11 Best WWE Title Changes At SummerSlam

Where did Brock Lesnar's title win last night rank?

by Scott Carlson

SummerSlam is often billed as €œThe Biggest Party of the Summer,€ and Sunday night€™s 27th installment was no exception. After a jaw-dropping PPV that saw three titles change hands, a shocking turn and a melee that 20 lumberjacks couldn€™t contain, it€™s safe to say that anyone who plunked down $9.99 got their money€™s worth. Fans saw the Intercontinental and Divas Championships trade hands in the first two matches, bringing the total number of title changes in SummerSlam€™s 27-year history to more than 30. Then the PPV got to the main event and tacked one more massive title change onto the pile. Throughout SummerSlam€™s history, some of these matches have been truly memorable affairs €“ the sight of the new champ hoisting the title high a visual that sticks with fans for years afterward. These selections are not based solely (or even mainly) on match quality, but also important the title change was going forward. Did it create a new star? Did it cause a major shift in storylines going forward? These are the title changes that matter €“ the ones whose reverberations are felt well after the match ended. Where did tonight€™s title changes rank? Read on to find out.

Honorable Mention: Million Dollar Championship (1991): Virgil vs. Ted DiBiase

While the Million Dollar Championship wasn€™t an officially sanctioned WWF title, it still was defended from time to time and even was stolen once. When Virgil finally had enough of Ted DiBiase€™s abuse and finally stood up for himself, it led to a SummerSlam showdown for DiBiase€™s prized possession. The match itself was pretty pedestrian compared to others (including another title change on the same 1991 card), but the crowd reaction throughout was off the charts. People bought into the entire angle and were firmly behind Virgil, making his victory and capturing the belt a really special moment. Additional honorable mentions go to 1989€™s Intercontinental Championship match between champ €œRavishing€ Rick Rude and The Ultimate Warrior, and 1997€™s IC match between Owen Hart and Steve Austin, which is more infamous for how it altered Austin€™s career trajectory than for being a great title change. Even Sunday night€™s Intercontinental Championship match between Dolph Ziggler and The Miz deserves a nod for giving Ziggler another go as a champ.
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.