10 Times Wrestlers Held Championship Belts Hostage
Professional battles that were worth their weight in gold.
That old gag about "people without pants fighting for a belt" simultaneously crystallises and trivialises all there is to love about the sporting pursuit of this pretend sport.
You absolutely cannot give too much thought into why wrestlers would wish to compete for a very gaudy-looking item but only to what that item represents when they're talking about it, fighting for it or raising it above their heads in victory. It's the pride of being the best, the prestige of walking the path others have paved while paving a new one in a personalised image, and the biggest share of the biggest purse.
It's a belt - it straps around the waist, it's a f*cking belt - but this is at the root of one of Vince McMahon's weirder pet peeves. It's a Championship too, and it's a Championship first and foremost along with all the glory and renown that projects and (theoretically) protects.
As daft and silly as it all seems sometimes, there wouldn't be cases such as the ones in this list if not for all that power, because there'd be no value to holding onto a title in the first place. By keeping hold of the gold outside the jurisdiction of a promoter, the ten here only served to enhance the rich history of their respective prizes. And in some cases, themselves...
10. Jeff Jarrett - WWE Intercontinental Title
One of the more famous stories of a wrestler refusing to drop a title before his demands were met, Jeff Jarrett's 1999 request doomed any WWE return to such a degree that he had to form a new company just to have a place to work. As a full time wrestler, anyway.
After the company had failed to secure a signature on a new contract, Jarrett arrived at No Mercy 1999 as a virtual free agent, despite a whispered certainty that he'd end up in WCW with their new creative head Vince Russo. Head Of Talent Relations Jim Ross hadn't got the deal done, resulting in Jarrett asking for a rumoured $300,000 (a sum he based on past and future earnings from dates already worked) before he'd drop the Intercontinental Championship to Chyna that night.
Despite this spectacular bridge-burning, 'Double J' found his way back to WWE via Hall Of Fame induction. Time healed the wounds by 2018, right around the time original scapegoat JR moved towards the company's nascent opposition.