Tim Evans Posted November 13, 2011 Report Share Posted November 13, 2011 With CMLL heavyweight champion Hector Garza leaving CMLL for Perro Aguayo Jr.'s promotion PERROS DEL MAL, I was thinking of who are some other champions that left a promotion with a title to go to another promotion? The only ones I can think of are Mike Awesome as ECW champ to WCW and Madusa as WWF women's champ to WCW. What are some other examples? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregor Posted November 13, 2011 Report Share Posted November 13, 2011 Benoit and Flair, from WCW to the WWF. Meng did it, too, but he was only Hardcore champ when he jumped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted November 13, 2011 Report Share Posted November 13, 2011 Rick Rude was still NWA tag champion when he signed with the WWF I think, that's why they had to do the phantom switch to the Rock n Rolls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted November 13, 2011 Report Share Posted November 13, 2011 Larry Z to WCW while still the AWA Champ. The AWA wasn't really running shows, but Verne did strip him of the title as a last act. Lawler leaving the AWA. Strong Kobayashi leaving the IWE. Brody left All Japan while he and Hansen had one of the tag titles. Chris Adams left Texas before dropping the WCWA Title. Baba was the Int'l Champ in JWA when he left. Brock with the IWGP Title. Scott Steiner left WCW as the TV Title. There are tons. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted November 13, 2011 Report Share Posted November 13, 2011 Stan Hansen didn't drop the AWA title, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted November 13, 2011 Report Share Posted November 13, 2011 Boris Zhukov left the AWA for WWF while still one half of the tag champs in 87. In the same year, Sherri Martel was, I think, still technically AWA women's champ when she joined WWF. And wasn't Zbyszko still AWA champ when he joined WCW in 1990? I guess you could also say Hansen left in 86 while still AWA champ. Man, I never realized how many champions bolted on Verne in the final years until making this post. Edit: beaten to it on a few, and I forgot about Lawler, which makes it even worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted November 13, 2011 Report Share Posted November 13, 2011 Strange one: Baba letting DiBiase leave as PWF Tag Champ. Took the belts off him & Hansen in the last series, then put them back on. Never made a lot of sense. Kobashi (TC), Taue (World Tag Champ), Ogawa (Jr Champ) and Inoue & Honda (All Asia Tag) all left All Japan as champs to go to NOAH. Tons of them. Probably would make your head hurt finding all of them. A number of folks when AAA opened up leaving EMLL. The National champions took their belts, but the Misterioso had an NWA title vacated. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomk Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 Didn't Ronnie Garvin have an AWA title when he left for WWF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 I thought about that one too, but wikipedia says no. Before leaving for WWF, Garvin did drop the short-lived AWA TV title to Greg Gagne at Superclash III. However, he refused to do a clean job and instead lost the match (and belt, since it was technically "held up" at that point) by count out. Edit: Looking at it further, the AWA International TV title (the official name, and I'm guessing Canada was the only other country it was ever defended in) has to have been one of the lamer titles ever. Besides winning it back from Garvin by count out, Gagne won the title the first time in late 87 (and I remember the tournament to crown the first champ being this lengthy, months long deal) by DQ over Adrian Adonis. God, did anybody do clean frickin jobs for titles during the last 4 or 5 years of the AWA's existence? And then the title went inactive when Gagne retired in 89. The end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 When Boris Zhukov is not only a champion but also leaving with the belt without jobbing first, you know your company is in trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 That may be the most succinct description of the AWA's demise ever written. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Wrestling X Posted November 20, 2011 Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 Meng did it, too, but he was only Hardcore champ when he jumped. Actually, Meng awarded the title to Barbarian on the Thunder before he left for the WWF. WCW then declared the title vacant and it was never seen again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted November 20, 2011 Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 Stan Hansen didn't drop the AWA title, right? Yeah, the dispute was Gagne had agreed to the tour he was leaving for then changed his mind and wanted Hansen to drop the belt before then. Hansen refused and left with the belt for Japan and the AWA striped him of the belt afterwards. Hansen proceeded to defend the belt in All Japan. The rumor is when the AWA threatened legal action that Hansen ran over the AWA Title in his truck and mailed it back to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregor Posted November 20, 2011 Report Share Posted November 20, 2011 Actually, Meng awarded the title to Barbarian on the Thunder before he left for the WWF. WCW then declared the title vacant and it was never seen again.Oh, I didn't know that. Thanks for the correction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Wrestling X Posted November 21, 2011 Report Share Posted November 21, 2011 Yeah it was a pretty forgettable angle... I guess WCW's method of damage control at the end was to just quietly discard the Hardcore Championship, just like they did with the TV Championship although that was under a different set of circumstances. When ECW folded, Rhino was both the TV and World Heavyweight champion. The WWF never reactivated the belts during Rhino's tenure with the company and he was allowed to keep them (the revived ECW's championship belt was a replica). When WWE eventually acquired all of ECW's tape library and copyrights, etc - the belts stayed with Rhino. So technically, Rhino went to other wrestling promotions with two championship belts that represent a brand owned by WWE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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