7 Wrestlers Who Were The First To Win Equal Championships

5. Chris Benoit - WWE & World Tag Team

Chris Benoit Tag Team Champion 2002
network.wwe.com

Chris Benoit doesn't have much of a tag team reputation, but it is 'The Wolverine' who holds the unique distinction of being the first man to win both the WWE and the World Tag Team Championship. The latter has a history that stretches all the way back to 1971, when Luke Graham and Tarzan Tyler defeated Dick the Bruiser and The Sheik to become the inaugural champions.

Benoit won those titles alongside Chris Jericho in May 2001, defeating Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H in arguably the greatest RAW match of all time. Benoit had to wait three more years before winning the titles for a second time, doing so alongside Edge in April 2004.

The WWE Tag Team Championship was introduced in 2002 on the SmackDown brand, and the lineage of these titles continues to this day. The final of the tournament to decide the first champions saw Benoit team with Kurt Angle to take on Edge & Rey Mysterio.

If Edge & Mysterio had been victorious it would be the 'Rated-R Superstar's name at the top of this entry. It was Edge who tapped out to end the match however, allowing Angle & Benoit to become the first champions. Benoit thus became the first man to win both tag team titles in WWE.

Advertisement
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.