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00:00Every wrestler who joins WWE one day dreams of becoming WWE Champion.
00:06Well, actually, most of them dream about having health insurance, but that would probably be a step too far.
00:12Some stars go their entire careers without winning the belt, while others take years to get there.
00:18Some, on the other hand, they get to the mountaintop very, very quickly.
00:23These 10 grapplers all took less than two years to get their hands on the top prize, with some doing it within a few months of their first televised appearance.
00:33This list is about the WWE Championship, by the way, so no world heavyweights or universals, I'm afraid.
00:40I'm Sam Driver from Cultaholic Wrestling, and these are the 10 quickest first-time WWE title wins.
00:47Join us!
00:4910. Superstar Billy Graham at 612 Days
00:53Known for his eccentric look and behavior that definitely wasn't copied by a certain bandana wearer,
01:00superstar Billy Graham revolutionized what it meant to be a wrestling heel in the 1970s.
01:06When he talked, you listened.
01:08When he wrestled, you watched.
01:09And when he called you brother, you better believe you were now legally related.
01:13After cutting his teeth in the American Wrestling Association, Graham made his televised WWE debut in 1975,
01:20back when the company was still known as the WWWF.
01:25He took some time away from the promotion to compete in the NWA, before making his grand return two years later.
01:32612 days after his first match, the superstar captured his first and only WWE title when he beat the one and only Bruno Sammartino.
01:43He held on to his prize for 296 days, which was the longest heel reign in the title's history,
01:49until Roman Reigns came along and stomped his record into the ground.
01:53Graham was a one-of-a-kind performer who was impossible to ignore.
01:57It makes sense that WWE wanted to make him their champion as soon as possible,
02:01even if what he did after he lost left a lot to be desired.
02:059. Vince McMahon at 519 Days
02:09I know it's a bit awkward talking about him now, but in the words of Scott Steiner, the numbers don't lie.
02:16If we were counting a debut as the first time someone appeared on WWE TV,
02:20then Vince McMahon would be nowhere near this list.
02:24In fact, he shouldn't have really been anywhere near this list anyway.
02:27Despite his insane and frankly alarming muscle mass, Mr. McMahon was not a wrestler.
02:33The fact that he won any championships, let alone his promotion's own world title, is absolutely bonkers.
02:41But unfortunately, that's exactly what happened in September of 1999.
02:45With help from his mortal enemy, Stone Cold Steve Austin,
02:49McMahon pinned his own son-in-law Triple H to capture the big gold dinner plate,
02:54much to the bemusement of everyone watching.
02:56And he didn't even have the good grace to lose the belt.
03:00He vacated it the next week on Raw.
03:02Raw. Scandalous.
03:04Vince's ludicrous victory came 519 days after his first official WWE match,
03:10which was against the aforementioned Mr. Austin on a 1998 episode of Raw.
03:15You might not like this entry, but look, I don't make the rules.
03:20Oh wait, yes I do. Shut up.
03:228. Bob Backlund at 440 Days
03:26It's hard to imagine Bob Backlund as anything other than a raving pensioner,
03:31but there was a time when he was young.
03:33The rosy-cheeked rookie was brought into WWE in late 1976 as an all-American boy-next-door character designed to be the ultimate babyface.
03:43While a character like this would be absolutely savaged today, people were a lot kinder back in those days.
03:50Us modern fans, on the other hand, are emotionless husks, especially you.
03:55It didn't take long for the sprightly youngster to ascend to the main event.
03:59He chased her old pal Billy Graham and his championship for over a year, scoring various victories over the champ,
04:05but never in a way that landed him the title.
04:08440 days after his official WWE debut, Backlund finally defeated Graham at Madison Square Garden.
04:16This began his huge reign with the title, the second longest in its history.
04:21Just ignore the part where he technically lost it to Antonio Inoki and they pretended he didn't.
04:26Backlund also holds the record for longest gap between championship reigns, as he would win the title again in 1994.
04:32Honestly, he could probably rock up now and win the belt.
04:37I wouldn't want to mess with him.
04:387. The Undertaker at 373 days
04:43We all know that The Undertaker debuted at Survivor Series 1990 and then defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWE Championship at the same event one year later, right?
04:52So naive.
04:54While The Dead Man's first televised appearance was on pay-per-view, he technically debuted for the company three days earlier.
05:00This makes absolutely zero difference to his placement on this list, but we're nothing if not sticklers for detail here at Cultaholic Towers.
05:08His first WWE match was taped for an episode of Superstars and was against a man called Mario Mancini, who sounds like an extra from a mob movie.
05:17He also went by Kane The Undertaker during this period, which is a detail that became very complicated about seven years later.
05:24Before that, however, Taker did indeed capture his first of many world titles at Survivor Series 1991.
05:32At the tender age of just 26, he dropped the Hulkster on his red and yellow skull, with more than a little help from Ric Flair, to pin him and claim the title for Death Valley.
05:42This was, of course, all a part of a ploy to get people to buy the This Tuesday in Texas pay-per-view, but it still counts.
05:486. Alberto Del Rio at 362 Days
05:53It feels like WWE have been looking for the next Rey Mysterio for about as long as the Lucha Legend has been part of the company, maybe even before then.
06:02One of the many Hispanic stars they've pushed over the years was Alberto Del Rio, and oh boy did they push him hard.
06:10The Mexican aristocrat debuted with a strong gimmick, a sleek presentation, and even his own personal bloody ring announcer.
06:18I actually looked into getting one of those for myself, but then I'd have to remember to feed it and take it for walks, and it just wouldn't be worth it.
06:26In his first year in the company, Del Rio won the Royal Rumble, the Money in the Bank Briefcase, and almost exactly one year to the day of his first match, the WWE Championship.
06:37His cash-in on CM Punk at SummerSlam 2011 was the culmination of one of the most over-booked main events in company history.
06:45A special referee, a controversial finish, a run-in from Kevin Nash, I mean a walk-in from Kevin Nash, you name it, this match has got it.
06:55Del Rio's later history in WWE might be clouded in controversy, but at least he had one hell of a start.
07:025. Kurt Angle at 343 Days
07:06If you look up the phrase Great Rookie Year in the dictionary, then you won't find anything, because that's just not how dictionaries work.
07:13But if it was how they worked, however, then you'd see a picture of Kurt Angle.
07:17The Olympic hero blew everyone away with his mixture of stellar mic work and immaculate in-ring technique.
07:24He'd been an all-time amateur wrestler, but it turns out that his true calling was actually sports entertainment.
07:29Following his debut at Survivor Series 1999, which was against Sean Stasiak of all people, Angle quickly picked up belts like they were on sale, winning both the IC and European championships in quick succession.
07:43Less than one year after his debut, Angle then faced off against The Rock in the main event of No Mercy 2000 with the world title on the line.
07:52After yet more interference, Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, and Rikishi all had their say, Kurt hit an Angle slam on the Great One to capture his first of many world championships.
08:03It's often been said that nobody took to the pro wrestling business as quickly as Angle did.
08:08He just got it and was rewarded almost immediately for that.
08:124. Big Show at 271 Days
08:15Kurt Angle might have been an Olympic gold medalist and he might have done it with a broken freaking neck, but you know what he wasn't?
08:23Really, really tall.
08:26As the giant, Big Show had technically won the WCW Championship in his very first match at Halloween Havoc 1995.
08:35You know, the one with the monster trucks and the fall from the roof and, of course, the Yeti!
08:41How could we ever forget?
08:42His journey to the WWE Championship wasn't quite as rapid, mind, but it still was pretty quick.
08:49Following his debut at St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1999, Paul White had his first WWE match two days later for a taped episode of Raw.
08:58Later that year at Survivor Series, after Steve Austin came down with a nasty case of being run over,
09:05Show took his place in the Triple Threat main event for the WWE title.
09:09And in a moment nobody saw coming, he took advantage of a beaten down Triple H and captured the belt with just 271 days of WWE experience under his belt.
09:21And how did the company follow up this shocking scene?
09:24By booking show in a feud with the Big Boss Man, where the former prison guard stole his dad's coffin.
09:30Genius!
09:313. Yokozuna at 174 days
09:35From one big bugger to another, Yokozuna's meteoric rise to the top was the product of being the right guy at the right time.
09:43Following the steroid scandal that rocked WWE in the early 1990s, the company was in need of stars who were physically impressive,
09:51but didn't look like a bowling ball stuffed into a sock.
09:54WWE fell in love with the guy, changing his name and ethnicity to create the ultimate foreign monster heel.
10:01He had his debut match in October 1992, and by the time January rolled around,
10:06he'd been chosen to win the first Royal Rumble match that guaranteed its winner a WrestleMania title shot.
10:12On April 4th, 1993, with a crowd at Caesars Palace watching on,
10:17Yokozuna crushed Bret Hart's dreams and sternum to win the WWE Championship.
10:23In just 174 days, Yokozuna had gone from sideshow attraction to world champion,
10:31and looked set to rule over the company with an iron fist.
10:34That was until Hulk Hogan came along and cashed in his
10:37that-doesn't-work-for-me-brother-in-the-bank briefcase.
10:402. Sheamus at 166 days
10:44The Celtic Warrior is the only person on this list who had his debut match on an episode of ECW.
10:51Make of that what you will.
10:52After terrorizing the Xtreme brand for a few months, Sheamus quickly moved over to Raw.
10:58He had his first pay-per-view match at Survivor Series 2009,
11:01competing in a traditional elimination match as part of a team captained by The Miz.
11:06He then had his second pay-per-view match one month later at TLC,
11:10where he...beat John Cena for the WWE Championship?
11:15That can't be right.
11:16In a move that still seems unreal over 15 years later,
11:21Sheamus did indeed shove Cena through a table to capture the spinner belt,
11:25just 166 days after his ECW debut.
11:29If we'd base this entry on when he made his Raw debut,
11:32that number shrinks down to a mind-boggling 48 days.
11:35WWE fans had spent most of 2009 sitting through a repetitive John Cena-Randy Orton feud over the gold,
11:42so to see a complete unknown shoot up the card and grab the title was a bit like a slap round the face.
11:48Still doesn't even feel real now.
11:50And number one, Brock Lesnar at 126 days
11:55When a jacked-up young man from South Dakota interrupted a seemingly standard hardcore match
12:00the night after WrestleMania X8,
12:02the wrestling business changed forever.
12:05After a brief feud with the Hardy Boys,
12:08Brock Lesnar was catapulted straight to the main event scene
12:11with a dominant victory in the King of the Ring tournament.
12:14His prize?
12:15A one-on-one WWE Championship match against The Rock at SummerSlam.
12:19Just 126 days after his main roster debut,
12:24the Beast Incarnate challenged the Brahma Bull for wrestling's most coveted trophy.
12:28And he won.
12:29With an emphatic F5 to the champion,
12:32Lesnar pinned Dwayne to an electric response from the crowd,
12:35who all knew they'd just witnessed history.
12:38At the age of just 25 years old,
12:42Lesnar is still the youngest WWE champion in history.
12:45There have been many attempts to replicate his rocket push over the years,
12:49but nobody else has been able to pull it off.
12:51WWE had cemented a new top star in record time.
12:56Now, let's just cross our fingers and hope he doesn't get bored of wrestling
13:00and try to join the NFL or UFC or get embroiled in a legal scandal.
13:07Oh dear.