Biggest disruption of a great legacy...

[Slammywinner]

Over the decades, the WWF belt was the belt that mattered, especially when the WCW went out of business. Upon Cena's injury last month, they asked Superstars to describe how they felt. CM Punk got me thinking when he said something like "It's really sad any time something disrupts the legacy of that belt." Unlike WCW, were David Arquette and Vince Russo tarnished the credibility of the belt, let alone things like the Finger Poke of Doom, WWE rarely had disruptions of the title lineage by stupid champs or even injury.

Above are all the instances I could find good documentation of that disrupted the belt, either kayfabed, real, or both. What hurt the belt the most and is it the same value as before? What has been paved over with the passage of time and doesn't matter now to anyone but me?

Here's a quick reference:
1. Inoki beats Backlund, but refuses the belt. A rematch is set and Backlund wins. Title switch is never acknowledged in the US.

2. DiBiase screws Hulk Hogan by buying the ref off in a match between Hulk and Andre the Giant. The ref counts three when Hulk clearly is up. Andre then sells the belt to DiBiase post-match. WWE President Tunney declares that action an illegal title change and vacates the belt. (Can you image this happening now? The Internet would explode!) The Title restored at Wrestlemania 4 in a huge tournament.

3. Tuesday in Texas saw Undertaker defend his title against Hulkster. Outside interference from Ric Flair and the involvement of a steel chair lead to Tunney getting KO'd and the title being declared vacant. The belt is restored in the 92 Royal Rumble.

4. Champ HBK claims to have "lost his smile" and would not wrestle again til he got it back. Was he leaving for injury? Ducking the J.O.B. receipt from Hart? The Belt is vacated; the Title is restored in a Final Four Match between Hart (w), Austin, Taker, and Vader

5. Montreal Screw Job - Bret screwed Bret...or Vince screwed Bret...or Earl screwed Bret...well at any rate, Bret is screwed....Michaels gets the belt after the ref calls for the bell and declares HBK the new champ.

6. Austin loses the belt in a 3 way to Kane and Taker, who pin the champ at the same time. Austin is to ref a run off match between the Bros. of Destruction only to stunner both and delcare himself the winner. Vince McMahon runs down and grabs the belt, declaring it held up. Title restored at a tourney at Survior Series 98.

7. Vince wins the belt from HHH, then realizes he's not a wrestler and vacates the belt, unlike his stupid ECW title reign last year. Title restored in a six pack challenge.

8. Brock Lesnar takes the undisputed title to Smackdown, prompting RAW GM Eric Bishoff to introduce a new WWE world championship for RAW made up of the unified IC, US, European and Hardcore undercard belts, held by RVD, and the old WCW belt he pulled from his closet and gave to HHH. The Undisputed title is suddenly disrupted by 2 titles claiming heritage in the old WWF and WCW titles respectively.

9. RVD, while WWE and ECW champ, smokes weed and gets pulled over and arrested three weeks into his reign. He then drops both belts on a supershow the next night and is suspended for 30 days, never to be the same. RVD restored by bag of fun-ions and the B-side of Pink Floyd's "The Wall."

10. John Cena is injured by Randy Orton. The vacant belt goes to Randy Orton by forfeit.

Discuss!

[Ringmaster]

ive said it before, making it look like a toy hurt it more then any storyline ever has.

[mo]

Vince winning the belt altogether, regardless of how long he had it. As much as I like the Mr. McMahon character, he shouldn't have won that belt.

It doesn't ruin the legacy of the belt in my opinion, but it's just something that should not have happened.

[T.J. "the Crippler" Stevens]

Hey, I love Ted and all, but don't you think Andre deserved a little more?

[Bob Schlapowitz]

The brand split. I LOVED The idea of the Undisputed Champ defending against both rosters.

[Mr. Mediocre]

The title split after Lesnar won the title was the biggest disruptor of the WWE Championship's legacy. When you have two top championships side by side, it makes both seem less prestigious.

[Loki]

Two World CHampionships instead of one...

All the other "bumps" on the road were either storylines that needed a vacated belt (for booking reasons) or legit events that led to the same result.

Anyway, no matter how debatable or downright stupid some angles were (Austin v Kane v Taker), they still had ONE belt as prize and focus.

Then WWE decided two world titles were better...

[Lino]

I think three title changes in one night hurt the most. Almost as bad as Vince McMahon being champion.

[Big L]

awafan6 said:

I think three title changes in one night hurt the most. Almost as bad as Vince McMahon being champion.

agreed

[Si]

Brand split.
The two world titles concept confused me for a loooooong time.

[jcdenton]

Splitting the belt, easily

[CrazySting]

I don't think the three title changes was so bad...

It's not like WCW, where belts changed hands every fortnight or so. This happened once, and it was to build up suspense on the night. It was strictly a one off. It felt like something out of the attitude era rather than WCW circa 2000.

[redjaguar]

Anytime Vince has held a belt, I think it has hurt that belt's lineage. Just my opinion.

[plushtar]

2, 3, & 6 were kayfabe reasons, so I wont complain. I voted brand split since it makes one promotion three "equal" champions.

[franchisedavis]

RVD, it took 2 titles away from him. They could have built him as a huge double champion and it all got left in the dust.

Plus RVD beat Cena, WWE could have really worked that angle instead of just having RVD seem like a transitional champion.

[HRH The KING]

The brand split following the "Invasion".

It diluted the significance of the titles and added far too many titles to the WWE.

[I Graduated Warrior University]

Where's the "other" option? In my opinion, I think that giving wrestlers custom belts, no mater how cool they look ("Smoking Skull") or how lame they look ("Spinner Belt") just pisses on the history of the belt.

[Slammywinner]

franchisedavis said:

RVD, it took 2 titles away from him. They could have built him as a huge double champion and it all got left in the dust.

Plus RVD beat Cena, WWE could have really worked that angle instead of just having RVD seem like a transitional champion.

True. It also really changed the way the fledgling ECW was booked. No longer was the top champ in the company on the new show.

To address the custom belt "omission":

I am polling for what broke the lineage of the belt, not made it look bad or lose value in the PR sense.

A break in lineage is when there is either a forfeit, vacancy or false claim to a title resulting in 1.) an undefeated champion that is no longer recognized 2.) A situation in which the title is held up 3.) a dispute over who is the rightful world champion with a claim to the lineage of the title.

I didn't include custom titles on this list because it never really hurts the lineage of the belt. Although you feel it may look stupid, it's unquestionable the spinner and smoking skull belts are versions of the WWE belt. Despite the look, it's roots can still be traced more or less in an unbroken succession of champions, save the items on this list.