10 Most Deserving Ways A Vacant Wrestling Title Was Won

Another fairly novel concept here, but this time from much further down the line. Across 2005 and 2006, Booker T faced Chris Benoit in a lesser-spotted, though presently being rehashed, Best of Seven series. Unlike Sheamus and Cesaro’s current effort though, this one was actually for a title: the United States Championship.

The history books will tell you that Booker won by a score of 4-3, but that’s anything but the full story. In fact, Booker wasn’t even the man to gain the decisive pinfall in the seventh match of the series, and neither was Benoit.

Randy Orton had been substituted in for the injured Booker T, and after losing the fifth and sixth contests, a 3-1 deficit had soon become 3-3 heading into the final encounter. Ultimately though, Orton managed to hold his nerve to gift Booker the 4-3 win in an excellently booked two-month series of matches.

You could argue that Booker's win wasn’t entirely deserving since he only featured in four of the bouts, but he’d actually been 3-1 up from the outings in which he’d featured. Either way, the entire saga and its interesting sub-plots were an excellent way to dramatically crown a new US Champion.