10 Best World Titles Changes On Raw
Ratings stunts or great memories? How about both?
Last week at SummerSlam, Finn Balor defeated Seth Rollins to become the first-ever WWE Universal Champion. Unfortunately, during the course of the match, he suffered a severe shoulder injury that would require surgery. The very next evening on Raw, he was forced to vacate the brand-new title.
In response, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley booked a series of matches, the winners of which would advance to a fatal-four way for the vacant title on this week's Raw. Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Big Cass, and Roman Reigns all pulled out victory in the qualifying bouts, giving each of those men a shot at crimson glory.
History is guaranteed to be made on this week's Raw, as despite the nearly 24-year-long history of the program, there have only been a relative handful of occasions where the WWE World (or World Heavyweight) Championship has changed hands on the broadcast. Typically, those changes were meant to boost ratings - most of them came during the highly-competitive Monday Night Wars, or during the viewership-challenged past five years - but many of them were still excellent from a storyline point of view. Some were even among WWE's most memorable moments.
Here are the 10 best world title changes in the history of Raw:
10. CM Punk - June 30, 2008
Coming out of Night of Champions 2008, the Raw brand was in a tough situation. WWE World Champion Triple H had been drafted to Smackdown the prior week, giving the blue brand both of the company's world titles. Though Raw wrestlers had shots at both belts at the PPV (John Cena took on HHH, while Edge defended the World Heavyweight Title against Batista), both came up short.
The following evening on Raw, Edge came out to crow about his victory (and about the fact that Raw was without a champion), but an angry Batista laid him out. After Batista proved his point, though, CM Punk - who had won the Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania - cashed in his contract and defeated Edge to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
Not only had CM Punk brought a top title back to Raw, but he had done the unthinkable for himself - the former independent darling had come to the big leagues without changing anything about his presentation and had still managed to become a world champion. It was validation for Punk and all of his longtime fans.