10 Times The Wrong Wrestler Won

3. Triple H Over Shawn Michaels (Armageddon 2002)

After four years away from the ring, Shawn Michaels returned a new man in 2002. He began an epic feud with old pal turned arch enemy Triple H and tore the house down with his SummerSlam 2002 return victory over The Game.

Taken out by Triple H shortly after, Michaels made his next return to the ring at Survivor Series 2002 for the first ever (and still among the very best) Elimination Chamber match. The match came down to the DX duo with Michaels the winner and new WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

A major fan favourite and ratings mover in a time when WWE was still reeling from the recent departures of The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, a Michaels world title run seemed best for business.

Instead, Michaels would lose it the very next month back to HHH in a Three Stages of Hell match. HHH would hold the belt for almost a year and have critically panned feuds with Scott Steiner, Booker T (a racist burial and simply one of the worst angles in company history) and Kevin Nash before finally dropping it to Goldberg.

Michaels in the meantime would have popular feuds with the likes of Chris Jericho (including a classic WrestleMania XIX bout that would’ve served the world title far more positively), Ric Flair and Randy Orton. Michaels would never hold a world title again despite being a dependable crowd pleaser which makes the painfully short length of his world title reign all the more disappointing.