10 Fastest WWE Title Changes Ever
... aaaaand it's gone.
Like the Lord, Vince McMahon giveth, and Vince McMahon taketh away.
And, as is the case with our divine creator, the WWE chairman is sometimes a little cruel when it comes to the taketh away bit. In fact, he often only allows his valued employees to celebrate their life's work for a few precious minutes before robbing them blind in front of a live television audience.
To be fair to Vince, this isn't - as far as we're aware - done in order to humiliate. Rather, it can on occasion make for compelling viewing to see a wrestler defend their belt mere minutes after winning it (and by "on occasion" we mean the first 15 to 20 times it happened; now it's as tired and cliché as everything else that happens inside the squared circle).
Over recent years, this situation almost always comes about when a wrestler chooses to cash in their Money in the Bank briefcase, a plot device that has only existed for the last 13 years. But it may surprise you to learn that two of the quickest title reigns on this list each came a quarter-century ago.
10. Teddy Long Books A Singles Match
We don't know for exactly how long Dolph Ziggler got to call himself World Heavyweight Champion after being gifted the title as a Valentine's treat by then-girlfriend Vickie Guerrero on the special 600th episode of SmackDown in February 2011.
Since this was a pre-taped show, it could have been anything from five minutes to five hours - only those in attendance can truly say for certain (and all of them have since perished). For our purposes, we'll measure its length based on what we watched at home on TV, which puts it at roughly an hour and a half.
The reason it was so short was because rightful SmackDown GM Teddy Long returned just as Ziggler was celebrating his coronation, duly announcing that he would have to defend the belt against Edge - the former holder - later on in the night (and so marking the first time in history he had booked something other than a tag team match).
Not only did Ziggler lose (of course he did: he was up against a bazillion-time world champion fan favourite on a WWE supershow) he also promptly got fired afterwards. It turned out that, unlike his last boss, Long wasn't going to be seduced by the former Spirit Squad member's fluttering eyelashes.