Top 20 worst world title changes in wrestling history
By Luke Norris
5. Hulk Hogan def. Jeff Jarrett: Bash at the Beach 2000
Okay, this actually isn’t recognized as an official title reign but we’re going to go ahead and include this anyway because it’s too important not to. Things were changing in WCW in 2000. New stars were rising, one of them being Jeff Jarrett, who had finally hit the main-event scene after years of being a mid-card player. The plan at Bash at the Beach was for Jarrett to successfully defend his title against Hogan but the Hulkster had other ideas. So the match, which wasn’t even the final match on the card (hmmm……), gets underway, and with Vince Russo at ringside, Jarrett just laid down and Hogan won the World Heavyweight Championship. Jarrett stood up, Russo threw the title at Hogan and Hulk got on the microphone and bashed WCW and Russo himself, claiming things like this were the reason that the company was in “the damn shape that it’s in.” And he was right. Little did we know at the time that this was all a work.
What we didn’t know was that after Hogan and Eric Bischoff left the building, Russo was going to hit the ring and deliver one of the most intense promos in wrestling history. He went into playing backstage politics with Hogan and how there’s no way he should have beaten Jeff Jarrett and a few other not-so-nice remarks. Russo went on to say that Hogan’s newly-won title wasn’t the official title of WCW anymore and that a match between Jeff Jarrett and Booker T would take place later that night to determine a new champion and that Hulk Hogan would never be seen in WCW again.
Russo was right on that last point as Hogan really wouldn’t make another appearance in WCW but that doesn’t mean Hogan would take the shoot lying down. See what I did there? Hogan sued Russo for defamation but the case would ultimately get thrown out. The incident remains one of the most controversial in wrestling history,`1 and again, while it doesn’t count as an official title change, it did happen and is one of the worst and confusing title changes of all time.