10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2002
8. Triple H Is Handed A New World Title
SmackDown tied down the Undisputed WWE Title over the summer months, which left Raw without an identifiable top prize to boast about. Brand GM Eric Bischoff couldn't have that, so he brought some big gold over from WCW and redubbed it the World Heavyweight Championship. How would Bisch determine Raw's first champ? A tournament? A bumper match on PPV? A super-sized main event that'd pop a rating on TV?
No, he simply handed the thing to Triple H as everyone scratched their heads.
Bischoff argued that Hunter was already the number one contender for the WWE Title anyway, so it wouldn't have been fair to put him in a match...for a totally different championship. Huh? Seriously, they couldn't wait to do something mega at Unforgiven, or even build up this new title's importance ahead of the first ever Elimination Chamber match at Survivor Series in November? Why the devil not?!
Any kind of competitive scenario would've been better than feeding cries of nepotism due to Triple H's real-life relationship with Vince McMahon's daughter. Having 'Easy E' hand the belt off to Trips without any kind of struggle to speak of was totally rubbish and did nothing to make the new belt look like a coveted prize fans should care about.
Worse, 'The Game' celebrated like he'd just come through an 'Iron Man' contest or something similar. He thrust his arms into the air and did that HHH shake before leaving. Talk about a missed opportunity, man - surely the writing team knew this was a rotten way to introduce a new title.