10 Shocking Moments from WWF (WWE) 1994

#9 Diesel wins the WWF Championship at Madison Square Garden

A new star is born

Similarly to Bret Hart in 1992, Kevin Nash's first WWF Championship victory came under rather strange circumstances. Considering Diesel was being tipped to be the WWF's next big star, having him be crowned champion during a house show at Madison Square Garden does look like an odd decision in hindsight.

After Bob Backlund's shock victory over Bret Hart at Survivor Series, the WWF decided to switch gears completely and have Kevin Nash wrestle back the title for the New Generation. In the days before the internet and dirt sheets, fans must have been a little surprised to see Diesel suddenly holding the belt over his shoulder seemingly from nowhere.

He was introduced by Vince McMahon on an episode of RAW as the new champion where he cut a promo signalling his official babyface turn, promising Bret Hart a title match somewhere down the line.

In terms of WWE's all-time greatest champions, Diesel doesn't ordinarily feature very highly on fans' lists. Despite this, his reign was actually one of the longest in WWF history, which saw him hold the belt for an impressive 358 days. Diesel was clearly seen as a safe pair of hands, and the company desperately needed more main event stars at the top of the billing to give Bret some support.

Throughout 1994 and beyond, Nash showed us all that despite his shortcomings, he could, in fact, be trusted in the ring. His matches with Shawn, Razor and Bret throughout much of WWF’s new generation era are more than passable. Perhaps the man deserves more credit for his contributions to the wrestling business, especially considering this was a time of such uncertainty that could have seen the WWF go down for good.