Ranking Current World Champions 

 

A few days ago, I saw this tweet and went to reply to it. Then I realised the matter was far more complex than the four gentlemen onscreen. What criteria would you use? Your eyes? Stats? Achievements? Opinion of experts? Why not all of that combined?

 

The Contenders: 

John Cena (WWE Undisputed) 

Jey Uso (WWE Secondary World) 

Mox (AEW) 

Hirooki Goto (IWGP) 

Joe Hendry (TNA) 

Bandido (ROH) 

1 Called Manders (wXw) 

Effy (GCW) 

Luke Jacobs (Progress) 

 

I’ve left a few out for various reasons. Like, the company doesn’t call their main title a world title even if it has been defended across the world. Or, I don’t actually know who the champion is without looking it up. Or I looked up CZW’s champion and I didn’t know who he was. Anyway, we have a list of nine. Which is upsetting because 10 would have been better. To make it up to a full ten, I’ve added the NWA champion, which is unfortunate because it’s Thom Latimer. 

 

For each category everyone scores points for where they are placed. If you’re placed first, you score 10 points. If you place last, 1 point. I’m sure you’ll get it.  

 

Category 1: Rating on Cagematch 

 

A simple category to determine general fan appreciation of the wrestler. You can look these up yourself.  

 

1. Bandido 8.78 
2. Goto 8.48 
3. Mox 8.45  
4. Jacobs 8.20  
5. Cena 7.87  
6. Hendry 7.83  
7. Manders 7.63 
8. Latimer 6.52 
9. Jey Uso 6.51  
10. Effy 6.06 

 

Overall, a few surprises. There are some real boneheads contributing to Cagematch nowadays. It is pleasing to see, by and large, the better workers towards the top. I’m sure some people rank Cena as a “legend” now rather than his current in-ring. Hendry’s 7.83 is surprisingly high and must surely be appreciation of his character rather than his in-ring. Which is fine. You rate wrestlers however you want. You think Misawa is 1/10 because he can’t cut a promo in American and had a bad match with Bret Hart, go for it. It’s your right. I mean, you’re wrong but it’s your right to be wrong.  

 

Category 2: Number of matches ranked by Dave Meltzer* at ****½+ 

 

*Not including battle royals, matches with 4+ participants etc. So, no Royal Rumbles, no trios bouts, no Stadium Stampedes, no Elimination Chambers.  

 

1. Mox 40  
2. Goto 31  
3. Bandido 14 
4. Cena 13 
5. Uso 5 
6. Jacobs 5 
7. Hendry 0  
8. Manders 0 
9. Effy 0 
10. Latimer 0 

 

I’ve chosen to give Uso and Jacobs 6 points each here for being tied on P5 and therefore the same amount of good according to Big Dave. The bottom four I’ve awarded joint last to. So, they all get one point for failing to register at the high end of the Meltzer scale. If you can’t get ****½ off Meltzer in 2025, he probably hasn’t seen your match. Although Bram having zero is not a surprise.  

 

I’m sure will argue that Meltzer isn’t a good way to rate wrestlers as he has “bias”, but he does watch a lot more wrestling than everyone else, so we’ll go with his takes. I could look up my own, I guess, but those numbers would be waaaaaay lower.  

 

Category 3: Drawing Power 

 

1. Cena 
2. Mox 
3. Uso 
4. Goto 
5. Bandido 
6. Hendry 
7. Manders 
8. Jacobs 
9. Effy 
10. Latimer  

 

This is a tough one to mark but I’ve done it based on how likely someone is to buy a ticket with that guy’s name being on the card. Goto and Bandido was a tough decision as they’re draws in different parts of the world. The bottom five are not really draws despite their abilities. Although Hendry is sixth because he appeared on a Wrestlemania and we know that means he’s now over.  

 

Cena is miles ahead of everyone else and I’m not deluded enough to pretend otherwise. Moxley and Uso is a tough call. I feel like Mox has been a star for longer and could pop an attendance figure on his name alone. Uso is more part of the WWE machine. Hell, they call Dean Ambrose “Mox” on WWE TV because he’s the draw not the WWE slave name. If he went back to WWE tomorrow, he would be a big deal.  

 

Category 4: Realism  

 

To explain; this is how realistic they are as a character and worker. Are they convincing in their role?  

 

1. Mox 
2. Goto 
3. Cena 
4. Manders  
5. Jacobs  
6. Bandido 
7. Hendry 
8. Uso 
9. Effy 
10. Latimer  

 

Mox is an easy win here. Even when he’s being goofy, he’s there in his character. Cena seems to have lost his way a bit with his recent turn. Both Manders and Jacobs are working towards that character. Hendry is clearly “doing a bit”. Jey Uso, I’ve punished here because his in-ring is so unrealistic that it takes me out of his matches. Arguably, he should be below Effy.  

 

Category 5: Form 

 

How good have they been to deserve that belt. Actual win/loss record for 2025. 

 

1. Bandido 14-2  
2. Uso 11-2  
3. Hendry 13-3  
4. Latimer 10-3 
5. Effy 17-6 
6. Cena 2-1 
7. Goto 22-12  
8. Jacobs 14-8  
9. Manders 24-20 
10. Mox 6-5  

 

Lord loves a working man 1 Called Manders! Old Man Cena’s pitiful three matches does make you wonder how he’s a world champion. In defence of Moxley, he has won all his singles matches this year but has lost a bunch of other match types. Interesting that every single champion has suffered defeat in 2025.  

 

Category 6: Crowd Sourced Opinion 

 

I’ve messaged some great minds of the Inner Circle to get their opinion and I’ve thrown mine in too. No names here but this is the result of the ranking of these guys.  

 

1. Goto 57 
2. Mox 52 
3. Manders 49 
4. Bandido 43 
5. Jacobs 33 
6. Cena 33 
7. Uso 22 
8. Effy 18 
9. Hendry 16 
10. Latimer 7 

 

Our six panellists gave their votes. The result is a win for Hirooki Goto. One called him the “only real world champion at the moment”. Moxley’s current run came in for some shade based on the booking. Effy finished above Jey Uso on three ballots. Hendry finished above Jey Uso once. Bram came last on all bar one ballot. You may notice I’ve given P5 to Jacobs over Cena. That’s because Luke finished P4 on one ballot and Cena’s highest finish on any ballot was P5. Which I found quite surprising, but the current state of his run suggests a degree of apathy surrounding his title win. One final surprise was the consistently high performance for Manders, who is seen as a big rising star and worthy of title contention. Even if the wXw title doesn’t quite have the lustre it had when WALTER and Dragunov held it.  

 

 

So, there you have it. Based on a number of determining factors the current best champion in the business is Hirooki Goto. AEW’s Jon Moxley close behind and ROH’s Bandido in third. There is a lot said for being a good wrestler in the criteria that I’ve chosen. You could, arguably, put merch sales in there and give Jey Uso a bit of a bump. But he trails Hirooki Goto by 17 points. That would need to be a big bump. I’m sure someone will argue he’s a bigger draw than Mox but Dean Ambrose, as he was in WWE, headlined more shows than Uso has. Mox is a bigger star now than he was then. Uso didn’t even headline the show he won the belt on. Left in Roman Reigns’ sizeable shadow.  

 

Personally, I would have picked Moxley. Not because I’m a bit Mox fan or anything but he has everything you need to be a champion and he’s not the champion in his promotion because they simply ran out of other options. *cough* Goto *cough*. John Cena meanwhile is clearly too old and slow to be the main guy in his company and has basically been halfway retired for the best part of a decade. The likes of Bandido, Manders and Jacobs are all inherently watchable and good workers. Time will tell if they can rise to the same level of success. Effy and Hendry are meme wrestlers who occasionally have good matches but very rarely. And nobody cares about Bram. It’s 2025 for fuck’s sake.  

 

I hope you enjoyed this, and I would be happy to do another one at some point in the future. Or even compare each company’s previous champions if that’s something you’d be interested in seeing.  

 

Until then.  

 

Much love, AF