The Crystal Ball 9.06.06: Unexpected Champions
Posted by Steve Sullivan on 09.06.2006
OVW, WCW, and WWE History all in one column? What the heck is going on?
Every once in awhile, there's a title change that makes you say, "Wow! I didn't see that coming!" It doesn't happen as much as it used to. The old WCW was very good about catching people off guard with the World Heavyweight Championship. These days, surprise title changes in the WWE usually happen with the Tag Team Titles or the Intercontinental/United States Championship. TNA every now and then can catch us off guard and give a little switch-a-roo of a title on a non pay-per-view show. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it makes for an exciting wrestling television show.
Last week, something very similar happened in Ohio Valley Wrestling. New ECW talent C.M. Punk lost the OVW Heavyweight Title to Chet The Jett. This match was not even scheduled, as originally Punk was set to wrestle Seth Skyfire. Skyfire was injured on his way to the ring when he was attacked and injured from behind by Charles "The Hammer" Evans, who the week before, defeated Skyfire for the OVW TV Title. When Skyfire was injured, his former partner Chet The Jett, who came down to the ring to help the injured Skyfire, wrestled and rolled Punk up to win the Championship out of no where.
Normally, when OVW is setting up a huge title change, I can sense it. This one totally caught me off guard! The fact that Chet had barely even been in the ring the last few months really made this a special title change. For the last month, OVW had really been pushing Skyfire to get involved in a big match with Punk for the title.
Ohio Valley Wrestling is VERY good at surprise title changes. Mainly because they don't have a pay-per-view to get people to change titles on. In the last couple of years since I've followed OVW, there have been a handful of title changes that really made me mark out. Even fewer have there ever been times where on a WWE, or WCW show that made me get really excited. Today, we get my Top 3 Surprise Title Changes for all 3 of these organizations.
OVW Top 3 Surprise Title Changes
3) Chad Toland Defeats Chris Cage To Win The OVW Heavyweight Championship- December 1, 2004
This was a pretty big title change that nobody even expected to happen. Chris Cage and his former Tag Team partner Tank Toland had broken up and it was mainly because of the involvement of Tank's cousin Chad. Chad had never actually wrestled in OVW before and it was assumed that he wasn't even an actual wrestler but Tank's manager. Jim Cornette made the grudge match between Cage and Chad. Cage was using the match to get back at Chad for his interference and for causing his tag team partner to turn on him. Tank of course was on the outside.
Chad went on to shock everyone and defeated Chris Cage to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship, thanks to the help of Tank. The title reign was short lived as Toland would lose the title a week later to Elijah Burke. Regardless, during a chaotic month in which the OVW Title switched hands twice, Chad Toland's OVW debut Heavyweight Championship victory was one of the most surprising moments in OVW history. After the loss, The Tolands went on to become one of the most dominant tag teams in OVW and eventually found a spot on Smackdown.
2) Seth Skyfire defeats Aaron "The Idol" Stevens to win the OVW Television Title. March 8, 2006
Idol Stevens along with his "harem" of women, Beth Phoenix and Shelley had been in a bit of turmoil thanks to one Paul Birchall, who was getting his push as a pirate on Smackdown. Apparently, the pirate gimmick turned Shelley on.
Seth Skyfire, who had recently lost the OVW Southern Tag Team Titles with Chet The Jet, was looking to become a single's champion for the first time in his long career in OVW. The match seemed to be a squash match as a program between Idol Stevens and Paul Birchall for the TV Title was inevitable.
In the latter part of the match, Skyfire was tossed out of the ring and the ref was distracted. Paul Birchall came to the ring where he was met by a round of slaps from Beth Phoenix. When Shelley saw her "partner" attacking the pirate she had a crush on, Shelley came into the ring and tackled Beth Phoenix. Both women fell to the floor and every referee came down to help break them up. Stevens who was distracted by the women fighting on the outside turned around into a C-4 from Paul Birchall followed up by a top rope leg drop from Seth Skyfire. The ref saw Skyfire with the cover and counted the 3 count in a huge upset for the smaller Skyifre.
After the match Skyfire went on to become the longest reigning TV Champion in OVW history, holding the title until the end of August. Birchall and Stevens went on to careers in Smackdown. Beth Phoenix found a role on Raw and Shelley is now Arieal..the Tarot Card Reader on ECW. Skyfire has recently been working house shows for Smackdown, wrestling Gregory Helms in Cruiserweight bouts.
1) Chris Cage defeats Matt Morgan to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship- October 13, 2004
This was probably one of the most shocking upsets of all time on OVW TV. Matt Morgan was a very dominant Heavyweight Champion. Matt Morgan won the title after turning heel in April of 2004, defeating Nick Dinsmore. Morgan had dominated the ring and the mic of 6 months, defeating opponent after opponent and WWE talent after WWE talent.
Morgan eventually grew bored and opened a challenge where he drew names out of a hat to issue OVW Heavyweight Title challenges. It seemed as though Morgan had the hat kind of rigged up with names of OVW jobbers. The third week of challenges saw Matt Morgan bring in former OVW Southern Tag Team Champion Chris Cage, who had recently just broke off his tag team with Tank Toland.
Cage went on to win the OVW Heavyweight Title, upsetting the 6'10 Matt Morgan. This brought on a giant celebration in the lockerroom as Morgan's 6 month title reign had finally come to an end.
Matt Morgan went on to win the OVW Title one more time a few months later from Elijah Burke. Morgan eventually went on to Smackdown to pull off the stutter gimmick and aligned himself with Carlito. Morgan was released shortly after Carlito was drafted over to Raw. Chris Cage was released from his WWE contract before he ever made it to the WWE. Originally, the plan was for Cage to team up with The Miz on Raw. Cage was released for "behavioral problems". He now wrestles in Ring of Honor under the name Chris Banks.
WCW Surprise Title Changes
3) David Arquette Wins WCW Heavyweight Championship in a tag team match, pinning Eric Bischoff on WCW Thunder. April 25, 2000
To any wrestling fan, this was the worst thing to ever happen in the history of any World Title. As if it wasn't bad enough that Vince Russo's name was written in the history of the WCW Heavyweight Title, but David Arquette managed to get his name on it. Why? Because of that movie Ready to Rumble. Let's put this in perspective today. This would be like Kane winning the WWE Title back on May 19th. This would be like John Cena getting a bunch of title pushes. Oh wait...
I can understand why Arquette was getting a lot of air time, and I can see putting him in a match, but giving him the World Heavyweight Title over DDP? No freakin' way man. At least Jay Leno never won it!
What made this worse was the fact that Arquette got involved in a Triple Cage Match, similar to that seen in the Ready To Rumble Movie, along with DDP and Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett would end the short reign of Arquette and thankfully put an end to his wrestling career. Even Arquette admitted that this was a bad idea. Wrestling fans never forgave this idea and in my opinion, this title reign began the downfall for WCW.
2) Vince Russo Defeats Booker T In A Cage Match To Win The World Heavyweight Championship on Nitro September 25, 2000
Just as I said before, things got bad for the WCW after awhile. Russo booked the Arquette championship reign. He booked himself to win this title and even managed to run off Hulk Hogan. The average title reign was less than 3 weeks, and to make things worse, Russo was now the World Heavyweight Champion after escaping a cage match that saw nearly every leftover WCW talent make a run in. Sting, Scott Steiner, Ric Flair, Jeff Jarret, Goldberg. Several WCW stars ran in. Russo was speared through the cage by Goldberg, giving him the "escape".
This was all but the beginning of the end for WCW. The company folded a few months later and merged with the WWE. Booker T ended up winning the title again a couple weeks later, defeating Jeff Jarrett and making everyone think, "What Was The Point Of That?"
1) Goldberg defeats Hulk Hogan on Nitro To Win The World Heavyweight Championship July 6, 1998
I remember watching this at home with my mom and one of my best friends. We all sat around wondering how this was going to end. Goldberg was undefeated and the U.S. Champion. Hulk Hogan and the n.W.o owned everyone on Nitro. Goldberg had already defeated Scott Hall to retain his United States championship. But suddenly, Goldberg speared the hell out of Hogan and rose him up for one of the biggest Jackhammers in wrestling history. This match should have very well been on a pay-per-view but the fact that WCW put this on for free showed why WCW owned the WWE in the ratings.
Goldberg went on to finally take his first loss 5 months later to Kevin Nash, losing the WCW World Heavyweight Title thanks to Scott Hall. The n.W.o continued their reign and Hogan went on to win the title back a couple weeks later thanks to the famous "Eyepoke From Hell" where Nash laid down for Hogan to win the title. This was the only time that Goldberg ever held the title in WCW. He of course wore the big gold belt during his short stint in the WWE.
WWE Top 3 Surprise Title Changes
3) Kurt Angle Wins A Battle Royal To Win The World Heavyweight Title on Smackdown January 10, 2006
In the long history of the WWE, a major Heavyweight Title has changed only 9 times on a basic television show. 8 of those were on Raw, mostly during the Monday Night Wars. Only once has the World Heavyweight Title been won on free TV since being introduced in 2001, and that was this past January on Smackdown. And only once has a new Heavyweight Champion been crowned in the history of Smackdown.
It was known among most smart wrestling fans that Batista was going to have to let go of his World Heavyweight Title after suffering a major injury. What was not known was who was going to be the next World Heavyweight Champion and when were they going to be crowned just a couple of short months away from Wrestlemania 22. Many wrestling fans speculated that JBL or Rey Mysterio would become the new World Heavyweight Champion, but when Kurt Angle jumped ships to Smackdown from Raw and won the Battle Royal on Smackdown, many fans were pleasantly shocked.
Angle went on to put on a classic bout between himself and The Undertaker a month later at No Way Out before losing to the title to Rey Mysterio at Wrestlemania 22. The fact that a major champion had finally been crowned on Smackdown was a good step in the right direction for a show that has shown many signs of struggling recently.
2) Steve Austin Defeats Kane & The Undertaker To Win The WWE Championship On Raw June 29, 1998
Just the night before during a First Blood match at the King of the Ring, Kane had defeated Stone Cold to win his WWE Title. One day later, Kane found himself pinned by Stone Cold Steve Austin on Monday Night Raw. The one day title reign came just months after the "Attitude Era" had begun and Stone Cold was leading the charge against the war on WCW Nitro.
A long feud between Austin, Kane, and The Undertaker would ensue later. Eventually both Kane and The Undertaker managed to both pin Austin at the same time, causing the title to be upheld. This would cause a tournament to be held, which was won by The Rock, who won his very first WWE Championship at Survivor Series in 1998. With talent such as Stone Cold and The Rock heading up the WWE, the ratings were beginning to shift a little bit. The arrival of Kane and his short WWE Title reign helped spark many interesting feuds that helped the WWE keep up with the well established story lines of a powerful WCW.
1) Diesel Defeats Bob Backland at a House Show to win the WWE Championship November 26, 1994
It only took 3 days for Bob Backland, who had made an annoying return to the WWE to lose his title to Big Daddy Cool at Madison Square Garden.. Backland had won the WWE Title despite his age from Bret Hart at Survivor Series in a submission match. To this day, this match became the shortest WWE Title match of all time, when Diesel managed to take the time to lift up Backland and give him his patented jacknife powerbomb and getting the 1,2,3 in front of a stunned New York City crowd. The footage of Diesel winning the title was aired a few days later on Monday Night Raw. The championship was the first in Diesel/Kevin Nash's career. He would go on to hold the title for one week shy of a year before losing the title to Bret Hart at Survivor Series in 1995. This was the only World Title reign for Nash in the WWE.
Diesel went on to change wrestling forever, jumping ships to WCW along with Scott Hall and forming the Outsiders, which ultimately led to the formation of the n.W.o. Nash went on to hold the WCW World Title 5 times and the tag team titles 9 times. This surprise victory over Backland turned Nash from Shawn Michael's valet to a wrestling innovator. Nash's 51 week title reign was the 9th longest in the title's history and brought a lot of prestige to the title and to his career right before the Monday Night Wars began. Without this surprise title win, the n.W.o and the wrestling boom of the late 90's may have never occurred.
And that's going to do it for this edition of The Crystal Ball. Let me know what you think! What are some of your favorite free title changes of all time? Let me hear em and I'll post em up right here in The Crystal Ball next week. I'm on my way to the OVW TV Tapings tonight, (since I can't see them on TV anymore *grumble*) so I'll have my eyes peeld for the next big thing in OVW to tell you about next week. So until then my friends....
