10 Most Deserving Ways A Vacant Wrestling Title Was Won

The way in which a vacant championship is handled can have a number of ramifications. Simply gifting the belt to someone is guaranteed to turn an audience against them. Case in point: Triple H’s awarding of the World Heavyweight Championship in 2002.

At the start of the show, he entered the arena to widespread cheers, but by the end of the night he was very much the villain of piece.

In contrast, if a wrestler really earns that title, overcoming the odds and proving themselves to be worthy, then it can make their subsequent reign as champion all the more emphatic. And typically, tournaments are a prime example of this.

Currently, we’re in the midst of a two-stage tournament for the Universal Championship on Raw. It’s by no means the most elaborate of tournaments, but as discussed in a previous article, it’s rather more strenuous than some of the other ways in which we’ve seen vacant titles awarded.

Still, it’s not quite as impressive as some the examples we’ll be seeing on this list today, as we count down 10 of the most deserving ways in which vacant championships were won.

Back in the summer of 2014, and fresh off the back of one of the greatest coronations in WrestleMania history, disaster struck for Daniel Bryan. A neck injury forced him to surrender the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and spend the better part of a year in recovery.

Obviously the show had to go on, and with the Money in the Bank pay-per-view on the horizon, there was really only one option available: as well as staging a Money in the Bank match for a shot at the vacant title, there would also be a ladder match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship outright.

This meant a series of qualifying matches to determine the field of participants, but naturally it was the ladder match itself that would prove to be the tougher task.

Ultimately, John Cena emerged the victor, ahead of the likes of Kane, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus, and Cesaro. Outlasting that field, plus the extreme nature of this match, meant that it was a title victory well-earned, and a fitting way for Cena to kick off his 15th reign as World Champion.