10 Title Wins That WWE Refuses To Recognise
World Heavyweight, Intercontinental, Tag Team and other title reigns WWE won't acknowledge.
Title wins are important to WWE...sometimes.
It may surprise those who think the company only view belts as 'props' to learn, but it's true. Wrestler entrances on shows like SmackDown regularly spotlight championships held in the past, and even pay-per-view 'Tale Of The Tape' moments go hard on title lineage to give major matches more depth.
WWE do have a love/hate relationship with wrestling history though - that's fair. One minute, Michael Cole will ring off some far flung title memory that makes everyone feel all nostalgic and fuzzy. The next, he's acting like some incidental belt change on last week's Raw never happened. It's an awkward, erratic balance, and it can drive fans who abhor such revisionism daft.
Vince McMahon's group enjoy rewriting history to suit themselves, and that's why they refuse to acknowledge any of the 'lost' title reigns examined here. They'll never recognise these ones as official. In most cases, they just pretend they never existed; they must think it's easier that way, or that more casual fans don't actually care enough about such things.
You do care however. That's why you're here...
10. Chyna (WWF Intercontinental Title)
Chyna had already been IC Champ by the time she and Chris Jericho worked a double pinfall angle on the 30 December 1999 SmackDown. Granted, her reign only lasted two short months before she lost the title to 'Y2J' at Armageddon, but it happened.
Whilst WWE recognise that, they don't recognise her phantom second.
The double pin meant that Chyna and Jericho were "co-champions". Despite this being one of the biggest storylines on the midcard at the time though, WWE just pretend that the belt was made vacant as a result of those SmackDown shenanigans.
This is weird, because they literally spent weeks building up to a definitive decision at the Royal Rumble 2000 pay-per-view. Hardcore Holly was even inserted as a third wheel before Jericho was made "undisputed" Intercontinental Champ in MSG.