10 Wrestlers Who Threw Their Championships Away

Wearing gold around the waist - particularly the WWE Championship - is the goal of any professional wrestler. It means being at the peak of popularity, the envy of your locker room peers, the top money spinner, and sometimes a pawn to bag subscribers from India to your streaming service.

Not all championship belts are created equally, though. Some titles are significantly more valuable than others, i.e. the WWE Championship is seen as the pinnacle of sports entertainment, the Intercontinental title is often seen as the stepping stone to that belt, and the Million Dollar Championship is little more than a device to push a moneyed heel. But regardless of the standing of the title, simply holding it is surely going to get a superstar in the spotlight - and all should be fighting to hold one.

A few times throughout history, though, the titles themselves have seen their stock shrink thanks to a great deal of disrespect given to it by a wrestler or, in the case of the WCW World Championship, the promotion itself. Titles have been broken in fits of rage (PCO smashing the TNA Digital Media title), given to a totally undeserving wrestler over others (Jinder Mahal, David Arquette, etc.), or some championships existed that didn't stand a chance at prestige to begin with (the 24/7 and Divas titles being chief culprits one and two).

This list is looking specifically at superstars (or just members of the roster) who became champion but, for one reason or another, decided it was not worth the baggage weight - and simply dumped it like a bag of mouldy onions. 

They were treated like trash - and sometimes literally thrown into the trash...

Between the Fingerpoke of Doom, nWo running way too wild, concussing Bret Hart and the mass talent exodus, WCW was well into its death throes by 1999. It seemed every PPV that year was stinker after stinker, with that years Mayhem event being one of the better ones, and that wasn't good!

On the show, reigning WCW Television Champion Rick Steiner forfeited title to United States Champion Scott Hall. Shortly afterwards, he'd successfully defend both belts against Booker T.

Eight days later on Nitro, Hall decided that he didn't want to defend the Television championship over the US title, and attempted to simply give the belt to Outsiders partner, Kevin Nash. Big Daddy Cool didn't want it either, so the title ultimately found its way to a nearby garbage can, where it would remain until Jim Duggan fished it out a few months later.

This major disrespect to a championship held by Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes and many other legends of the industry would be a grim omen for the sort of actions that would soon befall the WCW World Championship, including being vacated six times in one year, and being won by both actor David Arquette and Vince Russo.