5 worst title changes in Clash of Champions (and Night of Champions) history

#1 Daniel Bryan defeats Randy Orton for the WWE Championship (Night of Champions 2013)

Daniel Bryan, the champion they never wanted.

Odd, don’t you think? Daniel Bryan winning the World Title during his feud with The Authority was a bad thing? Why yes. Yes, it was. Revisionist historians like to make believe that WWE had any clue what they wanted to do with Daniel Bryan past SummerSlam 2013. He defeated John Cena, clean as a sheet, after being Cena’s hand-picked opponent. Then Randy Orton would cash in his MITB contract moments later after Bryan was double-crossed by Triple H in a move that everyone saw coming the moment he shook Bryan’s hand.

This would lead to months and months of frustration, as Bryan would win the title, lose the title immediately, win the title again only be stripped of it the next night --- it was a mess. It wasn’t part of some big, long-term storyline that was made to build anticipation for a big WWE Championship victory at WrestleMania. Yes, that is what happened, but it was never the original goal and don’t ever let anybody tell you differently.

The Daniel Bryan/Randy Orton feud was simply a vehicle to get people to hate Randy Orton and The Authority as much as possible in order for them to love Batista upon his return. They wanted to do Batista vs. Randy Orton as a one-on-one match to end WrestleMania XXX, and the way they intended to get there was by having terrible corporate sell-out Randy Orton cheat the classic underdog Daniel Bryan for months before the big hero Batista could return, win the Royal Rumble, and make everyone happy because clearly, he was the guy everybody wanted to see.

In any event, Bryan’s win at Night of Champions 2013 was a hollow victory, because while he did become a two-time WWE Champion, both reigns were less than one day long. He was stripped of the title on RAW the next night due to the referee counting the pinfall too fast. Bryan would not win the belt again until WrestleMania XXX and wasn’t actually supposed to win the belt again.

He failed to win the title at Hell in a Cell against Randy Orton but thanks to a Shawn Michaels superkick, and that was it. Bryan was merely a prop to create The Authority and make Randy Orton a hated bad guy. As a fan of Bryan, I hate everything that happened between the moment he won the title from Cena until they finally gave in to the crowd’s support and gave him a chance after he was supposed to be done. This title win was hollow, unsatisfying and frustrating, therefore it was the worst title change in the history of the Night of Champions / Clash of Champions PPV event.