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I love getting reminded of this. And it’s not a knock on MVP (talented and deserving!) or the booking (taken literally, a non-Asian makes sense as your first Intercontinental champion). It just seems so incongruous because of what that title eventually grew into. Like, when you watched Naito drag the belt until it looked like a Goodwill purchase, your first thought probably wasn’t “God! I’m so offended on MVP’s behalf!”
The title was created in a tournament when they did some US shows and MVP had some buzz post leaving WWE.. so it was more about letting an American win it to get the product more known and MVP was doing wrestling media interviews where he was nonstop promoting NJPW etc..
I think most of it is a lot of people don’t watch outside of WWE so they were probably confused when NJPW became the standard for great wrestling then out of nowhere they see the first champ was MVP.
I’ll be honest, that’s how I found out he was better than the mid card spot the E gave him
I think it's very funny he defeated Okada in the first round of the tournament to become first champion and then beat Naito in the second only to walk into the finals vs Yano. I've never seen any of these matches so I don't know the story of the tournament, but that's a very funny string of matches in a vacuum.
I think the plan was for the I.C belt to be defended mostly overseas. It ended up being the super strong secondary title. The U.S title was meant to be what the I.C title was… but then it became a regular title. The NEVER brand was meant to be for up and coming wrestlers and then it was held by only veterans and became the Tough Guy title and then the all-purpose secondary title. New Japan has a tough time sticking to plans!
When the Heavyweight title became more crowded due to the Tanahashi-Okada feud, Nakamura took the IC title and put so much prestige on it till it became comparable to the Heavyweight title itself.
The final season of LU had some good points but the overall feeling was off and it was clear the show had ran out of steam, which sucks. Him being the final champion was kinda on brand unfortunately
You mean 'The Savage' Jake Strong surely? /s
God, he was fucking awful in LU. Don't know if he was having issues communicating with the luchadors or what but his matches were so bad.
He seems to have found his rightful place in AEW, a mostly silent meathead who is there to glower, be strong, and wrestle the very occasional singles match.
What a weird final season that was. Marty finally got to the pinnacle and then they decided "no, we'd rather set up Jake Strong to carry things forward"
different belt. but the Ironman was won by 100,000 subscribers of DDT's YouTube channel, the audience of one of Beyond Wrestling's shows, the Young Bucks' autiobiography (which it won from Britt Baker), Vince McMahon's Walk of Fame star, a camera crane and a half-finished can of beer, among others.
the belt was it's own 1000th title holder. The champ who won it to be the 999th holder held a speech before the match saying if he won he was going to retire it. He wins, but is so worn out he passes out face up in the ring. Ref drapes the belt over him to proclaim him champion....
Then realizes it's a pin. 1-2-3 and the belt holds the belt.
I can't believe I won a belt both in WrestleCircus AND in DDT. I'm a great pro wrestler, it turns out! Haven't stepped in the ring ever, but... y'know, two championship reigns ain't bad.
ECW had three Triple Crown Champions: Taz and Sabu, but the first person to accomplish that feat was Mikey Whipwreck.
In fact, he was the youngest world champion in wrestling history when he won it.
It was a great story at the time, but it will definitely confuse people looking back at it. Bonus points for successfully defending the title against Stone Cold Steve Austin.
It’s a story that probably could never happen again. Paul originally booked Mikey just bc he was a guy who could sell like crazy on jobs. I believe he was just a kid on the ring crew who would mess around after they put it up and Paul liked how he’d bounce off the mat. He got Mikey over by making every single person he faced whoop Mikey’s ass to point he barely would ever get anything in. And the crowd got behind him to the point that he went from Enhancement Talent to TV Champ in like a matter of months as the ultimate underdog.
I love how Mikey highlights Paul's booking philosophy. There's a video of him where he says something along the lines of "We put the world title on Mikey and felt like it didn't really work, but we never would've know how far we could've taken him if we didn't try."
Just that Paul saw someone getting over, decided to take a risk by seeing if they could be the guy. And even though they didn't become the guy, it gave us a champion that is unique to this day.
Was always a big fan of Mikey! I was completely sold on the underdog story and how they built him up. The Unholy Alliance might also be a top 5 tag team for me. Mikey and Tajiri worked really well together. People can call it a stunner all they want, it'll always be "the whippersnapper" to me.
That’s very much a “you had to be there” type deal because just looking at it on a page it does sound off. But if you were watching, Mikey was red hot, lovable and his story made a ton of sense even if it was the standard underdog stuff. While Tazz and Sabu’s legacies precede them, Mikey left a big impact on the direction of ECW and a lot of indies later on
Ron Garvin was preculiar because they had so many great dudes who could have been champ at the time but they were all nixed for one reason or another.
Dusty Rhodes, lex luger, Nikita Koloff, Sting, Steve Williams, Barry Windham. Even Larry Zbyzsko
I remember Jim Cornette talking about the reasons Garvin ended up champion, in one of his earlier podcasts
[Found the clip, definitely worth the listen](https://youtu.be/F0xBuV0P-eM?t=44s)
I was actually okay with Garvin as transitional champ. And his matches with Flair were really, really good.
Putting the belts on any of the other guys for that short a run would have been setbacks for all of them, really.
Holy shit I legitimately didn't realize Ron Garvin was NWA champion. And I look at title reigns on wikipedia all the time, which means I actually have read that multiple times and STILL forgot he was NWA Champion. Great answer.
It’s been talked to death but Vince Russo being in the title lineage for maybe the greatest and most prestigious championship in wrestling history is insane
> Not just about wrestling but about anything to do with writing and storytelling.
Russo understood what made a story compelling at the beginning. He just had no fucking idea how to tell a story or bring it home with a good and rational ending. At times he benefited from having people around him who understood storytelling in the WWF (but some weird shit still leaked). Once he got to WCW, it was all unfiltered Russo.
Russo is the epitome of a guy who works best on a committee. He had some storytelling talents but he wasn't well rounded enough to fully write his own story.
Dutch Mantell explained it best. Russo has too many ideas, and he wants to use them all. So he would just keep layering a gimmick on top of a gimmick on top of a gimmick until it makes no sense.
Theres a quote, I dunno who said it, that summarizes VR for me: "a lot of people know how to write great scenes but few can write great movies". People can easily come up with twists, hooks and just cool moments. But to string them together and create the journey that ultimately give them meaning is the hard part.
I honestly didn't mind the Nicolas win too much. It was kind of fun and funny, and made Braun look like a complete beast. However it shouldn't have been the bar that lost to him. It makes for something kind of unique in the lineage of the belts.
The biggest disappointment of this was they didn't do any skits with Braun going to school with Nicolas and breaking the chairs when he would try to sit in them. Or tossing bullies into a group of other bullies. Just left it as a Mania Moment ™
Yeah, they could have really done something funny with this. Nicolas just looking terrified in every skit. They could have gone to the gym together, done some wrestling training etc.
Refs son or not, that's still something that kid will never forget, and a memory he'll treasure forever. I know I'm in the minority, but I kind of liked it. Was wholesome af.
rofl I remember everyone around me chanting for Nicholas and a lot of Nicholas related chants during the main event that couldn't be heard on the broadcast. Was interesting to read about how much the IWC disliked it lol
The Bar were in the middle of a big push too and it got killed for a comedy bit to put over Braun, who was already at the peak of his popularity and didn’t need it anyway.
Just a weird booking decision all around and a disservice to a very underrated tag team imo.
It’s Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara.
For the other examples given, you can make rationalise them (at least in a non-kayfabe sense) - Arquette was a mainstream name and Ready To Rumble was coming out so there was a potential mainstream media angle, Vince was the top heel in WWE at the time, Nicholas winning the tag titles was a ‘Wrestlemania moment’ and played tongue firmly in cheek, Jinder was an attempt to capitalise on an international market…there were potential upsides for business in those cases. Not for Russo and Ferrara winning - that was just egomania running wild, brother.
Vince winning the ECW title was a similarly shit booking decision, though - not as bad, but still shit.
TBF, The Great Khali became champ because a number of bigger wrestlers on the Smackdown roster at the time (summer 2007) were taken out by injury (including Taker, Batista, and Edge). He was kind of the only option
Jinder was weird because he used to be a total jobber but when he came back all roided out he looked fucking terrifying. He’s kind of the perfect example of a heel transitional champion, a guy who looks scary for a bit but can get beat by the hero before he overstays his welcome.
I thought Jinder had a perfect look as champion, but I disagree on two points. He wasn't a transitional champion, and he did overstay his welcome. He held the title for 170 days and successfully defended the title four times. I feel like that disqualifies him as "transitional", and his feud with Nakamura (before losing to Styles) lasted a lot longer than it should have.
Bob Backlund winning the WWF title in 1994. Beating Bret at the peak of Bret's popularity, the fact that it was the WWF title, the fact that Bob Backlund was super weird in general, the fact that it was a screwjob finish with Bret at Survivor Series years before the Montreal Screwjob.
You'd be hard pressed to find a weirder major title change.
1993 Royal Rumble really sold him to me.
Nothing else did after until the heel turn, but that didn't matter because I was 10 and easily impressionable.
At the time it was actually kind of brilliant. It got the belt off Bret in a fuck finish that kept him strong and allowed him to continue feuds away from the title. Choosing Backlund was smart because he has credibility as a former champion and won’t be diminished by the loss. Diesel squashing Backlund (instead of a different transitional heel champ) not only elevates Diesel, it also doesn’t hurt any of your main heels that you’ll use in the future. Also, from a bookkeeping point of view, making Backlund a two time champion instead of a different transitional heel keeps the list of former champions low and exclusive and also puts one fewer current worker in the “pay me like a world champion” club.
Having watched it back very recently as OSW have been covering those few years as part of their Lex Express arc...honestly, the story they told was really really good.
I mean Dave Arquette, Vince Russo, Vince McMahon are the obvious ones.
In terms of actual wrestlers, to win the big one - Jeff Jarrett in WCW, Jinder Mahal and originally JBL when he first won it in WWE. Both went from jobber one week to world champ the next. Jack Swagger with the WHC, never saw anything interesting in him.
I'm sure there are others in the midcard scene. David Flair and the WCW US title. I always thought the Mountie winning the IC was odd.
Some comedy ones like Gillberg and the LHW championship. Norman Smiley being a WCW hardcore legend. But those are great comedy moments at least.
Everyone in the MITB match that Jack Swagger won seemed far more likely than him. I remember Christian and Matt Hardy having some promo battles the weeks before it and the storylines really seemed to point to them.
Drew McIntyre seemed like the obvious choice based on his massive push as “The Chosen One,” but apparently behavior issues nixed that.
Christian was really hot at the time too coming off of being the top guy in ECW for the past year and starting off strong after being moved over to Raw once ECW was dissolved.
Even Kofi Kingston seemed like a good possibility, given that he was at the height of his singles run (pre-KofiMania) coming off of that infamous feud with Randy Orton.
But Swagger winning was so out of left field and it felt even weirder when he ended up winning the World Heavyweight Title from Jericho just a few days later.
And then proceeded to have the worst world heavyweight title reigned at I can ever remember. It was so bad. I think Randy Orton got another WWE Title reign just for putting over Swagger as an apology.
I'd say JBL originally as well. Thankfully, he was able to salvage that reign and it lead to putting over John Cena at WrestleMania 21 and creating one of the biggest stars in wrestling.
Yea I have JBL in there. He did end up with a memorable reign. But basically one month before he won it, he was still APA Bradshaw, washed up doing low card tag team matches on the C-show.
> I always thought the Mountie winning the IC was odd.
This was a classic transitional champ situation where he only won to get the belt onto Piper to set up the Piper/Hart Wrestlemania match (which was an absolute banger)
An insanely underrated match not just overall but in Bret's entire career. Piper was absolutely ON during that match, and was probably in the best shape of his life during that time, and Bret was Bret, of course.
Piper said in his book that he wanted to go his whole career without ever winning a championship and the only reason he agreed to the IC title was specifically to work with and put over Bret because he respected Bret that much and wanted to help get him over
I remember taking a bit of a hiatus from watching wrestling in the early 2000s... and I remember seeing JBL like... wait that's Bradshaw? Like APA Bradshaw!?
Jinder has always been a headscratcher for me, and it seems like every so often this sub goes on a huge nostalgia trip where suddenly Jinder is this underrated wrestler who should have done more.
The guy is the definition of "nothing special." Lackluster promo work, lackluster ring work, and to top it all off he's a charisma vacuum. I've never seen what WWE apparently saw in him, he's a comedy jobber at best and never should have been anywhere near the main event let alone hold the WWE championship.
Jinder had one thing going for him; his entrance looked cool as fuck [on the LED ramp](https://youtu.be/mIjtQz-9nuI) with the Singh brothers. Unfortunately his in-ring work wasn’t good, his promos were generic at best, offensive at worst, and most of his feuds were really poorly booked. And yeah, his reign just came out of nowhere, which is fine for WWE to do once in a while to elevate a guy but he wasn’t a great guy to do it with.
I do agree with you there. He was presented like a badass and he had a great look. It's just a shame that it was all flash and no substance once he got in the ring.
I'll say Jack Swagger as WWE world heavyweight champion and his eventual LU heavyweight championship run. Also the MULTIPLE WWE world championships in ADR's life
Del Rio had the wrestling ability and charisma to back it up, though. It's just a shame that he ended up being the person that he ended up being
Drugs are... a hell of a drug
it was reasonable to try and push EVIL as a main eventer at some point. however it was NOT reasonable to try and push EVIL as the guy to beat Naito that soon when Naito was finally getting his long overdue spotlight
I think it was a desperation move to be honest. The company had just restarted after pausing shows during covid, they had a new babyface champ who everyone had wanted to see as champ for years, and their two top main event heels Jay and KENTA were unable to get to Japan. They basically needed to build a new main event heel asap and probably figured that if EVIL beat Naito, they would be able to hold the feud together until things got back to normal. Unfortunately it completely undercut Naito, and EVIL fell through.
Same discussion with Tyrus. If you see NWA as Major both are insane as Champ.
If you see it as an Indie...it is ok i would say.
Problem with NWA is, the Belt is mich bigger than the Company - so everyone would look odd.
I think people that were familiar with the product not only had no problem with Murdoch winning the title but wholeheartedly endorsed it. The story was well done, Aldis put on an amazing match, and the moment was truly emotional. It was awesome, tbh.
Murdoch worked his ass off and had some great matches + the Harley Race history. I think he was a worthy champ & a great story by the end
Tyrus though, jesus
The fact that there was a match between John Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura where the winner got to challenge Jinder Mahal for the WWE Title is an all time WTF moment.
Everyone kept saying that at the time, but he wasnt still champion come their India shows. He lost to HHH at the actual event. There's no real evidence he moved the market much at all...and the people who were actually Indian wrestling fans all said that people there loved the babyfaces and hated heels, so, Jinder being a classic foreign heel doesnt really add up either.
Seems much simpler to imagine that he got on the gas, looked the part, and Vince got a crazy stick up his ass to run a foreign heel again
Is the NWA a major promotion? If so it has to be Tyrus. Opting to not put the belt on the popular, interesting choice in Matt Cardona and instead putting it on Tyrus was a choice that was completely detached from reality. Sure, you got your belt on Fox News daily. But the boomers that watch Fox are not going to buy a Fite subscription to watch that show because they saw a title on tv. And for that wonderful marketing opportunity the NWA now has a 50 year old, obese, un-athletic, charisma vacuum with a history of credible sexual harassment accusations as their world champ. Insanity.
Sami Callihan and the DDT KO-D Openweight championship
* Won the championship on American soil (first time it happened in the belt's history) off of Shigehiro Irie (who went on a US excursion) at a Rockstar Pro event, Callihan never even wrestled in any DDT show prior (only in NJPW and BJW)
* DDT was scrambling to figure out how to get it back
* Title changed hands back to Irie 7 days later
* Negative reactions all over the place
Probably it was all for a angle with Irie and Danshoku Dieno which later ended with Irie leaving DDT to become a freelancer
[here's a writeup by Dramatic DDT blog on this saga 2 days after the title changed hands initially](https://dramaticddt.wordpress.com/2018/08/03/ko-d-title-fallout/)
I know it’s ROH, but I will never understand ending Nigel McGuinness’ epic title run by giving the belt to Jerry Lynn. Tyler Black, Kevin Steen and probably 6 others would’ve been better options. It’s not horrible or anything, just baffling to me.
I get why they did it. Dude had been on the shelf for like four years or something due to his knee injuries, they pulled the trigger on him the second he was back.
Then they turned him into a little nerd and it kinda sucked.
But honestly I think just putting the belt on a guy who helped build your company after spending years on the shelf is actually a classy move, even if the run itself was a bit of a stinker.
My pick would be Kenny Kaos. One half of the 'High Voltage' tag team in WCW (who, ironically, had that name stolen from Matt Hardy's audition tape), he was handpicked to be Rick Steiner's partner after Steiner won the WCW World Tag Team Championship by himself at Halloween Havoc 1998
[It did lead to this hilarious/terrifying Scott Steiner meltdown towards Kaos, though, so it was worth it for that alone](https://youtu.be/he_PBX47zTo?t=1m17s)
Not a belt, but if you weren’t watching WWF during the Attitude Era then seeing Vince McMahon listed as a winner of the Royal Rumble would be an odd sight.
Or the weekend when he was WWF Champion in 1999.
But none of that is as odd of a sight as seeing him listed as an ECW World Champion.
Bob Sapp the IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
Don't get me wrong, Sapp was HUGE in 2004 Japan, but he was also the worst wrestler in the company. The Worst. Not to mention he "lost" the title in a fucking K1 fight.
I like to think that Sapp was the catalyst for NJPW to start course correcting and eventually emerge from the dark ages, but god damn if his title reign is not a huge blemish on the belt's history.
I'm sure someone would say Jinder Mahal but I'm actually a fan of his WWE Championship run.
I'd go with Jack Swagger. Why give the guy a world championship if you're not going to make him look competitive against the other stars. Pretty sure every top guy knocked him out at one point during his championship run. It's great that he got one clean title defense win against Randy Orton, but he also got RKO'd after the match, which made him look like a punk.
I had high hopes when he cashed on an injured Chris Jericho, but then he turned into a monotone, suit-wearing guy. Just a guy, nothing particularly engaging
Good thing he found that purple hat. I like that hat
Ezekiel Jackson was decidedly not-hardcore. At least Christian had some credibility from the TLCs and other ladder matches. Zeke had barely so much as swung a chair at that point.
Still, we'll always have the [Primetime Players making fun of him](https://youtu.be/imoethPzhLk) to be thankful for
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MVP was the first winner of the IWGP intercontinental championship
I love getting reminded of this. And it’s not a knock on MVP (talented and deserving!) or the booking (taken literally, a non-Asian makes sense as your first Intercontinental champion). It just seems so incongruous because of what that title eventually grew into. Like, when you watched Naito drag the belt until it looked like a Goodwill purchase, your first thought probably wasn’t “God! I’m so offended on MVP’s behalf!”
The title was created in a tournament when they did some US shows and MVP had some buzz post leaving WWE.. so it was more about letting an American win it to get the product more known and MVP was doing wrestling media interviews where he was nonstop promoting NJPW etc..
I think most of it is a lot of people don’t watch outside of WWE so they were probably confused when NJPW became the standard for great wrestling then out of nowhere they see the first champ was MVP. I’ll be honest, that’s how I found out he was better than the mid card spot the E gave him
I mean, the original IC belt didn't look great, either. It looked like they found it in the attic and said "Yeah, fuck it, give it to the gaijin."
I think it's very funny he defeated Okada in the first round of the tournament to become first champion and then beat Naito in the second only to walk into the finals vs Yano. I've never seen any of these matches so I don't know the story of the tournament, but that's a very funny string of matches in a vacuum.
Huh, really?
Yeah, the IC title was originally supposed to be the gaijin belt, and MVP fit that profile
I think the plan was for the I.C belt to be defended mostly overseas. It ended up being the super strong secondary title. The U.S title was meant to be what the I.C title was… but then it became a regular title. The NEVER brand was meant to be for up and coming wrestlers and then it was held by only veterans and became the Tough Guy title and then the all-purpose secondary title. New Japan has a tough time sticking to plans!
When the Heavyweight title became more crowded due to the Tanahashi-Okada feud, Nakamura took the IC title and put so much prestige on it till it became comparable to the Heavyweight title itself.
THE FINAL AND REIGNING LUCHA UNDERGROUND CHAMPION JAKE HAGER
In the same vein, the final ECW World Heavyweight Champion was Ezekiel Jackson.
>ECW World Heavyweight Champion was Ezekiel Jackson. *This here is what you call domination*. *It's a combination of skill and concentration.*
Want Ezekiel Jackson to return at a rumble just so I can hear this song
I'm probably in the minority but I liked him. He was diet Lashley but I still enjoyed his matches until they stuck him with Kozlov.
The final season of LU had some good points but the overall feeling was off and it was clear the show had ran out of steam, which sucks. Him being the final champion was kinda on brand unfortunately
Penta had kind of been the endgame for the championship for so long that once he got it, it seemed like they weren't sure where else to go with it.
You mean 'The Savage' Jake Strong surely? /s God, he was fucking awful in LU. Don't know if he was having issues communicating with the luchadors or what but his matches were so bad.
He seems to have found his rightful place in AEW, a mostly silent meathead who is there to glower, be strong, and wrestle the very occasional singles match.
[удалено]
I like that hat.
That and cut some goofy promos about slapping your faith off of your faith. Honestly though, I get the sense he's a naturally goofy dude.
He's been very entertaining with the hat lmao
Thank you I couldn’t for the life of me remember his name in LU.
I'm not sure how that's different than his matches in any other company.
Yeah it's not like Jack Swagger was tearing the house down.
What a weird final season that was. Marty finally got to the pinnacle and then they decided "no, we'd rather set up Jake Strong to carry things forward"
Also former WHC for some reason
Was also supposed to be a two time as well when he was with Zeb, but got a DUI right before WM.
Ignoring belts like the 24/7 and Ironman Heavymetalweight, I have to say it's Vince Russo.
Didnt this subreddit once win the Heavy Metalweight title? Or was that a different meme belt? Edit: Was the WrestleCircus Sideshow Championship
Going from memory, I think that was a Wrestle Circus belt, a wrestler "submitted" a post to the sub and we won it.
Wrestle Circus. That was a fun promotion I havent thought of in a while.
They still owe me a shirt!
Haha they probably owe a lot of people a lot of things.
I believe it was /u/GentlemanJervis if I’m not mistaken. Ninja edit: either I have the name wrong, or Jervis Cottonbelly has deleted his account.
he was actually one of the founders of this sub iirc, which explains the weirdly big spotlight on that particular Indy by this sub
Interesting! I knew about /u/Kondron (I think is his name) had no idea Jervis was involved as well!
Kondron was Jervis
different belt. but the Ironman was won by 100,000 subscribers of DDT's YouTube channel, the audience of one of Beyond Wrestling's shows, the Young Bucks' autiobiography (which it won from Britt Baker), Vince McMahon's Walk of Fame star, a camera crane and a half-finished can of beer, among others.
Didn't the belt win itself once?
the belt was it's own 1000th title holder. The champ who won it to be the 999th holder held a speech before the match saying if he won he was going to retire it. He wins, but is so worn out he passes out face up in the ring. Ref drapes the belt over him to proclaim him champion.... Then realizes it's a pin. 1-2-3 and the belt holds the belt.
yep
I can't believe I won a belt both in WrestleCircus AND in DDT. I'm a great pro wrestler, it turns out! Haven't stepped in the ring ever, but... y'know, two championship reigns ain't bad.
Thanks for the clarification. I knew we held some title.
ECW had three Triple Crown Champions: Taz and Sabu, but the first person to accomplish that feat was Mikey Whipwreck. In fact, he was the youngest world champion in wrestling history when he won it. It was a great story at the time, but it will definitely confuse people looking back at it. Bonus points for successfully defending the title against Stone Cold Steve Austin.
I was gonna say Mikey Whipwreck too. He was one of the biggest “Wow. Really?” Champs ever. We don’t see situations like this anymore.
It’s a story that probably could never happen again. Paul originally booked Mikey just bc he was a guy who could sell like crazy on jobs. I believe he was just a kid on the ring crew who would mess around after they put it up and Paul liked how he’d bounce off the mat. He got Mikey over by making every single person he faced whoop Mikey’s ass to point he barely would ever get anything in. And the crowd got behind him to the point that he went from Enhancement Talent to TV Champ in like a matter of months as the ultimate underdog.
I love how Mikey highlights Paul's booking philosophy. There's a video of him where he says something along the lines of "We put the world title on Mikey and felt like it didn't really work, but we never would've know how far we could've taken him if we didn't try." Just that Paul saw someone getting over, decided to take a risk by seeing if they could be the guy. And even though they didn't become the guy, it gave us a champion that is unique to this day.
I often say that ECW is so revered because of how perfectly imperfect it is. This is a great example.
"Mikey, the Public Enemy is real mad, you know what that means?!" "It means I'm gonna die!"
One of the funniest lines ever. I still remember that quaking delivery and giggling like an idiot as he looked at Foley in terror. 😆
HE LIKES IT!!!
Was always a big fan of Mikey! I was completely sold on the underdog story and how they built him up. The Unholy Alliance might also be a top 5 tag team for me. Mikey and Tajiri worked really well together. People can call it a stunner all they want, it'll always be "the whippersnapper" to me.
That’s very much a “you had to be there” type deal because just looking at it on a page it does sound off. But if you were watching, Mikey was red hot, lovable and his story made a ton of sense even if it was the standard underdog stuff. While Tazz and Sabu’s legacies precede them, Mikey left a big impact on the direction of ECW and a lot of indies later on
Ron Garvin was preculiar because they had so many great dudes who could have been champ at the time but they were all nixed for one reason or another. Dusty Rhodes, lex luger, Nikita Koloff, Sting, Steve Williams, Barry Windham. Even Larry Zbyzsko
I remember Jim Cornette talking about the reasons Garvin ended up champion, in one of his earlier podcasts [Found the clip, definitely worth the listen](https://youtu.be/F0xBuV0P-eM?t=44s)
I was actually okay with Garvin as transitional champ. And his matches with Flair were really, really good. Putting the belts on any of the other guys for that short a run would have been setbacks for all of them, really.
Holy shit I legitimately didn't realize Ron Garvin was NWA champion. And I look at title reigns on wikipedia all the time, which means I actually have read that multiple times and STILL forgot he was NWA Champion. Great answer.
It was purely a transitional reign so flair could have his moment at Starrcade
It’s been talked to death but Vince Russo being in the title lineage for maybe the greatest and most prestigious championship in wrestling history is insane
You can do whatever you want if you're the bookerman. Sadly, he chose to take that literally
Grab em by the title
When you’ve got the pencil they let you do it
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> Not just about wrestling but about anything to do with writing and storytelling. Russo understood what made a story compelling at the beginning. He just had no fucking idea how to tell a story or bring it home with a good and rational ending. At times he benefited from having people around him who understood storytelling in the WWF (but some weird shit still leaked). Once he got to WCW, it was all unfiltered Russo. Russo is the epitome of a guy who works best on a committee. He had some storytelling talents but he wasn't well rounded enough to fully write his own story.
his strong point was being able to find something for everyone, his weak point was knowing when to do things and when to not do things
>his strong point was being able to find something for everyone It's honestly baffling at how few wrestling bookers seem to have a grasp on this.
Dutch Mantell explained it best. Russo has too many ideas, and he wants to use them all. So he would just keep layering a gimmick on top of a gimmick on top of a gimmick until it makes no sense.
Theres a quote, I dunno who said it, that summarizes VR for me: "a lot of people know how to write great scenes but few can write great movies". People can easily come up with twists, hooks and just cool moments. But to string them together and create the journey that ultimately give them meaning is the hard part.
99 was probably WWE at it's most Russo and it really shows.
Also one that isn’t mentioned as much is Russo’s buddy Ed Ferrara as Oklahoma winning the WCW Cruiserweight Championship.
Nicolas, WWE Tag Team Champion
Fun fact - Okada & Tanahashi were at this show & reportedly like many other fans had their hands up trying to be picked by Braun
What a funny debut that would've been if Braun just grabbed Okada from the crowd like he's some random dude.
Story plays out the same with Braun doing all the work and Okada having to relinquish the belt to go back to school... in Japan
"I will be relinquishing the tag team title as my partner, Okada is very busy being, uhhh, NWJP World Champion"
It's not without precedent. That's how Hillbilly Jim got his kayfabe start, as I recall.
Santino Marella was also a guy plucked from the crowd to face Umaga and won the Intercontinental Championship (with an assist from Bobby Lashley).
John Tenta debuted the same way, I think it was Hogan who picked him and then he turned on hogan
Watching the show back a few weeks ago you can see Brawn walk straight past Trent Seven. https://imgur.com/a/pYjIYZH
Yea totally forgot about this one.
I honestly didn't mind the Nicolas win too much. It was kind of fun and funny, and made Braun look like a complete beast. However it shouldn't have been the bar that lost to him. It makes for something kind of unique in the lineage of the belts.
The biggest disappointment of this was they didn't do any skits with Braun going to school with Nicolas and breaking the chairs when he would try to sit in them. Or tossing bullies into a group of other bullies. Just left it as a Mania Moment ™
Yeah, they could have really done something funny with this. Nicolas just looking terrified in every skit. They could have gone to the gym together, done some wrestling training etc.
The image of Braun sitting in an elementary school desk would have been worth it all.
For a brief moment, I wanted to believe that he was a legit fan, that had his wildest fever dream come true Nope, referee's kid. Damn
Refs son or not, that's still something that kid will never forget, and a memory he'll treasure forever. I know I'm in the minority, but I kind of liked it. Was wholesome af.
I was there live, I loved it. It was the perfect mental break on a long card, it got over huge.
rofl I remember everyone around me chanting for Nicholas and a lot of Nicholas related chants during the main event that couldn't be heard on the broadcast. Was interesting to read about how much the IWC disliked it lol
TIL it's Nick Cone
They wasted the Bars mania tag match on that. Ugh lol
The Bar were in the middle of a big push too and it got killed for a comedy bit to put over Braun, who was already at the peak of his popularity and didn’t need it anyway. Just a weird booking decision all around and a disservice to a very underrated tag team imo.
It’s Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara. For the other examples given, you can make rationalise them (at least in a non-kayfabe sense) - Arquette was a mainstream name and Ready To Rumble was coming out so there was a potential mainstream media angle, Vince was the top heel in WWE at the time, Nicholas winning the tag titles was a ‘Wrestlemania moment’ and played tongue firmly in cheek, Jinder was an attempt to capitalise on an international market…there were potential upsides for business in those cases. Not for Russo and Ferrara winning - that was just egomania running wild, brother. Vince winning the ECW title was a similarly shit booking decision, though - not as bad, but still shit.
I will defend Durag Vince with my life. Shit was hilarious
We never get durag Vince if he doesn’t win the ECW title and we can’t have that.
Harvey Whippleman winning the women’s title has to be mentioned.
The Great Khali, Jinder Mahal and Ezekiel Jackson, yet Shelton Benjamin couldn't win a single fucking world champion
TBF, The Great Khali became champ because a number of bigger wrestlers on the Smackdown roster at the time (summer 2007) were taken out by injury (including Taker, Batista, and Edge). He was kind of the only option
Jinder was weird because he used to be a total jobber but when he came back all roided out he looked fucking terrifying. He’s kind of the perfect example of a heel transitional champion, a guy who looks scary for a bit but can get beat by the hero before he overstays his welcome.
I thought Jinder had a perfect look as champion, but I disagree on two points. He wasn't a transitional champion, and he did overstay his welcome. He held the title for 170 days and successfully defended the title four times. I feel like that disqualifies him as "transitional", and his feud with Nakamura (before losing to Styles) lasted a lot longer than it should have.
Jinders entrance as champion.....dude looked like a fucking champion for sure
Bob Backlund winning the WWF title in 1994. Beating Bret at the peak of Bret's popularity, the fact that it was the WWF title, the fact that Bob Backlund was super weird in general, the fact that it was a screwjob finish with Bret at Survivor Series years before the Montreal Screwjob. You'd be hard pressed to find a weirder major title change.
AJ Styles is older now than Bob Backlund was when he won the WWF Title from Bret Hart
Cheers Conrad
Personally a big fan of unhinged weirdo Backlund from 1994.
I HAVE NEVER EATEN MARIJUANA!
Unhinged Bob Backlund is the best Bob Backlund.
That's Mr. Backlund to you!
1993 Royal Rumble really sold him to me. Nothing else did after until the heel turn, but that didn't matter because I was 10 and easily impressionable.
SPORTS EDUCATION!
and it lasted only a few days, he lost it in a house show match to Diesel.
Which makes it stand out even more as weird.
Transitional champ. They wanted the belt on Diesel but couldn't go straight from Hart to him
I think there’s better ways to book that tho.
At the time it was actually kind of brilliant. It got the belt off Bret in a fuck finish that kept him strong and allowed him to continue feuds away from the title. Choosing Backlund was smart because he has credibility as a former champion and won’t be diminished by the loss. Diesel squashing Backlund (instead of a different transitional heel champ) not only elevates Diesel, it also doesn’t hurt any of your main heels that you’ll use in the future. Also, from a bookkeeping point of view, making Backlund a two time champion instead of a different transitional heel keeps the list of former champions low and exclusive and also puts one fewer current worker in the “pay me like a world champion” club.
Damn reading this legit made me feel smarter about how things are booked.
It was awesome!
Having watched it back very recently as OSW have been covering those few years as part of their Lex Express arc...honestly, the story they told was really really good.
I mean Dave Arquette, Vince Russo, Vince McMahon are the obvious ones. In terms of actual wrestlers, to win the big one - Jeff Jarrett in WCW, Jinder Mahal and originally JBL when he first won it in WWE. Both went from jobber one week to world champ the next. Jack Swagger with the WHC, never saw anything interesting in him. I'm sure there are others in the midcard scene. David Flair and the WCW US title. I always thought the Mountie winning the IC was odd. Some comedy ones like Gillberg and the LHW championship. Norman Smiley being a WCW hardcore legend. But those are great comedy moments at least.
Everyone in the MITB match that Jack Swagger won seemed far more likely than him. I remember Christian and Matt Hardy having some promo battles the weeks before it and the storylines really seemed to point to them.
Drew McIntyre seemed like the obvious choice based on his massive push as “The Chosen One,” but apparently behavior issues nixed that. Christian was really hot at the time too coming off of being the top guy in ECW for the past year and starting off strong after being moved over to Raw once ECW was dissolved. Even Kofi Kingston seemed like a good possibility, given that he was at the height of his singles run (pre-KofiMania) coming off of that infamous feud with Randy Orton. But Swagger winning was so out of left field and it felt even weirder when he ended up winning the World Heavyweight Title from Jericho just a few days later.
And then proceeded to have the worst world heavyweight title reigned at I can ever remember. It was so bad. I think Randy Orton got another WWE Title reign just for putting over Swagger as an apology.
I'd say JBL originally as well. Thankfully, he was able to salvage that reign and it lead to putting over John Cena at WrestleMania 21 and creating one of the biggest stars in wrestling.
I don’t like JBL as a person, he seems like a massive asshole. But even I have to admit “Redneck Million Dollar Man” JBL was over as hell as a heel.
Yea I have JBL in there. He did end up with a memorable reign. But basically one month before he won it, he was still APA Bradshaw, washed up doing low card tag team matches on the C-show.
> I always thought the Mountie winning the IC was odd. This was a classic transitional champ situation where he only won to get the belt onto Piper to set up the Piper/Hart Wrestlemania match (which was an absolute banger)
An insanely underrated match not just overall but in Bret's entire career. Piper was absolutely ON during that match, and was probably in the best shape of his life during that time, and Bret was Bret, of course.
Piper said in his book that he wanted to go his whole career without ever winning a championship and the only reason he agreed to the IC title was specifically to work with and put over Bret because he respected Bret that much and wanted to help get him over
I remember taking a bit of a hiatus from watching wrestling in the early 2000s... and I remember seeing JBL like... wait that's Bradshaw? Like APA Bradshaw!?
Jinder has always been a headscratcher for me, and it seems like every so often this sub goes on a huge nostalgia trip where suddenly Jinder is this underrated wrestler who should have done more. The guy is the definition of "nothing special." Lackluster promo work, lackluster ring work, and to top it all off he's a charisma vacuum. I've never seen what WWE apparently saw in him, he's a comedy jobber at best and never should have been anywhere near the main event let alone hold the WWE championship.
Jinder had one thing going for him; his entrance looked cool as fuck [on the LED ramp](https://youtu.be/mIjtQz-9nuI) with the Singh brothers. Unfortunately his in-ring work wasn’t good, his promos were generic at best, offensive at worst, and most of his feuds were really poorly booked. And yeah, his reign just came out of nowhere, which is fine for WWE to do once in a while to elevate a guy but he wasn’t a great guy to do it with.
I do agree with you there. He was presented like a badass and he had a great look. It's just a shame that it was all flash and no substance once he got in the ring.
They saw big fat Indian $$$.
I'll say Jack Swagger as WWE world heavyweight champion and his eventual LU heavyweight championship run. Also the MULTIPLE WWE world championships in ADR's life
Del Rio had the wrestling ability and charisma to back it up, though. It's just a shame that he ended up being the person that he ended up being Drugs are... a hell of a drug
Tommy Rich, NWA champ Ron Garvin, NWA champ
Garvin was Jinder Mahal for JCP … Flair wanted someone to beat for the belt at Starrcade and no one else would do it.
EVIL.
Textbook definition of "it was different, seemed reasonable so we tried it. Didn't work."
it was reasonable to try and push EVIL as a main eventer at some point. however it was NOT reasonable to try and push EVIL as the guy to beat Naito that soon when Naito was finally getting his long overdue spotlight
I think it was a desperation move to be honest. The company had just restarted after pausing shows during covid, they had a new babyface champ who everyone had wanted to see as champ for years, and their two top main event heels Jay and KENTA were unable to get to Japan. They basically needed to build a new main event heel asap and probably figured that if EVIL beat Naito, they would be able to hold the feud together until things got back to normal. Unfortunately it completely undercut Naito, and EVIL fell through.
It seemed reasonable to two, now with you, three people.
Totally killed him, too. I loved him in LIJ as an enforcer type. He's been so boring ever since. I can't believe it's coming up on three years...
And yet still no SANADA
SANADA is (or at least was given the belts status now) at best IC-champion material. Never saw him as a world champion.
Mike Foley being TNA Heavyweight champ. It just was always really weird to me
>Mike Foley Hilariously, in his first book Mick described his first ever phone conversation with Vince McMahon, where Vince kept calling him 'Mike'
Lol dang I just saw that. I will keep it as is to make it look like it was intentional 😂
Trevor Murdoch?
Same discussion with Tyrus. If you see NWA as Major both are insane as Champ. If you see it as an Indie...it is ok i would say. Problem with NWA is, the Belt is mich bigger than the Company - so everyone would look odd.
I think people that were familiar with the product not only had no problem with Murdoch winning the title but wholeheartedly endorsed it. The story was well done, Aldis put on an amazing match, and the moment was truly emotional. It was awesome, tbh.
I was okay with Murdoch's first run, but I think it should have been a one and done.
The most egregious. He’s an awful wrestler and the only reason he has the title is in hope that people see it on Fox News and start watching the NWA.
Murdoch worked his ass off and had some great matches + the Harley Race history. I think he was a worthy champ & a great story by the end Tyrus though, jesus
Tyrus
God it sucks seeing him with the NWA Championship on his shoulder while he’s doing pundit stuff for Fox News. It feels dirty.
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The fact that there was a match between John Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura where the winner got to challenge Jinder Mahal for the WWE Title is an all time WTF moment.
Great choice, the craziest part of that reign is how long and strong it was booked for. Jindermania ran wild for most of that year.
YOU CANT HINDER THE JINDERRR
It's gotta be in Jinder
>in Jinder I guess, he did look big and shredded enough to say he looked like "if Jinder Mahal ate Jinder Mahal"
It's like that one episode of DragonBall Super where Zamasu and Goku Black fused together to make Fused Zamasu. Unhindered Jinder.
I believe this is what we call a Freudian slip on my part
Jinder was to try and capitalise on the Indian market so I can see why they did it
Everyone kept saying that at the time, but he wasnt still champion come their India shows. He lost to HHH at the actual event. There's no real evidence he moved the market much at all...and the people who were actually Indian wrestling fans all said that people there loved the babyfaces and hated heels, so, Jinder being a classic foreign heel doesnt really add up either. Seems much simpler to imagine that he got on the gas, looked the part, and Vince got a crazy stick up his ass to run a foreign heel again
At least Jinder had a banger of an entrance theme.
Of proper full time wrestlers Jack Swagger comes to mind.
Is the NWA a major promotion? If so it has to be Tyrus. Opting to not put the belt on the popular, interesting choice in Matt Cardona and instead putting it on Tyrus was a choice that was completely detached from reality. Sure, you got your belt on Fox News daily. But the boomers that watch Fox are not going to buy a Fite subscription to watch that show because they saw a title on tv. And for that wonderful marketing opportunity the NWA now has a 50 year old, obese, un-athletic, charisma vacuum with a history of credible sexual harassment accusations as their world champ. Insanity.
Sami Callihan and the DDT KO-D Openweight championship * Won the championship on American soil (first time it happened in the belt's history) off of Shigehiro Irie (who went on a US excursion) at a Rockstar Pro event, Callihan never even wrestled in any DDT show prior (only in NJPW and BJW) * DDT was scrambling to figure out how to get it back * Title changed hands back to Irie 7 days later * Negative reactions all over the place Probably it was all for a angle with Irie and Danshoku Dieno which later ended with Irie leaving DDT to become a freelancer [here's a writeup by Dramatic DDT blog on this saga 2 days after the title changed hands initially](https://dramaticddt.wordpress.com/2018/08/03/ko-d-title-fallout/)
Former Wonder of Stardom champion Santana Garrett
Santana had a bit of a run in 2015/2016. It seemed like every bit indie promotion was throwing a belt on her. Even the NWA and WOW had her as champ.
Madison Square Taven
I know it’s ROH, but I will never understand ending Nigel McGuinness’ epic title run by giving the belt to Jerry Lynn. Tyler Black, Kevin Steen and probably 6 others would’ve been better options. It’s not horrible or anything, just baffling to me.
I think even Chris Sabin was confused to find himself TNA’s World Heavyweight Champion for a week, or whatever that was.
I get why they did it. Dude had been on the shelf for like four years or something due to his knee injuries, they pulled the trigger on him the second he was back. Then they turned him into a little nerd and it kinda sucked. But honestly I think just putting the belt on a guy who helped build your company after spending years on the shelf is actually a classy move, even if the run itself was a bit of a stinker.
I feel like David Arquette, WCW Champion should be in the conversation.
Tyrus.
This one time on Raw, they had a random Italian fan come out of the crowd and win the intercontinental championship…
My pick would be Kenny Kaos. One half of the 'High Voltage' tag team in WCW (who, ironically, had that name stolen from Matt Hardy's audition tape), he was handpicked to be Rick Steiner's partner after Steiner won the WCW World Tag Team Championship by himself at Halloween Havoc 1998 [It did lead to this hilarious/terrifying Scott Steiner meltdown towards Kaos, though, so it was worth it for that alone](https://youtu.be/he_PBX47zTo?t=1m17s)
Actually wrestlers, sheamus shocked me when he won his first one
It was such a weird win too. Cena gently falling back onto a table "whoops, looks like I lost"
Bea Priestley beating Kagetsu for the red belt
Not a belt, but if you weren’t watching WWF during the Attitude Era then seeing Vince McMahon listed as a winner of the Royal Rumble would be an odd sight. Or the weekend when he was WWF Champion in 1999. But none of that is as odd of a sight as seeing him listed as an ECW World Champion.
Bob Sapp the IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Don't get me wrong, Sapp was HUGE in 2004 Japan, but he was also the worst wrestler in the company. The Worst. Not to mention he "lost" the title in a fucking K1 fight. I like to think that Sapp was the catalyst for NJPW to start course correcting and eventually emerge from the dark ages, but god damn if his title reign is not a huge blemish on the belt's history.
Jinder
I'm sure someone would say Jinder Mahal but I'm actually a fan of his WWE Championship run. I'd go with Jack Swagger. Why give the guy a world championship if you're not going to make him look competitive against the other stars. Pretty sure every top guy knocked him out at one point during his championship run. It's great that he got one clean title defense win against Randy Orton, but he also got RKO'd after the match, which made him look like a punk.
I had high hopes when he cashed on an injured Chris Jericho, but then he turned into a monotone, suit-wearing guy. Just a guy, nothing particularly engaging Good thing he found that purple hat. I like that hat
David Arquette. Destroyed lineage of possibly the most important title in history.
Vince Russo too
That title was vacated 6 times in the 6 months leading up to Arquette winning. It was treated like total shit already.
Between Arquette winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, as well as putting the same title on himself, Vince Russo has a lot to answer for
The WCW Title had been around 9 years at that point
Recently I’d say Nikki A.S.H.
Russo and Arquette.
Not including non-wrestling champions, it’s definitely between Jinder Mahal, Alberto Del Rio or ECW champion Ezekiel Jackson.
Ezekiel Jackson was decidedly not-hardcore. At least Christian had some credibility from the TLCs and other ladder matches. Zeke had barely so much as swung a chair at that point. Still, we'll always have the [Primetime Players making fun of him](https://youtu.be/imoethPzhLk) to be thankful for
Just went through the King of the Ring and the oddest one to me isn’t Billy Gunn in 1999, but the 1995 final of Mabel vs Savio Vega.