10 Most Deserving Ways A Vacant Wrestling Title Was Won

The Light-Heavyweight Championship wasn’t the only belt to be resurrected from the annals of history via a multi-man tournament. In 2003, a couple of years after the WCW acquisition, the company reinstated the company's old United States Heavyweight Championship at the Vengeance 2003 PPV.

This was another 8-man tournament, but that didn’t compromise the quality at all. In fact, it probably increased it. Plus, in a nice touch (though possibly an inadvertent one) the two finalists were both former WCW men, with Chris Benoit facing Eddie Guerrero to determine who’d be crowned champion.

Unsurprisingly, these two put on a great showing, although you could possibly argue that it was slightly over-booked with Rhyno interfering after the referee was knocked down.

Still, that shouldn’t overshadow the preceding action, in what was one of the better tournament finals we’ve ever seen in the WWE. Plus, even though the prior rounds took place on different nights, at over 22 minutes the final was pretty much the same length as Reigns’ two matches at Survivor Series 2015 combined.

Competing for that long and in a single sitting makes it the more deserving victory in my book.