10 Times Wrestlers Became WWE Champions Without Winning A Match

4. Mankind - Hardcore Championship

Mankind WWE Hardcore Champion 1998
WWE.com

The Hardcore Championship will probably go down in history as one of the least respected championships in WWE. The title changed hands multiple times a night, and featured such credible champions as Pat Patterson, Godfather's Ho, and Pete Gas. Shawn Stasiak was a 15-time champion, but he never held the title for more than a few minutes.

The first champion was none other than the Hardcore legend himself, Mankind. This would be Mankind's only reign with the title, and he won the inaugural championship by not actually winning anything at all.

The belt was handed to Mick by Vince McMahon in November 1998, as all signs continued to point to Mick being the chosen champion of the McMahon Family. Survivor Series: Deadly Games was right around the corner, and this would all prove to be a set up.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.