10 Most Undeserving Winners Of Vacant Wrestling Titles

Randy Orton’s no stranger to questionable championship victories, as we’ll soon see over the course of this list.

This particular example of a none-too-honourable win arrived at Hell in a Cell 2013 when he defeated Daniel Bryan for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

The title had recently been vacated after a controversial finish to Bryan’s match with Orton himself at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, so it’s not like Orton wasn’t deserving of this follow-up match for the title. Here the issue had more to do with the way in which he’d win it.

Rather than earning the victory off his own back, Orton had relied heavily on Triple H’s interference to occupy Bryan’s attention. There was also the small matter of special guest referee Shawn Michaels hitting Bryan with some Sweet Chin Music, allowing Orton to slither in and pick up the 1-2-3.

As dastardly as the victory was though, I’m not sure which is more lamentable; the fact that Orton won in this way, or the lack of a subsequent dream match between Shawn Michaels and Daniel Bryan.