10 Instant Wrestling Title Devaluations

6. From Booker T...To Vince Russo (WCW World Heavyweight Title)

Orlando Jordan US Title
WWE Network

It could easily be argued that there was no prestige to devalue - the belt had essentially been moribund when it was nonsensically awarded to Arquette.

It was dead and buried when Russo booked himself to get his hands on it.

Appropriately dressed in helmet he is, Russo set about WCW World Champion Booker T with a baseball bat, naturally contravening the tenets of a steel cage match by attempting to simply walk out immediately. "But bro - BRO - why wouldn't you just walk out?!".

Worse still, the finish was inconclusive. Nobody knew who won the title once the match had ended, as if people would skip RAW the next Monday to find out.

Worse still, once it was established he'd only gone and won it, he apparently decided he wasn't a wrestler after all, and decided to vacate the title almost immediately afterwards. The only surprising element of this entire debacle is that he didn't book a tournament to decide the new champ.

He went one step further - the infamous San Francisco 49er Match between Book and Jeff Jarrett, which saw one of the boxes in which either a "weapon" or the big gold belt was housed forcibly and prematurely removed from its pole - because it was obviously sat upon a pole.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!