10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About The World Heavyweight Championship

4. It Changed Hands By Disqualification

Shawn Michaels World Heavyweight Title
WWE.com

Money in the Bank 2011 is one of the best pay-per-views of all time. Everybody remembers CM Punk leaving through the crowd with the WWE Championship, but there was another surreal match ending that night.

Randy Orton defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Christian in a match where if The Viper was disqualified, he'd still lose the belt. Surely, they wouldn't pass Big Gold to Captain Charisma with a DQ finish? This is WWE, so it happened.

Christian spent the match trying to goad Orton into getting disqualified. Eventually, he spat in the Apex Predator's face and Orton completely forgot about the rules. A low blow later and Christian was the new World Heavyweight Champion.

When it comes to making the champion look stupid, the challenger look weak, and the belt look meaningless, this was the Holy Trinity. Considering the WHC had just been vacated from an injured Edge, the decision to turn Christian heel wasn't met with much fanfare. People wanted to cheer his best friend being the champ that runs the camp; instead, this moment made it clear they didn't see Christian as somebody that could beat Orton clean.

What a shame.

Randy won the belt back a month later at SummerSlam anyway, so what was the point in any of this?

Contributor

When I'm not trying my hardest to visit all 50 U.S. states, I'm listening to music from the 80s, watching TV from the 90s, and reminiscing about growing up in the 00s. I'm currently living in Melbourne, Australia so WWE premium live events are on Sunday afternoons for me; the absolute dream.