12 Times WWE Brutally CANCELLED World Championship Reigns

5. Ryback

The image above this text was snapped during the 8 April, 2013 episode of Raw: The One After WrestleMania 28, if it were a Friends episode title. Ryback is holding the WWE Championship aloft after having turned heel on newly-minted champion John Cena, closing out the show while providing a glimpse into the alternate universe that nobody wishes to have lived in.

Astonishingly, this was not when he was being eyed up to lead as the face of WWE.

Even more astonishingly, his planned run was allegedly slated for 2016, some three years after his meteoric rise to the top fell off a cliff.

The claims came from the mouth of Ryan Reeves himself - so take them with a gallon of salt - during an appearance on The Angle Podcast, in which Ryback alleged to have reached a verbal agreement with Vince McMahon that would have seen 'The Big Guy' turn heel, ditch his wardrobe of colourful singlets for more traditional black trunks, and eventually win the WWE Title. Somehow, that turned into him doing the job to Kalisto in consecutive United States Championship pre-show matches at WrestleMania 32 and Payback.

Mind, 2016 was when the top prize was traded between Roman Reigns, Triple H, Roman Reigns again, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and AJ Styles. Where the hell does Skip Sheffield fit in?