3. Shane McMahon Retiring The Title
But perhaps the most damaging development for the European Championship came during Shane McMahons reign of 1999. Having won the title from X-Pac in a feud that did much to restore an element of prestige to the title, all of that good work was then undone as Shane OMac retired the belt in order to go down in history as an undefeated champion. Having a Superstar show such disregard for the importance of the title is detrimental enough, but for the Superstar in question to be little more than a part-time talent is even worse still. Again, you can see what the idea was here. That kind of arrogance was a sure-fire way to give McMahon some heat, but the long-term impact inflicted on the title itself meant that this move undoubtedly did more bad than good. That wasnt the worst of it though. Just over a month down the line, McMahon simply let Mideon have the title after he found it in the retired champions bag. While the nature of professional wrestling has sometimes brought into question the legitimacy of competing for championships, this was a whole new low. "Retiring" the title and then allowing it to change hands without even staging a match confirmed the European Championship as an essentially meaningless belt.