8 WWE World Title Changes That Were Going To Happen (But Didn't)

2. Ted DiBiase Defeating Randy Savage - WrestleMania IV

Batista 2014
WWE.com

When people talk about the greatest wrestlers to never win a major World Championship, one of the names who so often comes up in those conversations is Ted DiBiase.

Granted, DiBiase has the rare honour of having a title belt created solely for him - that being his iconic Million Dollar Championship - but that only came about because he'd lost out on winning the WWF Championship at WrestleMania IV. And as the story goes, the Million Dollar Man was indeed originally meant to emerge victorious at the 1988 edition of 'Mania.

The reason that DiBiase didn't win the WWF Championship on that March 27 night, is largely down to the Honky Tonk Man.

Previously, Honky Tonk was booked to lose his Intercontinental Championship to Randy Savage on a February 1988 episode of The Main Event, but Honky baulked at losing the title in front of such a huge television audience. At that point in time, Honky was in talks to jump to Ted Turner's emerging WCW. With a ludicrous TV viewership of 33 million viewers for The Main Event, the last thing Honky wanted to see was him losing the title and potentially losing some of his lustre ahead of moving to a rival company.

Honky Tonk Man did lose on The Main Event that night, but it was by count-out. With Vince McMahon looking to appease Savage and keep the peace, the call was then made for the Macho Man to win the WWF Championship at WrestleMania IV - with Ted DiBiase losing to Savage in the title tournament finals, rather than the original plan of DiBiase beating the Macho Man and becoming the WWF Champion.

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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 day job, 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. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.