10 Wrestlers Who Turned During Championship Reigns
2. Kurt Angle (2002)
All of this was so weird.
When Paul Heyman screwed Brock Lesnar out of the WWE Championship at Survivor Series 2002, he did so in order to facilitate a face turn for 'The Next Big Thing'. In kayfabe, he thought that sidling up to a Big Show was a safer bet.
The logic of that call felt odd from the off, and that's perhaps why it was later to be revealed as part one of a grander plan that involved Kurt Angle. The reveal of Angle and Heyman's own unit was part of a further plot to manipulate Lesnar, but it did render Show's involvement the prior month largely redundant.
WWE had Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar as a WrestleMania destination that December, but after Angle won the belt as a babyface, he revealed that he'd brought Heyman in to ensure he'd make it back to the top. They were then unified along a Big Show who pretty much just accepted it like the rest of us because the dynamics were simply too fantastic.
Head to Armageddon 2002 and watch the following week or two of SmackDown to try and make sense of it if you dare? Or, just carelessly brush it off like they did and bask in the glory of Team Angle tag matches and the eventual classic (and infamous) WrestleMania clash.