From A Kayfabe POV, Who Is The True GOAT?

[The GOAT]

Not counting drawing power, merchandise sells or any of those boring figures and statistics per se but talking purely in terms of wins, losses, championships won, duration of their title reigns and the caliber of opponents they've defeated, who would you say is the GOAT in WWE history? And I'm only going by the past thirty years or so, pretty much since the time WWF/E became a national (and later, a worldwide) phenomenon. So Bruno and Backlund's long title reigns don't count since that would probably make them the obvious answers.

For me, the answer has to come down to either The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Hulk Hogan, John Cena or the Undertaker. Hulk Hogan defeated pretty much every villain there was and held the WWF Championship for four years, Brock Lesnar accomplished more in one year than most do throughout the length of their whole careers and then later ended the Streak, The Rock beat Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and John Cena (the big three other than himself) all at Wrestlemania and was the savior of the WWF in their war against The Alliance, John Cena's long list of accolades is well-documented and the Undertaker was around for so long that he beat virtually every prominent name there was and also has the Wrestlemania streak to his name. Notable mention goes out to Kurt Angle for being the first man to make both Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin tap out, both less than a year apart.

So, just going as far back as the mid-1980's let's say, who would you say is the GOAT from an entirely kayfabe standpoint?

 

[Indy]

johncenalol

 

[seabs]

Flair. I hold more stock in title wins than anything else from this point of view. Unless you mean solely WWF/E than Cena for the same reason.

 

[ShaRpY HaRdY]

Flair. I hold more stock in title wins than anything else from this point of view. Unless you mean solely WWF/E than Cena for the same reason.

Exactly this IMO as well.

 

[Gav back in the championship]

What about austin? Didn't lose that often cleanly

 

[Red Rain]

I calculated average title run (with at least 3 total reigns) between both WWE world titles:
Hogan had 6 title reigns at 364 per.
Hart had 5 title reins at 130.8 per
Sheamus has 3 title reigns at 123.6 per.
Punk had 5 title reigns at 124.4 per
HBK had 4 title reigns at 106 per
Lesnar has 4 title reigns at 103.5 per (and still counting)

Anong those men, only one of them defeated the other on the list during one their title reigns and that was HBK.
Others on the list have defeated a 100 per reign champion. However I only listed those with at least 3 title reigns.
My answer is Shawn Michaels. He beat Bret Hart for his 1st title win. All the others on the list only beat scrubs.

 

[Roadster]

Hulk Hogan or John Cena.

Hogan was always a bigger star, and the array of stars he's defeated stretches from Ric Flair to the Undertaker.
John Cena has had more accomplishments but considering the roster at the time he was the only one to receive a lot of those accomplishments.

 

[The GOAT]

I'm gonna chip in and say that I feel Brock Lesnar might have the strongest argument for being the GOAT.

For starters, look at all that he accomplished in his first year in WWE. He won the WWE Championship in five months, won the King Of The Ring, won the Royal Rumble, and main evented Wrestlemania. On top of that, he was and still is the youngest WWE Champion ever as well as the youngest King Of The Ring winner, the youngest Royal Rumble winner and the youngest person to ever headline Wrestlemania, all to this day. Within that first year, he also defeated The Rock in his prime, the Undertaker in a HIAC match, Hulk Hogan (in what was arguably the cleanest loss that Hogan has ever taken, be it as a face or heel), Ric Flair, Big Show, Kurt Angle, etc. All of these were clean victories. He then returned eight years later and dominated Triple H like no man ever has before (pinned him, forced him to tap out, broke both his arms and gave him a concussion), ended the Streak in what was arguably the most one-sided Wrestlemania match that Undertaker has ever had, and steamrolled through John Cena like no man has ever before.

That said, the Undertaker and John Cena are a close #2 and #3, imo.

 

[edge4ever]

You have to go Cena whether you like him or not, when the chips are down, you have to bet on him. I mean The Rock, Austin, Taker, and Hogan are all huge big names and that'll never go away....but Cena, has truly built a legacy that will never go away, love or hate him. His accolades are endless as well as his consistency night in and night out.

I personally don't like Cean too much...but you can't deny that he is the biggest face ever and is arguably the greastest, overall, WWE champion in history.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Bruno Sammartino and it isn't even close.

edit: if you put a timetable on it then Hogan and it isn't even close.

 

[Dat Girl]

I want to say Hulk Hogan. He was going at it for years, and has many highlights. WWE Champion multiple times, he main evented Wrestlemania many times, won the Royal Rumble, held the WCW World Heavyweight championship, lead the nWo and many other things.

 

[Red Rain]

I'm gonna chip in and say that I feel Brock Lesnar might have the strongest argument for being the GOAT.

For starters, look at all that he accomplished in his first year in WWE. He won the WWE Championship in five months, won the King Of The Ring, won the Royal Rumble, and main evented Wrestlemania. On top of that, he was and still is the youngest WWE Champion ever as well as the youngest King Of The Ring winner, the youngest Royal Rumble winner and the youngest person to ever headline Wrestlemania, all to this day. Within that first year, he also defeated The Rock in his prime, the Undertaker in a HIAC match, Hulk Hogan (in what was arguably the cleanest loss that Hogan has ever taken, be it as a face or heel), Ric Flair, Big Show, Kurt Angle, etc. All of these were clean victories. He then returned eight years later and dominated Triple H like no man ever has before (pinned him, forced him to tap out, broke both his arms and gave him a concussion), ended the Streak in what was arguably the most one-sided Wrestlemania match that Undertaker has ever had, and steamrolled through John Cena like no man has ever before.

That said, the Undertaker and John Cena are a close #2 and #3, imo.

To each their own.
Brock Lesnar is the most obvious case of 'pouring it on' that I've ever seen.
WWE literally singled Lesnar out at the beginning of a year and said he is beating X,Y,Z in this style.
He will be youngest to do this, that and the third. He was following Austin/Rock and they needed a headliner fast.

This is kayfabe, but Lesnar's booking was based on projections and mystique; it was mark booking at its ultimate.
That said, this is a kayfabe list.

 

[Green Jesus]

Bruno Sammartino and it isn't even close.

edit: if you put a timetable on it then Hogan and it isn't even close.

Kayfabe in wwe usually puts very clearly that things worked differently back then. I know you don't like punk, but his quote of "If I wrestled back then, I would hold the title even longer." seemed pretty beliavable. Sure he was a heel, and taking a heel's word to heart is kind of silly kayfabe, but still. There have been several times where WWE seemed to effectivly bury the superstars of the past by making clear the competition got fiercer on the attitude era.

Also, lockard said in the post that he is only counting the past 30 years to avoid Bruno and Backlund name drops.

 

[Green Jesus]

As for me, I would love to say shawn michaels, for his winning feud against bret, his nice IC reign and for creating DX, but to me, the GOAT on kayfabe would be Rock(alcolades too long to list), Austin(for repeatedly beating rock and making jobbers out of legends) or Brock lesnar(for being awesome). I would say hogan, but there was a clear passing of the torch in his feud with Dwayne, so I'm using that to leave the rock one step above him.

 

[Swift]

Cena wins (lol)