10 Ridiculous Ways WWE Champions Lost Their Titles
3. Stone Cold Steve Austin Gives His Belt To The Rock...And Doesn't
Your writer invoked Steve Austin's adulation of the WWE Championship in the introduction of this very article as an example of why the gaudy f*cking things are ultimately everything to the industry at its heart.
He loved it so much that once he had it in his sights in late-1997, he never looked back. This was problematic when he still had possession of the Intercontinental Championship.
In reality, 'The Rattlesnake' didn't think losing to The Rock was the best move for his character at the time. In kayfabe, Austin was so forthright about his aspirations beyond the belt that handing it back to The Rock via the increasingly heel Vince McMahon as a conduit didn't even feel like an act of surrender. Especially when he snatched it back and famously chucked it off a bridge into a river.
All of this was all a lot of fun, and "The Rock thinks you should fire him, Vince" was as big for an ascending Rocky Maivia as any pinfall victory, but it'd have played out as a bit of disaster with the wrong characters at its core.