10 Weirdest Ways To Earn A Wrestling Title Shot
The wild, wacky ways Nicholas, Santino Marella, Braun Strowman and more scored title shots.
Earning the chance to contend for the most illustrious Championships in pro wrestling is often profoundly challenging.
Consider Jon Moxley's approach to winning this year's seminal NJPW G1 Climax tournament. His preparation was so studious that it must have consumed every second of every day.
He had to combat Taichi's sneaky villain tactics by way of table-assisted ultra-violence. Confronted with the freak strength of Jeff Cobb, he had to neutralise his shoulder with an intricate technical showing; similarly, to defeat Shingo Takagi, Moxley had to strategise expertly to kneecap him, aware of the killer momentum the Dragon generates with his formidable rope-runs. To defeat Tomohiro Ishii in Korakuen Hall, he had to survive an onslaught of physicality by levelling up to the Stone Pitbull's legendary intensity. He then had to simmer down to a zen state, in order to negate and overcome Tetsuya Naito's tranquilo gamesmanship.
And it still wasn't enough; Moxley tapered off, and Kota Ibushi fought through a painful ankle injury that would have ruled out any other performer to win it all. That seems incredibly painful and heroic.
He could have simply...
10. Simply Stare Longingly At A Title Belt
Paul Heyman's tenure at the helm of Monday Night RAW has improved the show drastically, but he is still operating within the WWE system, and that system can be accurately described as "just do whatever". With no fixed narrative framework in place, nor long-term plans, Braun Strowman set his sights on Seth Rollins' Universal Championship by...
...setting his sights on Seth Rollins' Universal Championship.
He simply looked at the red belt longingly, and was ultimately announced as the #1 contender to it. He didn't win a singles match. He just sort of played the role of the creepy pretend best friend by spending time with Rollins in the faint, sad hope of getting his hands on his waist. Seth relented, suddenly vested with the power to make main event pay-per-view matches. Perhaps this was the return for his wildly ill-advised "come on little guys, WWE rules" campaign.
This was pro wrestling's version of a vision board: Braun Strowman willed this opportunity into existence using the law of attraction to attain his goal. Perhaps this is what they're all doing when they point at the WrestleMania sign every year.
Braun Strowman just does whatever he wants, clearly...