10 Most shocking title changes that happened on Raw

The weekly flagship show of WWE is known for a lot of memorable moments. Week in and week out, the WWE Universe tunes into Monday Night Raw with the expectation of seeing some awesome angle happen. And the string of these awesome moments also includes title changes. Although Raw has not been a place of major title changes in the recent history, the past has a different story to tell.

There have been a lot of title changes in the Raw throughout its history which were coated in the perfect flavor of shock value. We might get to see similar changes in the future as well but before that, here is a look at the times when it did happen :

Gillberg surprises everyone

Gillberg

New Champs in WWE! More RIGHT HERE

Gillberg was WWE’s idea of making a parody of Goldberg. And no one blamed the company for doing so because it was during the Monday Night Wars and anything that went down had its reasons. WWE built up Gillberg exactly opposite to Goldberg and he was practically a jobber who struggled to win a match.

Gillberg however surprised everyone on Raw when he defeated Christian to become the Light Heavyweight Champion. And if that was not enough, Gillberg went on to hold the championship for 453 days, which also set a new record. So much for being a parody gimmick right? Too bad WWE did not do the same with Mizdow.

Bret Hart has one last run

Bret Hart’s WWE career should have ended with Montreal Screwjob. He left the company as a fallen hero and it should have stayed that way. However, Hart came back for one final run which made most of his fans cringe. He had this forgettable WrestleMania match with Vince McMahon at one point and to make matters worse, WWE decided to make him the United States Champion as well.

The title change happened back in 2010 and it was Miz that had to job for the legendary Bret. The title change happened in Canada and it also gave Bret Hart the record for holding the championship for the most number of times.

Triple H is the King

Hunter has won WWE championships many times during his career but first time is always the charm. It came in the Monday Night Raw after SummerSlam in 1999 and at SummerSlam; Hunter had lost out a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship.

The Cerebral Assassin however made up for the loss on Raw and went on to win his first ever WWE Championship. He did have a lot of help from the special guest referee, Shane McMahon but at the end of the day, the only thing that mattered was: Triple H was the new champion. It marked the start of a great run for Hunter and his career really took off from there.

Austin gets his revenge

The feud between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon gave us a lot of moments worth cherishing. The title change that happened at the episode of Monday Night Raw after 1998 King of the Ring was one of them. At the ‘King of the Ring’, McMahon got a big score over Austin when he managed to take the title away from the Texas Rattle Snake.

Kane was the Superstar who won the title with the help of The Undertaker, but McMahon’s happiness did not last long. A night later on Monday, Austin struck back and regained the Championship. No one expected Austin to get back the championship just a night after losing it and it had a lot of shock value due to this.

Dream ladder match

A ladder match between Eddie Guerrero and Rob Van Dam is a dream scenario for most of the fans. The match did happen in the May 27, 2001 episode of Monday Night Raw and it had the Intercontinental Championship on the line as well. Both the superstars gave out a top class match for the night and there were some stand out moments during the match.

First of all a fan interrupted the superstars in between and secondly, Rob Van Dam botched his finish, which in turn forced the superstars to come up with an alternate ending. At the end of the day, Van Dam walked away with the title and it was a great match as well.

CM Punk gets his limelight

This title change happened back when the brand split was still solid. After Edge won the World heavyweight championship in 2008 One Night Stand pay-per-view, he came out on the next episode of Raw and said that he would take the championship to SmackDown. Batista however had other ideas. He came out and laid out Edge.

The story however was only half complete. Once Batista finished what he came for, CM Punk ran in to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase. The cash in turned out to be a major success and just like that, CM Punk earned his first major Championship in the WWE even though it came with the help of Batista, a man who would later play a big role in the departure of Punk from WWE.

Chyna makes History

Chyna was in the middle of a heavy push, back in the late 90s and this even saw her going on to win the Intercontinental Championship. Winning the title made her the only women to achieve the same and it showed the amount of faith that WWE had in her. The title change happening in Raw once again underlined the ‘anything can happen’ scenario in the business.

And later, Chyna went on to become the co-champion as well along with Chris Jericho. The duo shared the title and defended it together for some time and it was probably one of the most entertaining storylines that Chyna had in her career.

Miz and his fairytale

No matter how many counter arguments come, Miz was never considered as a serious main eventer. The guy did have the looks and pretty solid microphone skills to be there, but when it came to the wrestling skills, there were a clear shortage of firepower. Despite this, WWE decided to make him the WWE champion.

He was the Money in the Bank holder during that time and just moments after Champion Randy Orton successfully defended his title, Miz came out and cashed in his Money in the Bank contract. It was successful cash in and he was crowned the WWE champion.

Chaos of WWE Championship

Blurring the lines between reality and Kayfabe was done perfectly by WWE when they pitted John Cena and CM Punk in a WWE championship angle. The Idea was to have CM Punk’s contract run out while he was the reigning champion which in turn would give out the impression of WWE having no champion at the helm.

When Punk walked out with the title as the contract negotiations broke down, WWE started a tournament to crown the new champion. In a bizarre chain of events, Rey Mysterio won the tournament but lost the title to John Cena in the same night. That is two title changes in one night if you were not counting. In the climax sequence, CM Punk showed up with the ‘real’ title that he had with him. Poetic isn’t it?

Mick Foley adds milestone to history

The Monday Night Wars was at its peak when this title change happened. WCW was having a clean advantage over WWE in the ratings but the whole scenario turned upside down thanks to Kevin Sullivan. Back in the days, WWE aired shows that were pre-taped which gave WCW the advantage of giving out results of their competitor since Nitro was live.

So when WWE made Mick Foley the champion in a pre-taped edition of Monday Night Raw, WCW went on to announce the result in their show. This however ended up giving the opposite effect and a whole chunk of wrestling fans switched the channel to see Foley win the title. It still remains as a historic title change in the history of professional wrestling.

Edited by Staff Editor