Counting down the 20 worst world title changes in wrestling history.
Becoming a world champion in the wrestling world, especially in the big leagues like WWE and WCW (we’re going to limit this list to those two companies) usually signifies that a wrestler has truly made it. Forget that some of the biggest names in the sport (thinking Roddy Piper here) never won a world title. No, seriously, I’m asking you to forget that because there’s a few entries on this list that are going to make you really upset.
Not every title change makes sense. I’ve never agreed with just handing a world title to someone and there’s been plenty of those instances over the years but most of these don’t really apply to that concept. I’m not saying I won’t address it a few times but for the most part, the title changes we’ll be discussing today happened in the ring.
Perhaps the change didn’t make sense AT ALL. Perhaps the change happened too quickly. And by too quickly, there’s a couple of ways you could do that. Perhaps someone’s reign only lasted a day. Perhaps someone’s reign only lasted an hour. Perhaps someone’s reign didn’t even make it to an hour. Or perhaps someone lost their title match in less than ten seconds. Or perhaps someone just laid down and lost their title. Or maybe someone got “screwed” out of their title. I’m really not trying to be mysterious here as these are all things we’re going to get to here.
So without further ado, I bring you the 20 worst world title changes in the history of WWE and WCW.
20. Edge def. Dolph Ziggler: SmackDown 600th Episode
When you think of Dolph Ziggler as a world champion, what do you automatically remember? More than likely, it’s him beating Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship in an emotional scene the night after WrestleMania 29, right? I mean, it was pretty awesome. However, do you really remember his first run with the Big Gold Belt? I’m sure some of you hardcore fans might but when I hear Ziggler referred to as a two-time world champion, I just cringe, mainly because the entire situation did not reek of awesomeness. Allow me to remind you what happened.
In the early months of 2011, Dolph Ziggler and Edge were feuding for the World Heavyweight Championship and as happens way too often, Dolph just couldn’t get the job done. He had failed in three attempts to win the title from Edge but in that third encounter, Edge had used the spear to pick up the win, a move that the acting SmackDown GM, Vickie Guerrero (I miss her so much), had banned. So instead of Dolph getting a rematch and perhaps getting his big moment two years earlier than he did, Edge was stripped and Ziggler was just given the title on the 600th episode of SmackDown, something I’ve never been a fan of.
He had momentum after a nice Intercontinental Championship reign the year before and probably just should have beaten Edge at the Royal Rumble. But in their infinite wisdom, creative decided it best to have a hard-working guy get his first title by having it handed it to him. And worse than that, he lost right back to Edge just a few minutes later when a returning Teddy Long made him defend it right then and there. At least he didn’t lose it in a tag match, am I right? But this was still pretty bad, especially considering that Ziggler wouldn’t get his real reign until more than two years later.