Most Shocking Title Changes

[JaymeFuture]

For this week's podcast, we're talking about the most shocking title changes in history, and are looking for your suggestìons.

As a fan, which ONE title change did you personally find the most jarring when it happened, and why? Of course it can be any title in any promotion at any time, and the best nominations/explanations will be read on the show and you'll be credited accordingly. So which one was it for you and why?

 

EDIT - The show discussing the Most Shocking Title Changes in History, featuring many of your contributions, is now available at the following link: https://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/download/tuknpb/SCG_Radio_120_-_Most_Shocking_Title_Changes_In_History.mp3

[Log]

Andre "pinning" Hogan on The Main Event.

 

I was nine and had been watching wrestling for about three years. During that time, Hulk didn't lose. Not like rarely. He DIDN'T LOSE.

 

I'm from a very small town. That year we had a good basketball team at the high school. The night of the Main Event, there was a big game. Everyone in town was there. I had set the VCR at home to record the show. At some point in the evening, someone came to the game and word spread that Hogan had lost the belt. Something about twin refs and the Million Dollar Man buying the championship. It was all very confusing. When I finally got home to watch it, I was still shocked. It was the first time in my wrestling life that the Hulkster wasn't champ.

 

I remember all of that very vividly, but have no recollection of who won the basketball game.

[SmartMark15]

As an ROH fan from about 2010 to mid-2012 (that was the period I closely followed the product), Eddie Edwards beating Roderick Strong to become ROH World Champ was a huge shock. The crowd was heavily invested in Davey's chase for the gold so for his tag partner to overtake him was a real surprise.

[SmartMark15]

You also have Sheamus' first WWE Championship win against Cena in a tables match. The fact that the finish was so weak only added to the strangeness of it and it was one of the first times I recall production abusing the close up crowd reaction shots.

[Blehschmidt]

Without knowing the backstage politics of it, Honky Tonk winning the IC Title from Steamboat was a huge shock to me back in the day.

 

It just seemed so sudden and out of nowhere after Steamboats road to revenge and redemption finally culminated.

[Strummer]

Strike Force beating the Hart Foundation was pretty big for me at 8 years old.

[Infinit]

Michael Hayes beating Lex Luger for the US title at WrestleWar 89 was a pretty big WTF moment.

[PhilTLL]

Michael Hayes beating Lex Luger for the US title at WrestleWar 89 was a pretty big WTF moment.

Yeah, I wasn't yet watching then, but this immediately springs to mind. For that matter, Hansen over Luger at Havoc 90 is pretty left-field.

[Johnny Sorrow]

For me it's totally Honky and Steamboat. Not only did it not make sense to me at the time, it was on Saturday morning Tv.

[Lust Hogan]

Hogan vs Andre was already mentioned so I'll go with CM Punk over John Cena at Money In the Bank in Chicago. Punk was on his way out and the post match angle put it over the top and legitimately had the main stream buzzing.

[Hawkeye12]

Not a shocking title change, in fact it was actually kind of easy to see coming, but the fashion in which the Colossal Connection destroyed Demolition without Ax even getting to make a tag was shocking.

[C.S.]

Bret Hart becoming the WWF Champion. An "undersized" midcard and tag guy winning the big one? It was unheard of in the WWF of that era!

 

Runner-up goes to Diesel becoming WWF Champion and ending Bob Backlund's reign after only three days. Despite Diesel's WWF success up to that point, memories of Vinnie Vegas losing to everyone in WCW were still fresh in my mind.

 

I think both of them were especially shocking because they were rare house show title changes.

 

The Undertaker defeating Hogan at Survivor Series '91 has to be right up there too. But as soon as that evil Canadian dictator Jack Tunney announced a rematch for This Tuesday in Texas, I knew the "fix" was in. (I was not a Hulkamaniac, even then!)

[supersonic]

The Summer of Punk in 2005

 

Both the beginning and end of what turned out to be the greatest farewell tour in wrestling history were huge shockers for the same reason.

 

CM Punk was already headed to WWE, so Death Before Dishonor III was promoted as his ROH farewell. This resulted in New Jersey, the ROH location that had hated him most and then bared witness to his babyface turn a year earlier at Reborn: Completion, vehemently rooting for Punk to achieve his final goal, one which from a business perspective would make no logical sense for the highly-protected ROH Title.

 

Of course when Punk won the match over Austin Aries in what turned out to be the underground version of Rock vs. Hogan, it turned out to completely make sense in his post-match heel turn and the return of Christopher Daniels, kicking off the most sensationally compelling summer season storyline since WCW's Hostile Takeover.

 

Just like the beginning, the end would also turn out to be a classic match when Punk was dethroned by James Gibson, who had just agreed to a WWE return. However, such news made Gibson's coronation that much more suspenseful, with booker Gabe Sapolsky opting to pay off the storyline as intended and then figure out where to go from there. It had to be Gibson to win on that night in Dayton, as it not only was the city in which he had made his ROH debut 6 months earlier, but the closest market ROH booked at the time to his native West Virginia. Not to mention that the Dayton crowd was equally sensational to New Jersey 2 months earlier, totally into the action and going insane when Gibson returned from injury in the match after Punk had under-handedly thwarted off Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels.

 

Since then, no title change has ever been as pleasantly surprising and suspenseful. Not the hot Summer of Punk sequel 6 years later, not Daniel Bryan's victories over the Class of 2002, they've all been easily predicted ahead of time by the most astute wrestling viewer, especially when there were obvious business reasons for such moves like John Cena's biceps tear.

 

Everyone owes it to themselves to witness the entire 2005 Summer of Punk. Those who do so, especially if they put in the time to familiarize themselves with his ROH history beforehand, will truly grasp why it was so fucking obvious he'd one day be a top star in WWE; and like Bryan Danielson was for acclaimed underground workrate, is equally deserving of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame, strongly due to acclaimed underground performances on the microphone and in his storylines.

[ragemaster]

Think for me it was Wrestlemaina 9 when bret lost to Yokozuna, which wasn't shocking in itself.

But when Hogan came out and stole the belt, I think it was the first time I swore I would never watch wrestling again.

[Jimmy Redman]

I think for me it was Sheamus. MITB had been around for a few years which kind of introduced the idea of a midcard/not quite ready guy being able to win the world title (Punk in 2008 for example) but those had the mitigating circumstances of cashing in while the champ was dead. Here was a guy who had been around for five minutes in a fair fight with Cena in a PPV match. It was just going to be a routine one-and-done title defense for Cena, and a good learning experience for Sheamus. They basically marketed it as "hey we know you're sick of Orton, so we're giving a random new guy a title shot just for shits and giggles". And it was a tables match so Sheamus didn't have to lose too cleanly while they continued to build him up the card in the next year or so.

 

...and then he just...won.

 

It was so weird.

 

And it also opened the floodgates for the slew of midcard champions we had over the next few years. But none of the geeks winning after that were quite as shocking, because they'd already done it first with Sheamus.

[Migs]

Slaughter over Warrior at the Royal Rumble in '91 was insane. Like, Slaughter just did not seem like he should be able to hang with Warrior, and him winning the title was bonkers.

[Boss Rock]

Santino Marella winning the IC title in his debut. Literally had no idea what to make of it.

[Mrzfn]

Not sure if others will share (or care about) this one, but Chris Sabin winning the TNA belt in 2013 felt random as hell. It seemed like TNA has finally pulled something good out of Aces & 8s with Bully's run, and then out of nowhere they derailed it for Sabin, of all people.

[iamthedoctor]

Sgt. Slaughter taking the belt away from the Warrior was a bit shocking, looking back. Should have kept it on the Warrior and had the big money rematch with Hogan.

[BrianB]

At the time? I wasn't fully smartened up then, so Bob Backlund beating Bret was a real mindfuck. He just seemed like an annoying, pale goof/create-a-wrestler to me as a kid, and he was awful to watch in the ring. To me, his character was the heel Brutus--keep that shit in the midcard.

 

Honorable mention: David Arquette

 

I had stopped watching WCW by this point in time. When I saw the USA Today blurb on it, I just shook my head and didn't bother to watch any WCW for at least another 6 months (I think it took that Big Show title win and the bait and switch with Austin at Survivor Series 1999 before I even considered tuning back in.) Putting the title on Arquette was a shockingly desperate move that just solidified the world title didn't mean anything in WCW and anybody who did care would just be punished as a fan, so why watch?

[zep81]

Backlund beating Bret and then tuning into Raw the week after and seeing Diesel was suddenly the champion.

 

Hogan in the bank at WM9, too.

[Al]

What about Flair's second WWF title? It had been 15 years since they switched the world title outside of national tv/ppv or MSG.

[Infinit]

Wasn't that at a Primetime Wrestling tv taping?

[TonyPulis'Cap]

Been a few ROH title changes noted, but for me the most shocking was the first one - Xavier beating Low Ki. At the time, Low Ki had been presented as a bad ass killer who was pretty much unbeatable and you thought he was building up to a long title reign and title showdown with Christopher Daniels, with Xavier just a token challenger. If I recall correctly, Xavier was a pretty bland face who it turned out was then used as a pawn by Daniels to get the belt of Low Ki as he didn't think he could beat him himself. A decent storyline that made some sense in retrospect, but at the time, I don't think anyone could believe that someone so unheralded had been the guy to stop Low Ki's title reign before it had really even got started.

[sek69]

Wasn't it Scott Hall and Curt Hennig who won the AWA tag titles via countout? Apparently all these years later it was a phantom change to cover for someone leaving the promotion but I remember even the Apter Mags at the time going "uhhh, okay" at that one.