“Surprise” first time world title wins

[ChitownKnight]

How often has this happened? The challenger had never won a world title and isn’t expected to and comes out on top? Now JBL and Jinder were surprises but not really in a good way. Sheamus I was surprised as well. Eddie I think people saw coming because they were going to do Brock vs Goldberg. Jeff Hardy in 2008 was a surprise I think. I knew he’d win the world title but not at Armageddon. I hope this is how LA Knight wins the world title

[mc74]

Sheamus' first reign is the one that comes to mind.

[Citizen Snips]

Bret Hart

[Main Eventer]

Edge's comes to mind because nobody thought of the MITB contract literally being cashed in at anytime.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Mar 16, 2023 12:47:09 GMT -5 Main Eventer said:

Edge's comes to mind because nobody thought of the MITB contract literally being cashed in at anytime.

He also held onto it for eight months

[Jindrak Mark]

Before most of our times but from what I've read Ivan Koloff and Stan Stasiak's title wins were really shocking at the time.

Diesel's first title win must have came as a bit of a surprise. Not that he won the title but the fact it happened on a house show just days after Backlund won the title at a big PPV.

Big Show at Survivor Series 99 wasn't even supposed to be in the main event. And frankly he wasn't over enough or really deserving to be world champ at the time. I'm not sure I really buy it but there were rumors that he had a clause in his contract that he get a world title and Wrestlemania main event in his first year.

The likes of JBL/Sheamus/Jinder were shocking on paper due to their card position beforehand but I think once those matches were announced a lot of people starting expecting them to win, just not cleanly.

[polarbearpete]

Mark Henry

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

Mar 16, 2023 12:54:00 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Mar 16, 2023 12:47:09 GMT -5 Main Eventer said:

Edge's comes to mind because nobody thought of the MITB contract literally being cashed in at anytime.

He also held onto it for eight months

And mentioned that he'd cash it in at WrestleMania. 

[msc]

Probably far more lowkey but I remember a lot of us being surprised when Sheamus's 2012 run was ended by The Big Show.

And in a great match too, somehow.

[Deleted]

Jinder's will give me PTSD for the rest of my life...There are certain "i remember where i was" situations in wrestling history and wild enough this is one of them

A few others include:

WM9 and Hogan/Bret situation i will always remember as it was my first ever purchased show after begging the parents for months and being both a Bret and Hogan fan had me so torn.

AJs Rumble debut

[Stu]

Sorta a two-part process, but it was odd when Orton and Sheamus won MITB. People assumed they were red hearings before they successfully cashed in.

[Citizen Snips]

Mar 16, 2023 12:57:14 GMT -5 Jindrak Mark said:

Diesel's first title win must have came as a bit of a surprise. Not that he won the title but the fact it happened on a house show just days after Backlund won the title at a big PPV.

Definitely a shocker. Tuning into the Saturday morning shows expecting the usual Survivor Series results show and Todd Pettingill’s all “GUESS WHAT MUTHAf***AS!!!” They even showed it, like to prove it happened.

[fw91]

KO

[chronocross]

Andre beating Hogan on the NBC Main Event show, as a kid I never thought Hulk would lose the title.

[salz4life]

Jinder was a surprise only in the sense they actually did it. Signs going into that Backlash pointed to him winning, but I still wasn't sure they would actually pull the trigger.

[peaches1]

Mar 16, 2023 13:04:53 GMT -5 polarbearpete said:

Mark Henry

After multiple pushes over the years, where'd Henry'd be built up only to eventually fail in the big match, I fully expected it to happen again or for him to win in some funky no-DQ rematch after Night of Champions.  But to whup Orton's butt first time out was a pleasant surprise.  

[4real]

I know he had been WCW Champion but Jericho winning the Undisputed title just seemed like a massive long shot. I was shocked when he won.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Bret Hart in 92 is the first thing that came to mind and is probably the best example of this. Came completely out of nowhere.

[Some Guy]

Mar 16, 2023 12:57:14 GMT -5 Jindrak Mark said:

The likes of JBL/Sheamus/Jinder were shocking on paper due to their card position beforehand but I think once those matches were announced a lot of people starting expecting them to win, just not cleanly.

I don't really think this is true, especially for Sheamus since Cena had held the title at that point for less than two months after a blow-off to a years long feud. Most people just thought these were random one off title challengers and well, those things happened.

[Jindrak Mark]

Mar 16, 2023 14:55:07 GMT -5 Some Guy said:

Mar 16, 2023 12:57:14 GMT -5 Jindrak Mark said:

The likes of JBL/Sheamus/Jinder were shocking on paper due to their card position beforehand but I think once those matches were announced a lot of people starting expecting them to win, just not cleanly.

I don't really think this is true, especially for Sheamus since Cena had held the title at that point for less than two months after a blow-off to a years long feud. Most people just thought these were random one off title challengers and well, those things happened.

I remember talk at the time that Cena would drop the title at TLC (in a protected way obviously due to the tables gimmick) then regain it on the big Jan 4 show head to head with Hogan/TNA. The latter obviously didn't happen though,

They were hot-shotting the world titles like crazy from late 2008 to late 2009. Edge had a run were he would win/lose the title at every consecutive PPV for months. He won it at Survivor Series, lost it at Armageddon, won it at Rumble, lost it at No Way Out, won the other title the same night, dropped it at Mania, won it at Backlash, lost it at Extreme Rules. It was ridiculous. Then you had Cena/Orton and Hardy/Punk trading multiple times.