Hulkamania

Yeah, he had the WWE championship during one of his reigns. He's also got the Money in the Bank contract currently, which means he's likely in line for another one at some point soon.
Since you bring up Sheamus, though, it raises a good question. Is he the poster boy for institutional racism in WWE? Or is that more of a case of traditional backstage cronyism?

 

Yes, Sheamus had two title reigns, totaling 161 days. He beat Cena December 13, 2009 in a tables match and dropped the belt in the Elimination Chamber on February 21, 2010. He won it back from Cena June 20, 2010 in a Fatal Fourway also involving Edge and Orton and dropped it to Orton in a six-pack challenge on September 19, 2010. Also involved in the six-way match was Edge, Cena, Jericho and Barrett.

List of WWE World Heavyweight Champions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While the big gold belt was frequently equal to the WWE title, I've always considered the WWE belt to be the most prestigious because of the lineage, and that the gold belt lineage began not with a victory, but just being awarded.

 

I feel like I'm defending the craft and artistry of pro wrestling here as much as anything, so I'll ignore the rest of your comment that basically called anyone who likes wrestling a racist.
You say there's no objective way to measure talent, which is just silly. Watching a WWE match (or any of the other top promotions) vs. watching a small independent show is like watching a major league baseball game vs. a high school game. To the trained eye -- which many fans have these days -- it's obvious who can and who can't perform in the ring or on the mic. The powers that be in WWE have very trained eyes and a pretty short leash when guys screw up.
As Jay Leno and any number of celebrities have proven, anyone can take a few classes and quickly learn to take a bump or perform a basic move or two. Putting together even a 5-minute match and not having it suck takes months to learn. It takes skill and talent. Doing it for a 30-minute pay per view main event people actually want to see takes an insane amount of skill and talent. Being able to consistently perform at that 30-minute level is what makes someone "championship material."

 

#POY2015

 

A facet written about by smarter folks than me have noted that The E is more interested in finding the next big Latino star because the viewing demographics show that the Latino market is strong. Alberto Del Rio was brought into have major, championship feuds. He was a sympathetic character as a Mexican star fighting white bread, Tea Party loving, immigrant hating Jack Swagger. Wrestling viewership has changed. Sure, primarily white since whites are the majority of viewership, but it's not the cliche of Southern rednecks. New York, Boston, Chicago and other major, more diverse cities draw bigger crowds. I went to Raw in Birmingham last year. Barely three-quarters full, probably three-quarters white, but it certainly wasn't the all white trash stereotype the snobs make us out to be.

Sure, there hasn't been a black champion. To say there's no diversity and nothing but insulting minority characters discounts that in the last year alone the last two tag championship teams are black, the Divas champ is Mexican-Italian, and the NXT women's champion is black.

 

Wrestling was racist as all fuck. Saying it was not is just correct. I have not watched it in 10 years or more, so it might have changed, but, shit, it was insane and played on every racial stereotype it could find.

Piper hit Snuka with a fucking coconut.
Redneck Dick Murdock
Flair called Atlas "boy" over and over again.
Junkyard "Dog" wore a fucking chain
Almost all black wrestlers had hard heads and were known for their head buts
Putski was dumb and had a bad temper
Baron Von fucking Rashke for Christ's sake
The "Wild" Samoans were savages
Fuji and Siaito were dirty
Every Russian wrester ever
The Iron Shiek

Shit, every time America had a problem with another part of world, you were sure to get a heel wrester from that area. You could set a watch to it.

 

I love the way liberals think. They're all for things like diversity, but have all kinds of excuses for why their own favorite institutions deserve a pass when their lack of diversity is pointed out.

We've had numerous comments here about how hard it is to diversify a newsroom, and how it's not even relevant given the state of the industry.

Folks like Devil think that maybe African-Americans just aren't interested in high paying union jobs in the building trades.

And now we have folks arguing that in a "sport" where the champ and other high profile performers are hand picked by the CEO, that they just can't find African-Americans with the athleticism, charisma, and "look" necessary to be a big star in the WWE.

 

Except for The Rock, who when you consider Hollywood appeal is the biggest star the pro wrestling industry has ever produced.

 

It should be noted that The Rock grew out of a pretty racist gimmick from his NOD days. He was charismatic and entertaining enough to rise above it. Tons of other wrestlers, with Ron Killings probably at the top of the list, never get that opportunity because they aren't part of the Anoa'i family.

On the flip side, Ahmed Johnson would've been a huge, Goldberg-like star if he could've just stayed healthy. But for every Ahmed, there are 20 D-Lo Browns.

 

Nobody is giving them a pass. If anything, we're the ones pointing out the lack of diversity at the top of the card. We're also pointing out how difficult it is for anyone to be hand picked by the CEO, and for those who are, how they have to be able to win fans over.