8 Times Major WWE Champions Were Forced To Vacate Titles

2. Hulk Hogan Stripped Of WWE Championship During Feud With The Undertaker - December 1991

Just like in 2004, the festive period of 1991 featured another title controversy, as the WWE Championship was vacant until the Royal Rumble of 1992. It had come about due to a series of controversial matches between Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker, with several unfair endings leaving WWE President Jack Tunney to take matters into his own hands. After Tunney watched Hogan beat The Undertaker with the aid of his own ashes from the infamous urn, Tunney had seen enough. He stripped Hogan of the championship and created a historic scenario that the winner of the Royal Rumble would win the belt - the only time this has ever happened. Both Hogan and Undertaker entered the Rumble, but they wouldn't win the match. Despite being the third man to enter the match, Ric Flair outlasted everyone else and held on to become the new WWE Champion.