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

1. Chris Jericho Defeating Kevin Owens - WrestleMania 33

Batista 2014
WWE.com

While Chris Jericho lost against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 33, the result was originally meant to be different, and the stakes much higher than the United States Championship.

Going into that 'Mania, Jericho was the US Champ who'd previously been viciously attacked by his BFF-turned-rival KO. But originally, this bout was intended to main event the Showcase of the Immortals in the guise of Universal Champion Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho - and Jericho was to walk out of WrestleMania 33 as the new Universal Champion.

As Jericho himself has explained in recent years, Vince McMahon at one point informed him that he'd be taking the Universal Title from Owens to close out the 2017 outing for WWE's Granddaddy of Them All. In typical Vince fashion though, three days later those plans were completely changed.

That change of heart from Vince saw Goldberg instead take the Universal Championship from Owens in just 22 seconds at March's Fastlane PPV - for the purpose of setting up Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar for that title at WrestleMania.

For Jericho and Owens, their planned 'Mania match was now the second contest on the card and held for the Raw brand's secondary title. And in addition to these changes, Jericho has also talked about how there was at one point a plan for him to go on to drop his WrestleMania-won Universal Championship to Lesnar at that year's SummerSlam.

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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.