101 Shocking Wrestling Plans You Won't Believe Almost Happened
35. Tank Abbott Wins World Title After One Punch
The backstory behind WCW's Souled Out 2000 pay-per-view is legendary. Jeff Jarrett was supposed to wrestle Chris Benoit in a 'Triple Threat Theater' series of matches, but Billy Kidman vs. Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and then The Wall replaced that when Jarrett got injured and Benoit was moved up into the World Title picture vs. Sid Vicious.
Bret Hart was also ruled out of the show due to his own concussion woes, so the whole night was plunged into creative chaos. Vince Russo wasn't actually there because he'd been sent home beforehand, but Russo had reportedly pitched that shoot fighter Tank Abbott end the night as World Champ.
Vince wanted Tank to win a Battle Royal for the vacant big gold by punching someone so hard they'd literally fly over the top ropes to the floor. That 'power of the punch' would lead to Abbott's unlikely stint as the top champ in the entire company. Anyone who watched WCW in 2000 could tell that putting the belt on Tank would've been a real stinker of an idea - he was working some of the worst matches on TV and clearly just didn't get pro wrestling.
WCW used to have a PPV called Mayhem. Well, it would've been true mayhem had Russo still been in town to stick the title on Abbott. Surely WCW fans had been through enough in 1999? They didn't need 2000's first pay-per-view to set the tone for the promotion's demise.
Benoit won the belt then fled to the WWF 24 hours later, for the record.