10 Most Wildly Unpopular WWE Title Changes

This Sunday in Boston, WWE will crown a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion. This time, they've been pushed into such a choice by circumstance- Daniel Bryan's neck injury proving to be too severe to pass the test of time- however, usually, such new champions being crowned are very cerebral choices, made for a variety of reasons. Long term story-lines concluding, a snap-reaction to a sudden rise in popularity, transitioning from one long-term champion to the next or, perhaps, something as simple as an attempt to freshen things up a bit; the motivations behind such decisions tend to be the subject of debate and scrutiny. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship is the latest incarnation of the organisation's oldest and most prestigious title. First awarded to Buddy Rogers on April 25th 1963, to this date the WWE has seen 45 different men hoist the belt above their head over 117 separate reigns and over the course of those 117 reigns, a select few of those 45 men found themselves the subject of great ire and spite from the fans, when they lofted the gold high. A heel, by design, is supposed to draw such ire from fans by taking a prestigious title from a beloved babyface after all. Yet, there have been times where a decision made to 'place the strap' on a certain individual has been met with such ire that people began to question why they did it at all. These title reigns were stunted, short and ended prematurely- for the most part- as WWE came to realise that their current champion was not only the harbinger of typical heat from the paying customers but a heat beyond that level. A heat that would cause them to turn away. A heat that would cause them to reject the product itself. Batista's return, earlier this year, is an example of this. In these circumstances, WWE, rightly acted quickly to right the wrong. With that in mind, let's take a look back at the 10 most unpopular WWE World Title changes in history. Those 10 men of the 45 who found one of their title wins met with such harsh venom from the crowd, people began to question what motive could WWE possibly ever had had to make the change that they did. Starting with the most recent...