10 Obscure International Wrestling Championships
1. European Cup (WCW)
Contested only twice during the company’s existence, the WCW European Cup is an interesting footnote in championship history of World Championship Wrestling.
Having provided a pretty eventful European Tour less than six months prior – with a World Title change in London, a World Title change in Dublin and a notorious scissor incident between Sid and Arn Anderson in Blackburn – the pressure was on for WCW to once again make history when they touched down on European soil in 1994. The answer to this expectation came in the form of the newly created WCW European Cup.
Following an 11 night tournament in Germany that boasted an all-star line-up of no less than eight current WWE Hall of Famers (including Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Steve Austin, Cactus Jack and Booker T, amongst others), the inaugural winner was crowned during WCW’s penultimate European Tour in March of ’94.
As a side note, this tournament was also historic for an entirely different reason as it was the very same tournament where Cactus Jack had his ear ripped off during his legendary bout with Vader; a losing effort in the European Cup quarter finals. The physicality and brute force of Vader saw him progress to the finals where he would once again meet arch-rival, Sting; with The Stinger emerging victorious as the first European Cup winner.
Six and a half years after the inaugural tournament, the European Cup would make its shock return in 2000 during WCW’s first European tour since 1994. Following Nitro and Thunder tapings in England, WCW travelled to Germany for the little-known Millennium Final event on November 16th, 2000 and the European Cup was contested once more.
A Germany-exclusive pay-per-view, the main event featured defending European Cup holder, Sting, putting his silverware on the line against Kevin Nash; who had qualified earlier that evening with a victory over Alex Wright and Mike Awesome (who himself had qualified for the 3 way via victory in Battle Royale that same night).
With German heavyweight boxer, Axel Schulz, presiding over the festivities as special referee, Sting would retain his European Cup in short order; locking in the Scorpion Death Lock on “Big Sexy” after just five minutes of action, much to the delight of the German crowd.