10 Totally Soul-Crushing WWE Title Changes
3. Shawn Michaels Vs Triple H (Armageddon 2002)
Shawn Michaels' unexpected World Title victory at November 2002's Survivor Series led some to decry a reliance on nostalgia on a night where The Big Show delivered Brock Lesnar's first defeat in dethroning 'The Beast', but a contemporary 'HBK' title reign did at least promise the potential of some great matches over the beleaguered title that had been besmirched by some rotten Triple H bouts throughout the Autumn.
It wasn't to be.
After a lone Monday Night Raw defence against Rob Van Dam in something of a dream match for the time, the miserable nose of familiarity crept back in to contention immediately, necessitating their 'Three Stages Of Hell' clash at December's Armageddon.
Engaging in a Street Fight, Steel Cage and finally a Ladder Match, 'The Game's victory over three falls reset the flagship show to its unsatisfying default, and concluded Shawn's fairytale story long before most fans soaked in the return of an icon.
Ultimately, it was deemed impossible to justify keeping the title on the part-timer Michaels still was at the time, but a reversion to Triple H in particularly convoluted circumstances left a deeply sour taste that wasn't going to be combatted by the next eight months of headline dominance by the 'King of Kings'.