The 10 Worst ROH World Champions In History

At one point in history, Ring of Honor was seen as a wrestling product that was superior to WWE based on the in-ring competition that was taking place. As a smaller independent company, Ring of Honor was putting on some of the greatest matches with the likes of Bryan Danielson (known today as Daniel Bryan), CM Punk, and Samoa Joe creating a great legacy for the title.

RELATED: The 10 Longest Reigning ROH World Champions, Ranked By Length

These days, Ring of Honor has struggled to maintain its legacy as one of the top companies in the United States. With stiff competition from the likes of All Elite Wrestling, ROH has become a shadow of what it used to be. When looking at the gallery of their previous World Champions, not all of them have been the strongest title holders, which has certainly contributed to the company's shortfalls.

10 Homicide

Despite having a long build towards finally winning the ROH World Championship, and defeating one of the greatest champions in the company's history, Homicide's run was very disappointing.

After only three title defenses, Homicide lost the championship to Takeshi Morishima in a very surprising title change, leaving him without any wind in his sales. Homicide would not get another title shot until 2011, leaving his ROH career on a very disappointing note.

9 Kyle O'Reilly

Despite being an incredibly formidable wrestler, Kyle O'Reilly's first World Championship reign was poor as a result of timing and circumstance. At a time when multiple ROH stars were renegotiating contracts, O'Reilly was caught between a rock and a hard place. After winning the ROH World Championship, his contract expired and he was working on a per appearance basis.

RELATED: 5 Reasons The Elite Are The Best Current Stable in Wrestling (& 5 Why It’s the Undisputed Era)

However, since he had already received interest from WWE, ROH made the decision to have him drop the title on his first defense back to Adam Cole. Had O'Reilly decided to stick around, he likely would have been much more successful.

8 Jerry Lynn

Prior to retiring from professional wrestling, Jerry Lynn worked one final run in Ring of Honor and wound up making his way up the card before winning the World Championship.

While Lynn was always a strong worker in the ring, his win at the age of 46 was seen as taking away opportunities from younger stars at the time like Roderick Strong or Chris Hero who had never won the title before.

7 Michael Elgin

Following a long build towards his championship opportunity, Michael Elgin finally won the ROH World Championship from Adam Cole in 2014 and was poised for a long run with the company.

However, as things started to turn sour between Elgin and ROH management, he unceremoniously dropped the championship after only 76 days, leaving him with one of the shortest reigns in history. Considering how out of favor Elgin fell with the entire wrestling community, his status with ROH is not surprising.

6 James Gibson

Despite being one of the original ROH Champions of the company's history, James Gibson's legacy has not held up as well as he would have hoped.

RELATED: 10 Backstage Stories About The ROH Championship That We Can’t Believe

While ROH's early days are lauded as having held some of the best matches in wrestling, the quality of matches in 2005 compared to today has not held up as highly. Gibson was a reliable champion at the time, but his matches are not ones that get better with age.

5 PCO

Despite having one of the better comeback stories in recent professional wrestling history, PCO's run as ROH World Champion was far from the greatest reign in the company's history. Looking more like a publicity stunt versus a legitimate title win, PCO seemed out of place holding the prestigious championship belt.

Surrounded by young and hungry stars, the aging wrestler has stuck out like a sore thumb since joining the promotion. After less than two months and only two defenses, PCO dropped the title and has been removed from the scene since.

4 Christopher Daniels

With a rich history as one of the original members of the ROH roster, it should have been a satisfying moment for Christoper Daniels to finally win the World Championship. Unfortunately, it came far too late in his career to really mean something.

RELATED: ROH: The 10 Highest Rated Matches Ever (According To Dave Meltzer)

By the time this happened, Daniels was well past his prime. The moment itself was an emotional one but there's a reason Daniels didn't hold the gold for a long time.

3 Low Ki

As the first Ring of Honor Champion in history, Low Ki holds a special place for many long-time ROH fans. However, the athleticism and charisma of the champions who came after him were much higher than what Low Ki was known for.

His hard-hitting style was unorthodox for professional wrestling at the time, but it has since become passe to watch and has not held up well against the test of time.

2 Takeshi Morishima

Takeshi Morishima was a fairly unknown wrestler when he appeared in Ring of Honor in 2007. So when he won the ROH World Championship in his third match with the company, it was not exactly well-received by fans who had been loyal to the company.

Despite being a fighting champion for several months, Morishima did not catch on with fans, and did not stick around long after dropping the championship. ROH took a gamble on putting their title on an unknown wrestler, and unfortunately, it did not pay off.

1 RUSH

Through a new partnership between ROH and CMLL in Mexico, RUSH is meant to be the fresh top star in Ring of Honor. Unfortunately, his second reign as World Champion is coming during a global pandemic, which has not served his legacy well.

In addition, Ring of Honor has lost much of its luster as one of the top wrestling companies when compared to newcomers like AEW, which does not look well on their most recent championship holders.

NEXT: 10 Best ROH Wrestlers To Never Win The ROH World Championship