Skip to main content

The Flipside of Non-Match Title Awardings

Since we've established all the ones that were awful (although no one's mentioned Judy Bagwell, WCW Tag Team Champion yet), what do you think were some of the best instances of awarding a title without a match?

Some of the ones that jump out at me:

- Andre to Dibiase, WWF Title: Duh. Perfect sense for the Dibiase character, and as much of a disaster as the Wrestlemania IV tournament was from a match-quality perspective, the storyline was certainly hot enough.

- Vince McMahon to Mankind, WWF Hardcore Title: Great for furthering the Mankind-Vince storyline, and played beautifully by Mick and Vince.

- Lance Storm to Carl Ouellette and Elix Skipper, Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title and whatever they renamed the cruiserweight title: I don't know if you can say that anything in the last two years of WCW actually *worked*, but I was amused by the renaming of the titles more than anything else.

- Kevin Nash to Ric Flair, WCW title: Again, crappy as the last years of WCW were, it made sense within the storyline for Nash to return the title to its rightful owner. I can still hear Tony Schiavone's "Kevin Nash is the ghost of Ric Flair's career!" call...points for enthusiasm, I guess.

- British Bulldog to Al Snow, WWF Hardcore Title: Another one of those matchless title transitions from 1999, sure, but it worked well enough, given that they didn't do Davey Boy's big reintroduction so he could feud over the Hardcore title. It's not like the belt had that much credibility (even before the 24/7 era), and I also loved seeing Al run out there as Leif Cassidy. And yeah, the Pepper storyline was awful on multiple levels (not least of which was the Kennel From Hell), but this part of the payoff worked for me.

Yeah, Mick and Vince was a masterpiece.  "Thanks...DAD."  AWESOME.

The Austin-Rock IC title switch is also one of my favorite angles of all time, so that's right up there.  

I thought that the intro of Ted Dibiase Jr, with Cody Rhodes basically winning the title from himself, was pretty clever.  

Of course, Pat Patterson.  

I think there's potential in a storyline where a title gets awarded via divorce settlement, because it would hit close to home for a LOT of guys.  Like, say, Dolph Ziggler marries AJ in storyline form, they divorce, and David Otunga as legal rep for AJ somehow manages to bribe the judge into giving AJ custody of the World title, which she then bestows upon someone for Dolph to chase.  

Comments

  1. Dolph isn't allowed to win a match so I don't think that'd end up working

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't give the soap opera writers ideas...

    ReplyDelete
  3. What about Debra getting the title for being stripped first by Sable in their Evening Gown match? One of Shawn's better decisions at GM.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "- Kevin Nash to Ric Flair, WCW title: Again, crappy as the last years of WCW were, it made sense within the storyline for Nash to return the title to its rightful owner. I can still hear Tony Schiavone's "Kevin Nash is the ghost of Ric Flair's career!" call...points for enthusiasm, I guess."

    I'm calling bullshit again on this. For one, I don't even count that as a title reign for Flair (though I'm thinking everyone does), if you didn't win the title in a match or ever successfully defended it than to me you were never the champ. For two, titles should never be handed to anyone (I'll make an exception for the Foley HC title thing, which was both hilarious and was barely even a real championship), there's no reason to not have an actual match for a vacant title.

    ReplyDelete
  5. No, you can just keep Otunga off my TV please. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Holy crap, can you imagine if they had gone with the divorce settlement idea for HHH and Steph? Steph giving the title to Angle? That would have been nuclear.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You can call bullshit on basically every WCW title change from 1996-2001.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Most were pretty lame, but I'd say Goldberg's title win over Hogan in Atlanta was done pretty well and it was deserving.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The WCW title picture was so bad in 2000, that when they did the whole Bash at the Beach worked shoot, I gave up on WCW. I know Russo was trying to push newer guys, but when people are used certain guys on top and you push guys they don't want in the Main Event - you kill the company. Nobody wanted to see Booker T as a Main Eventer in 2000. Nobody wanted to see Lance Storm as an upper midcard heel threat. They wanted to see Goldberg, Scott Hall, Nash, Flair, Sting, and Hogan. If Russo had just buried Hogan, in retrospect - I could live with that - but he buried all the top guys to try to get guys that were not ever going to get over at that time. In retrospect, I'm glad they tried to push Booker T, and even Steiner - but I would have done it differently. Most of the fans still wanted to see Nash as champion in 2001, instead of Steiner before the company shut down for good. Goldberg's burial was the most non-essential thing too. Then again, Goldberg should have still been champion in 1999 - if you want me to get technical - and that wasn't Russo's fault.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I liked the Dibiase/Andre scenario, because it led to Jack Tunney being all "oh no you didn't!" which led to the tournament. I love the idea of fictional championship committees having meetings backstage, consulting the rulebooks and trying to come to some sort of policy decision about it.


    I'm less enthused by ones where people are able to just hand it over with nobody stepping in to contest it -- I guess ones involving figureheads who wield power in the storyline are okay in principle, because that tells the story of a corrupt figurehead, but I don't like it when they get selective about the powers they wield. That seems like a cheap out to me in comparison to the earlier scenario.

    ReplyDelete
  11. OK, I already used the Kevin Nash to Flair one as an example of bad awardings (that didn't make the list but should have). It can't be in both places. :P

    ReplyDelete
  12. You can call bullshit all you want (hell, I was the one who brought up the larger mess over in the Top 5 thread), but WCW recognized it from day 1, so it's "real" in that sense.


    Has WWE re-written WCW-era title histories?


    But it's like how I call bullshit on Dolph's "1st reign," I cringe every time it's been brought up, but like it or not it's canonical.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Weren't you the other guy that said that the Flair/Nash/Jarrett thing thing should have made the original list?

    ReplyDelete
  14. The character is gold, just don't let him wrestle

    ReplyDelete
  15. Triple H's European Title to Owen Hart via Goldust.
    Because Goldust came out dressed as HHH and Slaughter was a dick.

    ReplyDelete
  16. For that AJ-Dolph idea that would require a wrestling wedding without someone crashing it. And that's just impossible!

    ReplyDelete
  17. That would have required making Angle look good and Triple H being outsmarted and that's just hearsay I say!

    ReplyDelete
  18. he is perfect as a manager

    ReplyDelete
  19. Miss Kat should have been awarded the belt for the bubble wrap outfit.

    ReplyDelete
  20. The title reign that counts is the one that started before Jarrett and Nash had the title, and I would view Nash giving him the title back as a continuation. The point was that Nash gave Flair the title back because Flair had never lost it in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Problem is, no one with a physique like that would be allowed to be a manager in WWE. Plus his famous wife and Harvard education make him irresistible to Vince. He's just going to have to learn how to wrestle, because he's going to be a wrestler with Vince no matter what. If I were him i'd be begging everyone around for additional training.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I wanted to see Booker as champ. I can't be the only person who thought his rise up the ranks (minus the GI Bro nonsense) was handled well.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Yeah. So your opinion will be ignored.

    ReplyDelete
  24. As off the grid as this one would be, I like the Gangstas being awarded the Smoky Mountain tag team titles, after a controversial match (a Dusty Finish) vs. The R&R Express after contacting their NAACP lawyers and threatening legal action against Smoky Mountain. Well booked - especially for their characters.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I saw the Flair - Nash - Jarrett thing brought up a few times. I think Flair was one of the few guys who really came alive for Russo despite the ridiculous booking situations Russo put him in. The Flair - Jarrett title switch on Nitro was one of my last happy WCW memories, Flair with his belt at the end of the show was just surreal. Instead of having Jarrett win it back at the PPV they had the situation being discussed with Nash. For that one night though everything was right with WCW again. WOOOOOO

    ReplyDelete
  26. Did people really want to see the shows based around Hall, Nash, Flair and Hogan? As a 12-13 year old, the running gag with my friends and I was how WCW was a retirement home. Goldberg and Sting were fine but the other four were just not going to do anything compared to WWF at the time. Even Flair, who I've grown to love, was better suited in the authority/manager role instead of wrestling full time.


    The problem wasn't that Russo buried all the top guys in favor of new blood (pun intended). It's that the new guys just weren't all that great. Booker was good but nothing transcendent. Jarrett was never going to be accepted as a legit main eventer. I think fans legit bought Steiner as a psychopath main event heel.


    WCW would have been better off gradually phasing out the old guys in favor of the new wrestlers, instead of just trying to do it all at once. It would have made each new push more meaningful if whoever was being pushed was the sole person getting the rocket strapped to their ass. But still, WCW had no Austin or Rock or even Foley waiting in the wings to be pushed. That was the biggest problem of all.

    ReplyDelete
  27. It was well handled well and then they had him lose the T and then become GI Bro. Then all of the sudden we are suppose to take him seriously. I was shocked WWE actually pushed him when he got there after all that, although I guess he was one of the only WCW name guys they had at the time.

    ReplyDelete
  28. He can't even tuck his chin, he's going to get seriously injured.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Booker T over Jarrett at Bash at the Beach, too...although these seem to be the exceptions that prove the rule.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Lance Storm renamed the Cruiserweight title the "100 Kilos or less" title if I remember correctly.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I know, I know, Triple H is pretty unwilling to look weak. But it wouldn't even require him to be outsmarted; the men in the audience certainly wouldn't see it that way. And God knows Triple H would love the idea of losing the title without losing it in a match. Throw in a Rumble victory for him and a title win at Mania and even he might be swayed by the upside.

    Plus, the title could be awarded to Angle in a segment just like an Olympic medal ceremony, which is so perfect for him.

    The idea's got merit today, but it doesn't seem right for AJ and Dolph. I think people would be fine with cheering Dolph under the right circumstances, but AJ's character seems more capricious to me. Her changes of heart aren't that planned out. She's not Steph, no matter how hard they tried to make her into that.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Hogan still had something, if he had cared. His WWE 2002 run, where he actually put over a few people - hoping Vince would let him run with the title again - was fun to watch.


    Hall was still over, but his drug problems killed any chance of him being used and then they went out there to do a story-line where you wanted to fool the fans into thinking Hall might come back.



    I don't like Nash that much now a days, but in 2000 - I still liked the guy and they really should have had him hold the title for a couple of months in 2000 and feuded with Sid like their ***** matches in 1995.


    I mean where are half the guys, not counting the dead ones, that were in WCW during the Russo push? Lance Storm? Happily retired and training in Canada. Mark Jindrak? Indies or retired. (At least I don't think he's dead) Scott Steiner? Retired or in the Indies. Norman Smiley? Retired or indies. Sean Stasiak? Retired or Indies. Elix Skipper? Retired, TNA, or Indies. Vampyro? Fired, retired, in Mexico? I think those are the ones still living.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I still love the fact that Flair won a title in one promotion and technically lost it in another.


    He is the NWA/WCW World Heavyweight title in May 1991, and in June/July - he is stripped of the WCW Championship, but still the NWA title holder until September. Bobby Heenan is parading the Big Gold Belt around. The WWF kind of recognizes the title until WCW gets the belt back. Flair had a new belt made, but it never made it past the censors for the video distortion storyline. [Flair had been using a tag belt for weeks by that point]. The Flair won the WWF title at the Royal Rumble in an unofficial unification. Then Flair loses it to Savage and thus ends Flair's title reign that lasted almost a year, longer if you count Flair had held the WCW portion of the title since Feb 1991. A little pointless trivia, I like to share.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Vickie and Edge seemed like the best possibility for that idea.

    ReplyDelete
  35. How does HHH getting the WHC handed to him not make the list?!


    On the flip side, i loved when Mick tried to give Vince a leaf blower as a gift only to see it used as a weapon later. It was the subtle things like Mick putting the cup in Vince's face a bunch of times that really got Mick over in my house.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment