10 World Champions Who Bombed TWICE
2. Sammy Guevara
a) This counts because All Elite Wrestling launched the TNT Championship amidst much fanfare and the promise that it wasn't a secondary title.
b) It's the first time in AEW's brief history that a belt, a Champion and the booking of both things really did bomb.
Some stints with titles had been better than others, but never in the company's short history had a championship run gone so badly south that a character was in danger of being damaged as a result. That's WWE sh*t, and it's the exact opposite of how business is supposed to be done in the company. And yet Sammy Guevara went from vaunted "Pillar" to a representation of foundational failure within the company.
And it happened twice.
A middling maiden run brought about the end of a beloved one when he defeated Miro, before being terminated in order to facilitate some clumsiness with Cody Rhodes and an interim strap. Trades with Scorpio Sky devalued the gold and turned Sammy and real life girlfriend Tay Conti heel when their relationship was used for misogynistic and dated heat.
Sky didn't avoid the damage - his loss to Wardlow was considered better late than never having been caught up in the carnage.