20 Must See Moments From The 100 New RAW Episodes Added To WWE Network

16. Triple H Is Handed The Big Gold Belt - 2/9/02

triple h bischoff title
network.wwe.com

The end of the Monday Night Wars saw the World Wrestling Federation suddenly in possession of two world championships, a nonsensical situation at best. This was rectified by unifying the straps, with Chris Jericho famously becoming the first Undisputed World Champion. The title would change hands fairly frequently, until it was won by Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2002. 

Lesnar would soon become exclusive to SmackDown (in many ways the better show at the time), meaning that Eric Bischoff and RAW were left without a world title to call their own. Eric's solution? Bring back the World Heavyweight Championship from WCW, the Big Gold Belt, and have it exclusive to RAW.

Not a bad idea at all, I'm sure you'll agree. RAW was also loaded with talent, so a tournament to decide the champion would have made for great TV. What's that you say? There wasn't a tournament? How did Bischoff crown a champion then?

He merely handed Triple H the World Heavyweight Championship. A memorable moment for sure, if only because it beggars belief to this very day.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.