8 Quickest Elevations From Midcard Titles To WWE Champion

7. Bret Hart - 44 Days

Bobby Lashley
WWE.com

While Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior had previously made the jump from Intercontinental Champion to WWF World Heavyweight Champion, Bret Hart was the first to truly be fast-tracked to the biggest prize in the company after losing the IC Title.

It took Savage 299 days to become WWF Champion after dropping the company's secondary title, while Warrior won the WWF Title at a time when he still was the Intercontinental Champion.

For Hart, it was only 44 days from him losing the Intercontinental Championship to Davey Boy Smith at SummerSlam 1992, to him defeating Ric Flair at a 12 October '92 live event in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

As the steroid scandal of the time started to come to the fore, with Hulk Hogan on a leave of absence, and with the call made to take the title off Ric Flair, Vince McMahon reportedly had three people in mind to become the new WWF Champion: Bret Hart, Ultimate Warrior and Tito Santana.

Part of the reason for getting the belt off Flair was due to him being dropped on his head by Warrior, so that went against the Parts Unknown native. Given Hart's huge popularity overseas, it was he who was chosen to carry the company's top prize.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.