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The “Title Formula” was created to assess the championship resumes of all relevant WWE and WCW wrestlers between November 1983 and August 2015. The formula also accounts for the length of reigns versus the number of reigns.  Follow @TheDocLOP QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you, historically, give equal weight to the Intercontinental and United States Championships? Why or why not. 170. Marc Mero 169. Rhyno 168. One Man Gang 167. Mr. Kennedy 166. Kensuke Sasaki (Tie) 165. Bobby Lashley (Tie) 165. Finlay 163. Stan Hansen \ 162. Ahmed Johnson 161. Ezekiel Jackson 170. Marc Mero With a day longer reign as IC Champion than Albert, Marc Mero quietly sneaks into his inauspicious place in pro wrestling's championship history. When you rank, file, and present your findings, you see a spike in initial interest as people gravitate toward the basis of the concept; and, with a list as large as this one, you then see a dip in interest as the less relevant names begin to add up. Every list that I compile finds Mero occupying a similar spot as this one – right in the heart of the monotony. Yet, there is enjoyment to be found in the humdrum, as it gives us a chance to reminisce about the underrated athlete that was the former Johnny B. Badd, Marc Mero. He gave us Sable, so thank you, Wild Man. 169. Rhyno I enjoy studying psychological nuance. For instance, I like asking questions such as “How does a fan become a mark for a particular wrestler?” In other words, what is it about certain wrestlers to whom we develop a liking. Why do I mark for Rhyno? Why do I feel like if I was building a fantasy stable and I needed an enforcer, I'd definitely consider him, thinking that he would do his job and be fine being overshadowed as a personality by his stablemates? The answer? A video game. The former US Champ popped up as a Hardcore Title challenger on Nintendo Gamecube's WrestleMania X-8 and the “Chad Matthews” created character had to beat him. He gave me a heck of a match; “I” kicked out of the Gore and came back to pin him. And, hence, I mark for Rhyno. Who do you mark for? 168. One Man Gang For 33 days, One Man Gang was US Champion during a time in WCW history when the wrestling world's second banana was bringing in by-that-point jabronis – cast offs from WWE's 1st business boom (which had ended). I mark for Akeem in WWE; if there's any opposite term for mark in pro wrestling vernacular, then that's what I am for One Man Gang in WCW. Steve Austin was fired, but One Man Gang was hired? All due respect to the man, but he was the type that, if you had an inkling to check out what WCW was doing during the early Monday Night War and you saw him, he'd make you quickly flip back to WWE. He represented a failure to see where the business was going and a philosophy that WCW seemed to have for a bit, in which they acted as though living in the past would spark upward mobility in the present and for the future. If you're talking Hulk Hogan, then that made sense to a degree. If you're talking One Man Gang, then it most assuredly did not. 167. Mr. Kennedy Some might say that the use of the term “jabroni” above would aptly apply to this man, Mr. Kennedy. It seems hard to believe that, for about 6-9 months from late 2006 to mid-2007, the Green Bay Plunger hailed from the top of WWE's “next big star” ladder. He won the US title in the summer of 2006, feuded with Undertaker, headlined the Royal Rumble, and won Money in the Bank at WrestleMania. Then, he face-planted. I cannot think of a wrestler in the last decade (or longer) that seemed poised for so much and ultimately accomplished so little. He talked a big game, but never seemed to back it up with results. Perhaps his six week US Championship reign was a bad omen. For the next three years after he lost it, the average possession of the belt was 6 months. 166. Kensuke Sasaki Kensuke Sasaki might be the leader of the “Who?” list to fans of exclusively American wrestling. He quietly hit the American scene in WCW back in 1995, winning the US Championship from Sting at a New Japan Pro Wrestling event. New Japan, where Sasaki made his name, had a working agreement in the early-to-mid 90s with WCW. Starrcade '95 was the culmination of their joint promoting and was the site of Kensuke's loss of the US title to One Man Gang. Up until recently, we'd seen a large drop off in Japanese stars coming to the top USA-based promotions. Do we have Kenzo Suzuki's lousy run in the mid-2000s to thank for that? Was he so bad that he wiped out the pathway that Sasaki, Great Muta, Ultimo Dragon, Jushin Liger, and the like built in the 90s? Did I just create an excuse to heap some criticism on my least favorite wrestler pre-Great Khali? I think I did… (Tie) 165. Bobby Lashley Lashley gives Kennedy a run for his money as the best modern example of someone who seemingly was headed for 5 years or more as a WWE headliner before flaming out. The difference was that Lashley left WWE prior to falling so far from grace that he couldn't even execute a simple move without screwing up so badly that a top WWE star wanted him fired immediately. Had Lashley returned from injury in the spring of 2008, after having already won the US title, become the face of the new ECW brand, headlined WrestleMania, and had a breakout WWE title match against John Cena, he likely would have become a huge star and earned a chapter in The WrestleMania Era. Instead, he became a huge “What if?” He reportedly asked for his release because of racism; he may not have had a thick enough skin for pro wrestling, either. (Tie) 165. Finlay Tied with Lashley's 49 day reign as US Champion in WWE was Finlay, the Irishman who loved to fight and seemingly had far too solid a mid-card run in the mid-to-late 2000s (plus a respectable WCW run in the mid-1990s) to check in with just a lone major title to his name. Alas, here he sits. I'd take ten Finlays over one Kennedy or Lashley. All the potential in the world is useless if never realized. Finlay never had a ton of upside, but brought a unique style to America that allowed him to easily stand out when he wrestled. European wrestlers are thriving in the current era, thanks in part to the efforts of Finlay and men like him (Tom Billington, aka the Dynamite Kid, and William Regal, for example). 163. Stan Hansen Technically, Hansen held the US Championship for as long as the next guy held the IC Championship, so a tie is in order. However, the Intercontinental Title is WWE’s brainchild. Call it a tiebreaker earned via victory in the Monday Night War, if you will. Anyhow, Hansen is a true legend in the wrestling business. In the 1970s, he was one of the biggest stars in the industry. His WrestleMania Era contribution was a lone 50 day reign as US Champ in 1990 born of a feud with Lex Luger, but his overall track record is definitely that of a Hall of Famer. It would shock me if he was not inducted in the next ten years. 162. Ahmed Johnson I feel as though we are constantly waiting for a transcendent black star in pro wrestling whose Samoan mom isn’t part of a wrestling dynasty that confuses her son’s African American-ness. I once asked my column readers who are black, “Do you think of The Rock as black?” Over half said, “No.” In The WrestleMania Era, the premise of which was to statistically verify pro wrestling greatness, not one generally-thought-to-be black star cracked the top 30 (though Rock obviously ranked extremely high). Booker T was the closest. Among the many that seemed poised to become the dominant black star that could compete with the uppermost echelon of all-time greats was Ahmed Johnson. He had presence and power to spare, but that was about it. He won the IC title and held it for 50 days, but just never quite connected. WWE says that as much as a quarter of its audience is black, so surely someday that transcendent black star will emerge… 161. Ezekiel Jackson The transcendent black star surely never manifested in the form of Ezekiel Jackson. Again, I swear it was another statistical coincidence that Johnson and Jackson were back-to-back on this list. Big Zeke held the IC title for exactly one day longer than the Plunger from Pearl River, though his reign was not nearly as memorable. Johnson was catching on fast in his rookie year when he captured WWE’s 2nd most prestigious title from the long-reigning Goldust in 1996. Jackson was gaining slight momentum in 2011 as a member of the clunky Nexus spinoff, The Corre, but he turned face when the faction flamed out and flopped as bad as his former stable. The IC title, back then, was vacillating between the 3rd and 4th most prestigious title, anyway. Unlike with Johnson, there was never any inkling that Zeke might be a breakout star.
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