10 Most Undeserving Winners Of Vacant Wrestling Titles

Of course, way before Orton was being awarded world titles, Triple H was far ahead of the curve, setting the trend as far back as September 2002.

In what was possibly the most famous occurrence of a wrestler being gifted a Championship, this one came during the early days of the original WWE brand split. With the WWE Championship becoming exclusive to SmackDown, Raw was in need of a champion, and so General Manager Eric Bischoff decided to reinstate the old WCW title and rebrand it the World Heavyweight Championship.

So far so good then, but all that would change when Bischoff revealed that he’d simply be handing the title over to his preferred man for the job; Triple H.

In fairness, Triple H was indeed the best-placed candidate for the role of World Champion, having previously been the number one contender to Brock Lesnar’s WWE Championship. It’s just the principal of awarding him the belt, rather than staging a match for it, that rubbed people the wrong way here.

Besides, this made him the inaugural champion—surely the inaugural champion should be decided in a more meaningful manner?