto Del Rio were booked miserably.  There certainly could be room to, at some point, look at babyfaces and analyze who was the weakest of that group, but for now I want to strictly look at heels.

                The prerequisite for analysis of a title reign is that it must have been defended six times.  I would like to be able to measure and contrast comparable title reigns based on booking alone which will include clean wins, cheap wins, and losses, among other things.  I will be researching televised matches and house shows, as well as singles matches and tag team matches, as best I can from results archives.  I will differentiate between these distinct categories, in each post, in order to properly analyze.  For wrestlers multiple reigns, I will only be looking at reigns that fit my criteria which is six defenses as a heel.  These posts will generally be in chronological order and if you have any suggestions for how to better this research, please feel free to contact me.

                Ivan Koloff was a pretty decent draw in his career, and he got the opportunity to unseat Bruno Sammartino as WWWF champion.  Koloff’s reign as champion began on January 18, 1971, at Madison Square Garden, in a clean win over Sammartino.  His reign ended on February 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden, in his only loss, to Pedro Morales.  Altogether, Koloff had thirteen matches as WWWF champion with eleven being singles matches.  Here is a breakdown of percentages for his wins and losses…

77% Overall wins

46% Clean wins

31% Non-clean wins

15% Draws

8% Losses/Clean losses

15% Tag Team matches

                Ivan’s overall record was satisfactory but he only won clean 46% of the time.  Looking at his opponents shows that those wins only came against relatively opening matches guys.  Manuel Soto had no high profile wins in 1970, wrestled guys like Johnny Rodz, and lost to Professor Tanaka in Madison Square Garden.  Tony Marino lost to Koloff multiple times in 1970-71 but he did win the WWWF International Tag Team championship with Victor Rivera on December 9, 1969.  Jean Dubois lost more matches than he won including losses to Koloff, Tanaka, and Arnold Skaaland.  Finally, Lee Wong was similar to Dubois in that he lost to Koloff, George Steele, and Tanaka in 19070-71 but he did manage victories over Lou Albano and Waldo Von Erich.  Overall, Koloff’s clean wins were against rather lackluster opponents.  Koloff’s non-clean wins were count-outs against Chief Jay Strongbow and Gorilla Monsoon.

                There is no doubting Ivan Koloff’s success as a wrestler, over his career.  At times, he drew well, and he is a member of the Observer Hall of Fame.  His reign as WWWF champion was rather short, serving as the first true transitional champion in the history of the company.  It will be interesting to see how his reign measures up against other reigns.

Steve Viglio
stevesgraps@yahoo.com