 What's good, George Boar Ross back again with another video. So we're going to check out random champions title runs out of nowhere. Now, sometimes WWE, mainly Vince McMahon and his ultimate decision back in the day. And a lot of times, not even back in the day, he still has some, some creative input as well, even now. But there'll be times where he just pulls a swerve and he'll give someone a title, a title championship or not even a title opportunity like a championship win that doesn't really make sense on paper, but only to swerve the fans. And a lot of times it's kind of confusing. Sometimes it can be interesting and lead to something great. But a lot of times when you really look at it, someone may have been a champion for a while and all of a sudden their championship rain ends to something random. Someone randomly who's never been built up or or even seen as a viable champion at the time, built up to be like one ends up winning the championship or whatever they're, you know, whatever match they're in. And it's really just kind of Vince trying to swerve the audience and thinking one thing, you know, audience think, you know, one thing's going to happen and it doesn't. So it's it's really for Vince's enjoyment a lot of the time. So we're going to check out some of these instances, instances that where Vince was like, you know what, I'm I know what's best. I know what's better for the fans and they think one thing's going to happen. But it's not. Let's check this out, man. Sometimes a title rain makes all the sense in the world, whether that be because it's part of a long built up story, such as was the case with Hangman Page and AEW or because the person holding the title is the undisputed king of the company. Yeah, such as been true with Roman Reigns in WWE. On occasion, though, a new champion seemingly comes out of nowhere in the most random of ways. What are the biggest examples of this? Excuse me while I rip this out. Fuck you. That's exactly what we're going to be looking at today. And where better to start than with the time Vince McMahon became the World Champion with the. Yes, the company we both had on both got on two rags. Oh, man, which once prided itself on being the rebellious, beating hard of the wrestling industry had fallen hard by the point the mid 2000s came around. And that was because after it went out of business in 2001, McMahon himself bought it up and pretty much killed any remaining goodwill it had left with fans to the infamous invasion angle. But as they say, time heals all wounds. And so when the extreme brand was revived once more for a special one night stand pay-per-view in 2005, for a brief moment, at least, it looked as though things might be back on track. That was until the ECW revival made its way to the sci-fi network, of course, because there in their weekly TV show, it quickly became apparent that this was going to be nothing more than a developmental show for WWE's main roster. That's literally what it became. It wasn't about the essence of ECW. It was just about seeing how Vince could get some people, you know, on television in a, like you said, like he said, a developmental role. It wasn't like anything that ECW stood for. It was it wasn't even ECW light. It was the name ECW, but it was Smackdown and Raw light. That's all it was. Like this was, I guess you consider, you can consider it NXT before NXT was really a thing. So one which if you want to compare the likes of the big show, Bobby Lashley, even though it was in my opinion better, some of the more hardcore originals, the company was put on still though it could have been worse after all, they at least were actual wrestlers. So when they inevitably had their runs with the ECW World title, there was some sense of realism to the whole thing. It's just a shame. The same couldn't be said in April 29th, 2007's backlash then as it was here in a three-on-one handicap match that the boss with the help of both his son Shane and Umaga pinned then ECW champ Lashley to take the belt home for himself. Obviously, then this upset the hardcore faithful to no end. Of course, and they let Vince know this when he showed up on the next episode of ECW TV with the title and do rag in tow. But why wouldn't they boo the booking here as this was the belt which had once meant so much when it was being held by the likes of Terry Funk, Taz and Tommy Dreamer. So to see it around the waist of the man who stood as the absolute antithesis to extreme, it felt like the company was dying in front of their eyes all over again. And as it happened, this would mark the beginning of the end for WWE CW in many ways with it getting scrapped altogether just a few years later. But that wouldn't be the only time Vince McMahon made a controversial decision to book himself as world champion because he'd already done so eight years previously when he became WWF World Champion. That's right. It was back in 1999 that Vince got involved in an on-screen feud with then champion Triple H and it was during this feud that he was even convinced to have a series of one-on-one matches with the game, the first of which came on the East September 14th episode of SmackDown. Of course, this wouldn't be any normal match though. No, it would be for the world title itself. Why had Triple H put his belt on the line against his boss? Well, because he believed there was no chance in hell. Of course, we're going to lose it to him. But what he hadn't counted on was the fact that by that point Steve Austin had come to an agreement with McMahon where the two were briefly on the same page and with Austin also hating the game to incentivize to get involved and the bout and help the CEO of the company to score the winning pinfall and that was how at the height of the attitude era, yes, McMahon became WWF champion. Sure, it was a screwy victory and so it wasn't like Triple H was completely buried, but even still, this was a pretty bad idea all around. And what made it even worse was the fact that Vince immediately vacated the title on the episode of Raw thereafter, meaning the whole thing was pointless as he never actually put anyone over. Yeah, honestly, it was an idea where the events grew so so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to learn he was still the head booker in New York at this time, which is, you know, which is, uh, it makes a lot of sense. It didn't. It makes a lot of sense. Just as we shouldn't be surprised to learn he'd do the exact same thing when he jumped over to WCW and made himself their world champion in 2000. Now brace yourself because we're about to jump into WCW 2000, probably the worst period for any major wrestling company in history. Well, some of the absolute whoppers, that's wild winning the big one or Goldberg refusing to follow the script bad enough, arguably nothing over this 12 month period was worse than the time Russo himself held the big gold belt above his head. Sure, like Vince McMahon, he'd win it in a screwy way when he was speared through the cage by Goldberg during a steel cage bout with then champion Booker T, meaning he unintentionally exited first, but that didn't change the fact that the most vilified man in the entire industry was now in possession of the prize once held by the likes of Harley Race, Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes. And so like with Vince McMahon, it is just crazy how much he sabotaged WCW, bro. There's a it's not just him. There was a multitude of things that was, you know, pretty much burying them like multiple, multiple things that caused the death of WCW. Not when just only him is there were some other egos at play. And then on top of that WWE, they just they had it. They had it in the bag. Just better on screen television and stuff that some went for the most part made a lot more sense. And there's all that much worse when only two days later Russo vacated the belt, meaning fans would never get the satisfaction of seeing a baby face beat him up in order to win it back for the side of the good guys. So really then the only purpose this one served was to fuel the ego ego maniac and send WCW spiraling even further into its death. But not all random title reigns are this damaging to the company involved. No, some are just there to create a nice feel good moment as was the case when Bret Hart won the United States title in 2010. But wait, how did this one come about? After all, by 2010, the hitman had long retired after a severe concussion picked up in 2001 left him unable to get cleared by any doctor under the sun. Well, the answer to this was there was a loophole in that as long as he didn't take any bumps Yeah, could actually still be booked to step inside the squared circle. That's pretty much what it was. That was how we got a situation where on May 17th of the former year, the Miz was forced to put his US belt up against a member of the Hart family with him at this time and no doubt expecting this would either be Tyson Kidd or Davey Boy Smith, Jr. How surprised he must have been then when Bret Hart came out to the ring and accepted the challenge obviously surprised enough that he was so thrown off his game he'd lose in short order after tapping out to a sharp shooter. Yes, just like that. The hitman had gold around his waist again. It's cool moment. Got one last chance to celebrate. It was cool moment. And it's like I said, getting in the video. Sometimes it it it may not make a liquor sense that that don't make a liquor sense, but it's a cool moment. You can kind of work with it. You can kind of, you know, bypassed just the nonsensical of it of him going out there and being the one to challenge the Miz for it. But who's going to complain? It's a legend. It's a goat. So some of them you can get away with some of them. You can't unfortunately though. This was another example of a random title reign, which was short-lived because with him unable to have a full match where he'd be required to sell for his opponent, Brett realized he couldn't fulfill his duties as champion going forward. And so that's why he chose to vacate the title the following week on raw. But for as sad as it was, this was so short-lived. It wasn't as if he was the only legend of a prior generation who'd get to win a title during this period and that was because just a few years prior to this, Ric Flair was fulfilling a lifelong ambition when he got to team up with his hero, Roddy Piper to win the World Tag Team title. I forgot this even happened. That's right. It was at November 6th, 2006 Cyber Sunday that Hot Rod was one of three options fans got the chance to vote on when they were asked to pick a partner for the nature. Would y'all want to see like a another Cyber Sunday Blondie? She Blondie I'm recording. Y'all can't see it, but she's like right under my desk. I'm going to take you out once I finish recording Blondie calm down. But have y'all would y'all like to see like another version of Cyber Sunday to come back to WWE? I think that would actually be kind of interesting like to I don't know if they would call it Cyber Sunday or whatever. Obviously most of the pay-per-views are on Saturday now, but basically a pay-per-view where the fans get to actually vote on certain matches and stipulations. Let me know if y'all would be interested in that since I mean WWE is all about their social media presence now and social media is the biggest has ever been. I think I'll be actually pretty cool if they did something like that boy during his tag team title bout against then champions the Spirit Squad and when Piper won out over both Sergeant Slaughter and Dusty Rhodes then Flair was overjoyed as after a fight which lasted for just under seven minutes he'd find himself one half of the new tag team champions. That's crazy. Yes, in a moment no one could have foreseen ahead of time two of the 80s most prominent figures were now holding gold all over again in the middle of the 2000s and they looks to be having a great time in doing so. But while this run wouldn't last for long the count of them losing to rated RKO a week later it still gave fans a fun moment of nostalgia for a week or so at least it's just a shame the same can't be said for another random tag team title rain then as we're pretty sure no one was clamoring to see the alleged dream team of Kenzo Suzuki and Renee Dupree take on the gold in late 2004. Definitely don't even remember this valued the tag team division as a whole was at this point we can't exactly call this one two out of the blue as it was the period where makeshift duos were the order of the day and of those teams who weren't just randomly thrown together and had at least some kind of thematic connection well those wouldn't be much better after all need we remind you of the horror that was the likes of Deuce and Domino for the Bastion Brothers neither of those teams which serves as the most random WWE tag team title run of the mid 2000s in the end as they each fit together to some degree when it came to Suzuki and Dupree though they couldn't have been more ill-suited to one another and that's because one was a French Canadian who'd come up in the New York system and who was pretty much a poster boy for the kind of sports entertainment figure Vince McMahon wanted while the other was a man whose prior success had been out east in Japan and sure there's an argument that opposites attracted here is on September 7th of 2004 the payor were able to be thrown in to win the blue grand version of the tag team goal but that doesn't make the whole thing feel any less random hell even as they were winning they clearly had no chemistry together and this lack of chemistry would only continue on as they defended said belts across the weeks and months which followed really were baffled the duo held on to their titles for as long as they did because it was like watching chalk and cheese work together but somehow they managed this and maybe that's a testament to the individual skill of each that well it's either that or a condemnation of how bad the tag division was in the mid 2000 definitely is the latter not exactly sure which yes outside of a couple of notable periods tag team wrestling has never been a big focus for Vince McMahon nope and that's not the only division he seemingly had no interest in either despite repeated attempts to revive it over the years when it comes to the cruiserweight division however they never even got to have that high point on the main roster and to make matters worse their low points also time horn swagger became champion now we're sure you can understand the kind of joke the boss was probably trying to go for here the cruiserweights are too small so let's have a literal literal person hold on to the belt for a while sure it's not particularly funny but then this is Vince McMahon we're dealing with yeah and that's not one point horn swagger was his illegitimate son or some shit it was just it was yeah yeah against horn swagger now he'd serve the purpose on TV at this point as a manager to Finley someone who often helped the Irishman to pick up a screwy win whenever he was struggling to best his opponent but when that role was then extended to have him be the de facto best cruiserweight performer in all of New York it started to stretch itself a bit thin yeah after all let's not forget that this was a period where the likes of Hoven to Guerrera Billy Kidman and Gregory Helms were working for the company so it wasn't like the talent wasn't there but as has always been the case with WWE's chief if your height starts with a five and you're not very mysterious then you're not going to get anywhere in his company yep I can't I'm 5'8 man so and I'm not very mysterious so me making it in WWE is a no well I don't know maybe it'd be a little bit different I'd have to do a lot of flippy flips my finishing move would involve a steel chair so I get disqualified every time so pretty quickly each of these performers were made to look like jobbers in comparison to the real heavyweight main eventers and that's what led to a situation where the cruiserweight title became a complete afterthought with no consideration being given to who was holding it at the best of times even then though it still came as a surprise to many when Hornswago pinned Jamie Noble to take home the gold at July 22nd 2007's Great American Bash as at this point he was barely even considered an active wrestler on the roster and to make matters worse not only would this be a random title reign it would also be the last one the division ever saw until 2016 as it was in September of the same year that the belt was formally retired when Vicky Guerrero deemed the Wisconsin native incapable of carrying on his duties as champion anymore that said for as crazy as it was at the time even the saga of Dylan Postal's cruiserweight champion may come second in terms of complete randomness when compared to another who held that same belt a few years prior who are we talking about here why Chavo Classic of course yes despite having a storied career which saw him spend the 70s and 80s wrestling for territories such as mid-south wrestling the AWA Championship wrestling from Florida and all Japan pro wrestling what most younger fans probably know Chavo Guerrero senior four nowadays is the brief run he had in 2004 as a member of the SmackDown roster and that's because after coming in then to help out his son Chavo Junior during his feud with Eddie Guerrero the El Paso native decided to stick around with him differentiating himself from his offspring at this point by referring to himself as Chavo Classic of course now that he decided he was staying on the roster a little while Chavo Classic had no intention of being an afterthought and that was why he started staking his claim at some gold soon thereafter what would this gold be well for him it could be nothing other than the belt his son was holding already and that was the cruiserweight title sure for fans watching it might have felt surreal to see a 55 year old man start challenging for a belt his offspring had made his own and that sense of the whole thing being a strange nightmare only got more intense when on the May 18th episode of Smackdown that year Chavo Classic actually pinned his son to become the oldest cruiserweight champion in the company's history. That's right. In 2004 Chavo Guerrero Senior was the de facto best cruiserweight in the world and if that doesn't make you wonder whether life is real we don't know what will but this wasn't even the weirdest part of the whole thing as during his subsequent 28 day run on top the former 28 day world heavyweight champion actually scored victories over both John Cena and Jacqueline all before then dropping the belt to Rey Mysterio that's crazy 15. Honestly, if you told us this one was all something we made up in our heads, we might believe you if it wasn't already there on film. Yeah. And the same thing could be said for an even wilder title run which came over a decade later as this one. This one not only was it random not only was it forced because they were trying to tap into that Indian market and we could see right through and we knew what they were doing and they didn't even succeed on that. He wouldn't a draw like they thought he was going to be not only that this was channel turning like just eyesore like when you saw him walk out you just turned the channel like you know what I don't fucking want to see gender mahal as the WWE champion. I'm I'm changing the channel bro. This was a low point in SmackDown. I know he has some fans out there. Congrats. You guys were happy. The rest of us were like No, this is awful. It was in 2017 that in one of the most surreal booking Oh my God became WWE champion. Quick imagine going back to 2016 and telling yourself one of New York's biggest jobbers would soon be dethroning Randy No one would believe you prize in the company you'd probably laugh at yourself and call yourself crazy. And that's because no one could have ever foreseen a future where gender mahal the man whose most notable moment prior to this was as part of a comedy undercard trio in 3MB would be in a position to even challenge for the belt. But this is exactly what happened when upon winning a random number one contender ship out on the April 18th episode of SmackDown the Calgary native suddenly found himself next in line. And while this victory came completely out of nowhere it paled in comparison to how random it felt just one month later on May 21st at Backlash when he not only stepped in the ring to square off against the Viper but he actually beat him. Yeah, somehow gender mahal had become WWE Champion. I am already the greatest WWE Champion of all time. Unfortunately though it quickly became evident during his subsequent time with the belt that he wasn't quite ready for the big time with many fans claiming this to be one of the worst championship runs of the modern era. Bax. That said for as out there as this title run was there may still be one rain with the top belt and here's the thing I don't want people to think I'm just hating on Jenner to hate on them. Like I said at the beginning of the video no one had ever looked at gender mahal nothing more than a job or a J.A.G. There was never this Cinderella story that all of a sudden he's starting to get wins. I know he had changed his look he had looked completely different. He looked like a Vince McMahon guy like Vince McMahon would want to push him but he never did even when he changed his look the difference between him and Drew is Drew he was supposed to be the chosen one that didn't work out he left came back made a real name for himself went to NXT went back into WWE on the main roster and you can tell he had star written all over him and they were booking him for the most part like a very big deal gender mahal comes back gets a little bit more buff a little bit more swore a little bit more rocket they still treated him like a J.A.G. and when he came back there was never any instance of gender mahal being something more than that maybe a mid card ceiling that's it so that's why it's hard to buy into him winning the championship when all of a sudden now he he's able to beat Randy Orton and then when you really look behind the curtain on this whole situation the only reason why they put the title on him is to capitalize on the Indian market that's it and it still didn't work that's why people look at this title reign as complete hot garbage because you literally through the month that the belt on him to capitalize to make some money that and it still didn't work there was no buildup to it there was no organic a month two months of him actually winning matches actually looking like somebody important they just hey we're going to win this one random one a number one contender and then you're going to shock the whole world when you beat Randy Orton clean I believe it was clean I believe it was clean I don't think he cheated at that time I could be wrong I think I think he may have cheated that match I don't fucking remember it was awful dark days dark days in SmackDown history bro WWE which trumps it and this is because after spending years is either a mid-card singles act or tag team guy during the attitude era and beyond in 2004 Bradshaw suddenly found himself morphing into JBL and winning the WWE title now here's the thing I get everybody's like yo this was a shock to a lot of people but the thing about this and they took a very big chance some could say his matches were to be desired but I will say this his character worked him being this low it's not even low key he's like obnoxiously like he's like he shuns other people he's this rich you know guy all of a sudden from Texas he's this rich guy that shuns other people in other races you know what I'm saying it actually worked he was a great despicable disgusting heel that you wanted to see lose but it worked bro it worked himself surprisingly it worked that he had a great career after that it's easy to look back in hindsight and argue JBL was always destined to win the big one but if you were around at the time you'd know this couldn't have been further from the truth as the sweetwater native was struggling to get over so much he was actually on the verge of being cut all together mm-hmm Helen since been suggested the transformation into the JR Ewing-esque mogul was actually the last role of the dice for Bradshaw and then I could see that work then Vince McMahon was going to throw in the towel completely so it's just as well it did work as only a couple of months after debuting it he'd be challenging Eddie Guerrero for the top prize on SmackDown and actually going as far as to beat him for it of course this new title run took fans a little bit of getting used to it first as it had come so out of the world many of them must have felt like they had whiplash after all this was the same man who at the start of the year had been an entirely different character one who was primarily known for drinking heavily and teaming up with Farouk but after a while the shock started to wear off and JBL settled into what was at the time the longest run as a champion in SmackDown history and when he finally did lose it to John Cena at WrestleMania 21 a year later the whole thing would have elevated him to a point he'd be a made man thereafter yeah it worked and he wasn't the only person who became a made man after a surprising title win either though in the case of Santino Marejo Santino definitely deserves to be on this list event scene afterwards I remember watching this live his victory and subsequent success would instead see him become a mainstay as wwe's top when he became the intercontinental champion he had exactly been portrayed as a comedy guy when he first appeared on the when bro I remember watching that live and the crowd went crazy I was like yo this is actually kind of wild he became the intercontinental champion April 16 2007 episode of Raw airing live from Milan Italy as there he was basically just playing a random member of the crowd yeah but this only made it that much more impactful when Umari came out to the ring and announced he'd be putting his intercontinental title on the line against a handpicked opponent from Vince McMahon why was this well the person Vincent chosen was none other than Santino himself so when he made his way through the people and then went on to defeat the champ in short order then it fell to the Italian locals like one of their own had just done the impossible yeah of course his time went on though it became clear to all the fans that the Ontario natives real strength lie in his comedy chops and so that was why he eventually moved away from this more serious champion role into one which portrayed him as more of a bumbling goofball yeah pretty much and in some ways this makes his initial big title win feel even more out of the blue in hindsight as for any fans going back and watching it today who only know of Morella for the funny segments he was a part of seeing him defeat Umaga in a matter of minutes must have been a crazy thing to witness oh it was definitely crazy like I said I watched that live and I was like holy shit what the hell I thought it was just some random what the hell's going on beat Umaga obviously with the help of Bobby Latchley they had their thing going on but I was like yo what's going on it was a good feel moment in hindsight you know hey they probably should have did that but it was a good feel moment to set up some other stuff so but yeah comment down below let me know some other out of nowhere doesn't make sense title range can you think of that wasn't on this list that just had you scratching your head whether they were good in the end so I appreciate all love and support guys are showing on channel road to 150K and I am still young speedy you to rest in champion world please don't keep me seeing the next one peace