10 Real Life Events That Forced WWE Title Changes

7. Booker T Winning WCW Title On Last WCW Show Because WWE Wanted To Keep Him

When WWE bought World Championship Wrestling in March of 2001, it meant they had booking control on the last edition of Nitro on March 26, 2001. It was a "Night of Champions" style show where titles were on the line and WWE could put the titles onto the men that they wanted.

The reason that was so important is because WWE wasn't bringing in every WCW wrestler. They signed certain wrestlers while others had to wait until their contracts expired before WWE would consider bringing them in. They didn't want to spend millions to get somebody out of their deals that they had with Turner.

Booker T was a guy that WWE had pegged as a star of the future. He was an exciting performer in his mid-30s that WWE felt like they could build something around. Steiner was an older guy that had a big contract that didn't come into WWE right away.

Leading into the match, Booker was already the US Champion. After a competitive back and forth matchup, Booker emerged victorious and became the WCW World Champion, walking into WWE as the top guy on the Invasion roster.