10 Last-Minute WWE Champions

10. Big Show (1999)

In 1999, WWE went through a number of changes, including the talents they decided to make WWE Champion. The year started off with The Rock and Mankind trading the title back-and-forth in a series of matches that ranged from the brutally hardcore (Royal Rumble '99) to the ridiculously embarrassing (Halftime Heat) to a standard wrestling match (RAW on 1/4/99). By the time of fall of '99, Stone Cold Steve Austin was back wearing the gold but his neck had once again become a major concern.

Once it was known that Austin would be requiring major neck surgery that would likely keep him out of the ring for an entire year, WWE was scrambling to adjust their plans for the rest of 1999 and beyond.

The original main event of Survivor Series '99 was a Triple Threat Match between Austin, The Rock, and Triple H. Austin was eventually replaced with The Big Show and, to throw fans off the predictable finish of Triple H retaining the title, the former Giant captured his first WWE Championship.

To further illustrate how little was planned for Big Show as WWF Champion, he dropped the title back to Triple H on the 3 January, 2000 edition of Raw, just 7 weeks after winning it.