11 Awesome WWE Title Moments That Became FORGOTTEN

Unforgettable WWE Title moments include Hulk Hogan dropping the strap to The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI, Steve Austin's first win over Shawn Michaels at the same event in 1998, Cody Rhodes "finishing the story" in 2024 or even Sami Zayn's shock wins in 2026.

How about those that have been lost to the sands of time? Nobody really pauses to talk about these matches, moments or angles. There are various reasons for that.

Some included took place on pay-per-views that scraped just beneath the radar, whereas others took place on TV episodes more notable for other stories or bouts. You might be shocked by a more recent addition that's fallen out of fan minds due to a lengthy injury too though.

Roman Reigns would disagree, but the core WWE Title remains the belt to get your mitts on. It is, by quite some margin, the richest prize on offer to pro wrestlers. Some from other companies claim otherwise (rightly so, because they've got their own products to promote), but that WWE Championship is the biz's holy grail.

Incredibly, select ghost title wins, surprise challenges on episodes of Raw and cracking storylines that piggy-backed on someone else's gold-laden work feature here. Well played to anyone who remembers each and every single one of them.

There's a lot to get through starring names as varied as Triple H, Kevin Owens and Steve Austin to Mustafa Ali, Keith Lee and even Stephanie McMahon. Check out these long-buried title tilts that rarely (if ever) get spoken about today.

Oh what might've been for Mustafa Ali.

Who knows for sure whether or not Ali would’ve received the same WWE Title push as Kofi Kingston had he not been injured heading into Elimination Chamber 2019 then missed out on a star-studded SmackDown gauntlet bout. There's a chance Vince McMahon would've gone cold on thoughts of the high-flyer in that main event pack during WrestleMania season anyway, but we'll never know.

Ali did face Daniel Bryan and Kevin Owens in a Triple Threat at Fastlane, at least, and that's a true forgotten gem looking back. Earlier in the show, McMahon teased Kingston with title dreams before whipping them away from him and placing the New Day man in a handicap situation against The Bar instead.

That call paved the way for Mustafa to challenge Bryan alongside KO, and he entered a simply sparkling performance throughout the entire bout.

Ali’s DDT on Bryan to the floor was amazing, and his 450 splash on the ring apron looked sore as hell. This was the kind of dynamic action people would come to expect from AEW main events by the year's end, but it was less common to see Cruiserweight stylings in WWE headliners at that point.

Afterwards, 'KofiMania' gripped the wrestling world like a fever worth having, and Ali's brief flirtation with the top table was totally forgotten about. He'd go on to head up Retribution the following year, but Mustafa's WWE run was never the same again.

He'll always have Fastlane 2019, eh? Not that most remember it.