10 Real Life Events That Forced WWE Title Changes

6. John Morrison Wins ECW Title After Chris Benoit Incident

In June 2007 the ECW Title was vacated because Bobby Lashley, the current champion, was drafted to Raw. The announced match for the ECW Title at Vengeance: Night of Champions was supposed to see CM Punk challenging Chris Benoit. It would have been the first time they had ever wrestled each other and was something of an internet dream match.

That match didn't happen because Chris Benoit killed his wife Nancy, son Daniel and finally himself on the weekend of the show. Due to Benoit's absence, plans changed and Johnny Nitro took his place.

According to reports following Benoit's death, it was revealed that Benoit was moved to ECW to win the ECW Title and be a veteran presence on that brand while working with younger talent, a position that Kurt Angle was originally groomed for a year earlier.

Nitro ended up defeating Punk clean for the ECW Title. They feuded for several months with Nitro actually changing his name to Morrison while he was still the ECW Champion. WWE and its roster did what they could with a bad situation.