Top 20 worst world title changes in wrestling history
By Luke Norris
2. Vince Russo def. Booker T: Monday Nitro – September 25, 2000
It shouldn’t be a shock that the last two entries on this list are from WCW, and given what the number two entry is, you probably already know what number one is going to be. But we’ll go ahead and run through these anyway. As I said earlier, a lot of these things are intertwined and this one has a few entries from this list involved.
Following the incident at Bash at the Beach with Hulk Hogan, Vince Russo claimed it was time for a new generation of stars to rise up. And it did start that way. Booker T beat Jeff Jarrett that night for the first of his five WCW Championships but then dropped the belt to Kevin Nash, which we’ve discussed. Booker T did win the title back at Fall Brawl but his second run with the Big Gold Belt lasted all of eight days and concluded with one of the worst moments in wrestling history. Russo booked himself to participate in a Caged Heat Match on Nitro against Booker T for the title and to the surprise and dismay of everyone, he actually won. Take it, everyone. WHAT?! That’s right, the booker beat Booker T for the World Heavyweight Championship, even if we didn’t officially know it at the time.
The match ended with Russo getting speared through the cage by Goldberg and no winner was announced before the show went off the air. But Russo showed up on Thunder a few days later with the belt and did finally declare himself as the champ, meaning this actually was an official reign. Russo then officially retired from in-ring competition and declared the title vacant the next Monday night, marking the seventh time in the year 2000 that the championship had been vacated, which is absolutely ridiculous. And once again, Booker T and Jeff Jarrett would battle for the vacant title, with Booker once again coming out on top in the infamous San Francisco 49ers match. Yes, that was a thing and it’s too stupid to even explain. Google it. Trust me, you’ll understand what I mean when you see it.