The best laid plans in the WWE don’t always come to fruition. Thanks to injuries, crowd response, the whims of Vince McMahon or even the complaints of jealous wrestlers, many of the WWE‘s greatest Championship switches never happened.
This weekend WWE has a big choice to make heading into the Extreme Rules Fatal Five Way. With Raw ratings tanking and Brock Lesnar absent, WWE will need to make a splash with the next number one contender to the Universal Championship.
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On SmackDown, it seemed Bray Wyatt could be in for a long Championship run before WrestleMania, but only two months later, Wyatt is on Raw and Jinder Mahal has emerged from jobberville to take carry the WWE strap.
Some of WWE’s biggest superstars never held the company’s top prize. Stars like Mr. Perfect, Jake The Snake Roberts and Owen Hart never became World Champions. Through wrestling lore and gathered stories at the CameClutchBlog, we thought it might be a good time to look back at the championships that never changed hands and wonder how history might have been different if Vinny Mac had stuck to his guns.
Scroll down for five of the greatest planned WWE Championships that never happened.
5. Eddie Guerrero defeating Batista in 2005
By all accounts, Eddie Guerrero was expected to become a two-time world champion. Batista revealed in his book that he was setย to lose his World Championship to Eddie in a Triple Threat Match withย Randy Orton on SmackDownย in 2005, but tragedy struck when Eddie was passed away before the event could take place.
This wasn’t the only time Batista and Randy would be involvedย
4. Batista defeating Randy Orton 2014
Likely one of the most guaranteed Championship victories in WWEย history was set for WrestleManiaย 30. Randy Orton had aligned with Triple H to become the Undisputed WWEย Champion and Batista was making a surprise comeback to get aย big push, including a run with the WWE world title.ย The only problem is, Daniel Bryan happened. The YES! movement was so strong that fans revolted when Batista won that year’s Royal Rumble. Bryan’s popularity became so overwhelming that WWEย had no choice but to put the beloved star in the triple threat at ‘Mania where he would have one of the most feel-good Championship victories in WWEย history.
3. Lex Luger defeating Yokozuna 1994
No one seemed more destined to become a WWE Champion than Lexย Luger. After jumping from WCW and dropping his Narcissist gimmick, Lugerย reemerged as an All-American who rode around on a Lexย Express tour bus while wearing American Flag zubaz and supporting the good ol’ USA. His sole mission was to take the WWEย Championship back from “evil foreigner” Yokozuna.ย
WWEย had planned for Lugerย to win the Championship at either WrestleManiaย 10 or SummerSlamย 94, but eventually backed out.ย Luger claimed in an interview that Vince changed his mind after several of his peers threatened to walk out.
This could have led to the backtracking, but truth be told, the gimmick simply wasn’t connecting with the fans as much as WWEย had hoped. ย
2. Ted Dibiase defeating Randy Savage to win the WWE championship in 1988
Hulk Hogan left the WWE for a bit in 1988 to film No Holds Barred and many have stated that Ted Dibiase was set to become the WWEย Champion during his time away. Apparently, Macho Man would have still become the top company’s top babyfaceย during Hogan’sย absence.ย WWEย backed out of the plans, being afraid of how a heel champion would affect house show attendances.ย
Dibiaseย would go down as one of the greats to never win a WWEย Championship. Yes, I know Andre handed him the belt, but he was immediately stripped, so I can’t count it.ย Macho Man would hold the belt for an entire year, making a heel turn of his own in the process that would lead back to Hulk Hogan.ย
Speaking of all roads leading to Hulk Hogan ….
1. Bret Hart defeating Hulk Hogan 1993
Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzerย has reported that there were posters advertising aย match between Hart and Hogan for SummerSlam 1993.According to Bret, the plan was for Hogan to drop the belt to Bret at SummerSlam but refused feeling that Bret was too small. The match would have been a great follow up to Hogan’s ridiculous WWEย Championship victory at WrestleManiaย 9 – in a match he wasn’t even in!
Hart lost the WWE Championship to Yokozunaย at WrestleManiaย 9ย and then Hulksterย walked out to confront Yokozuna. This led to Hogan immediately getting a title shot and slam/leg drop later, Hogan had the belt and Bret Hart looked like a chump for encouraging Hogan to go get the title he couldn’t win.
Hogan would drop the title back to Yokozunaย at the King of the Ring and Bret Hart would win it back from Yokozunaย at WrestleManiaย 10.ย
