10 Most Bizarre Wrestling Title Lineages
6. WWE Universal Championship
The WWE Universal Title is also cursed, or rather, was introduced in parallel with significant, inexorable creative decline, bearing the scars that come with it.
When Finn Bálor became the inaugural Champion - in the exact amount of days from re-debut to victory as Hulk Hogan had taken between December 1983 and January 1984 - it was thought the Universal Title would become defined in his image. It would be a new prize for a new, better era settled fairly by a new generation in tremendous pure wrestling matches.
Narrator: they gave it Goldberg 'til the end of t'season.
The f*ck?
Bàlor, injured, had to relinquish a title that was subsequently handed by Triple H to Kevin Owens who, distracted by Chris Jericho, knew little about losing it, either. Almost immediately, the title, derided for how ugly it was, had become a whim of retconned, rotten TV-style stunt booking. It wasn't remotely PPV-calibre in scope.
Goldberg lost it to Brock Lesnar, who subsequently redefined it as a tedious symbol of oppression, the irony being that he was at his awesome, scary best when he didn't even defend it at Survivor Series 2017 and 2018. The title was an afterthought to the all-powerful brand at its best, a sh*tty booking mechanism at its worst.
It has spiralled since, its novelty Fiend-faced horror at the heart of WWE's stark macro problem: at Crown Jewel, the company in hilarious fashion proved itself, again, incapable of building new stars.