The History of the WWE Championship

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This article is about the DVD. For a detailed history of past title holders, see List of WWE Champions, List of WWE Championship reigns by length, or List of top WWE Champions by combined length.

The History of the WWE Championship is a 3 disc DVD set that was released by World Wrestling Entertainment on September 5, 2006. This was the first WWE DVD to include fan participation as fans were asked to vote for their favorite championship matches on WWE.com. The DVD is hosted by Jim Ross. It has received criticism from some reviewers on Amazon.com due to the fact that many of the matches featured are already on other WWE DVD releases.

Contents

[edit] Disc 1 Matches

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Ivan Koloff vs Pedro Morales

[edit] Bruno Sammartino vs Killer Kowalski

  • Fought April 29, 1974 at Madison Square Garden.
  • Match edited for time reasons. Ends in double disqualification.

[edit] Bruno Sammartino vs "Superstar" Billy Graham

  • Fought April 30, 1977 in Baltimore, Maryland.
  • Graham wins the WWWF Championship.
  • Graham pinned Sammartino by using the turnbuckles for extra leverage. The referee did not notice this and counted the pinfall.
  • Graham becomes the longest reigning heel champion in WWE history.

[edit] "Superstar" Billy Graham vs Bob Backlund

  • Match took place February 20, 1978 at Madison Square Garden.
  • Backlund wins the WWWF Championship. The referee did not see Graham drape his foot across the bottom rope.
  • Closing moments shown. The footage is taken from the original "History of the WWF Heavyweight Championship" tape, complete with commentary by Craig DeGeorge, Johnny Valiant and Bobby Heenan.
  • Although Backlund briefly lost his title to Antonio Inoki in 1979, the title change has never been recognized by Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation, and is not acknowledged on the DVD or the title's history.

[edit] Bob Backlund vs Greg Valentine

  • Steel cage match which took place January 16, 1982 at the The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Backlund won after piledriving Valentine and exiting the cage door.
  • The footage is taken from the original "History of the WWF Heavyweight Championship" tape, once again with commentary by DeGeorge, Valiant and Heenan.

[edit] Bob Backlund vs Sgt. Slaughter

  • Fought May 23, 1983 at Madison Square Garden. Backlund wins by disqualification (when Slaughter used his riding crop to strike Backlund).
  • Prior to the match, footage from Slaughter's earlier attack on Backlund (which aired in syndication) was shown to provide background for the match.
  • Backlund loses the title to The Iron Sheik seven months later.

[edit] Hulk Hogan vs The Iron Sheik

  • Took place January 23, 1984 at Madison Square Garden.
  • Hogan won the match in 5:40 to become the ninth WWF Champion; this first reign lasted four years and 12 days.
  • Second runner-up in Pro Wrestling Illustrated "Match of the Year" voting.
  • The first of seven matches on the DVD involving Hulk Hogan; the most matches for any wrestler featured on the DVD.

[edit] Hulk Hogan vs King Kong Bundy

  • WrestleMania 2 tri-main event, fought inside a steel cage April 7, 1986 in Los Angeles, California.
  • Hogan retains the title by climbing over the cage.
  • This is to date the only time in WrestleMania history that the WWE Championship was at stake in a steel cage.
  • Unlike recent WWE DVD releases, Jesse Ventura's commentary is included in this match and all other matches he did commentary on for the DVD.

[edit] Hulk Hogan vs "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff

  • Steel cage match fought December 14, 1986 in Hartford, Connecticut. Aired January 3, 1987 (the date acknowledged on the DVD) on Saturday Night's Main Event.
  • Hogan won the match after escaping over the top. As with the WrestleMania 2 match, Hogan also attacked Heenan inside the cage.
  • The match had been declared a draw after both men climbed out opposite sides of the cage and were ruled to have landed on the floor at the same time. Video replays, which were included in the original broadcast (to show the kayfabe "inconclusiveness"), were not included on the DVD.

[edit] Hulk Hogan vs André the Giant

[edit] Hulk Hogan vs André The Giant

  • Aired live on NBC's The Main Event; took place February 5, 1988 at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana.
  • André wins the title after referee Earl Hebner — who is later found to be an imposter, paid off by Ted DiBiase — counts Hogan's shoulders to the mat for three, even though Hogan's shoulder is up at two. André then awards the title to DiBiase (per an earlier agreement between the two), calling it the "World Tag Team Championship" by mistake.
  • The match was voted "Match Of The Year" by Pro Wrestling Illustrated. The match also helped the show draw a 15.2 television rating which is the highest recorded rating in wrestling history as of 2006.

[edit] Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs Hulk Hogan

  • Fought April 2, 1989 at Trump Plaza (Atlantic City), Atlantic City, New Jersey.
  • Hogan wins the title, becoming just the second two-time WWF champion.
  • Was the first runner-up in Pro Wrestling Illustrated "Match Of The Year" voting.
  • Hulk Hogan wrote in his autobiography that Savage was suffering from a ruptured bursa sac before WrestleMania V. Although Hogan was worried that Savage would not be healthy in time for WrestleMania, Savage assured him that he would be ready.

[edit] Disc 2 Matches

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior

  • WrestleMania VI match fought April 1, 1990 in Toronto, Ontario.
  • Warrior pinned Hogan after Hogan did not realise that Warrior had moved away after trying to perform a legdrop. Warrior capitlised with a Warrior Splash to pin Hogan and win both titles (this was for the World Wrestling Federation and Intercontinental Championships)
  • The Ultimate Warrior becomes the first man to hold both the Intercontinental and World titles at the same time. Although he would be forced to vacate the Intercontinental Title, his World Title reign would last almost 10 months.
  • Voted "Match Of The Year" by Pro Wrestling Illustrated.
  • Unlike Wrestlemainia V when Jesse Ventura provided biased heel commentary during Hulk Hogan's match with Randy Savage, Ventura took a neutral approach to his commentary in this match, even praising Hogan's sportsmanship at the end of the match when he handed the title to the Ultimate Warrior.

[edit] Bret Hart vs Owen Hart

  • Steel cage match fought at SummerSlam, which took place August 29, 1994 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
  • This was the second to last match Bret and Owen had against each other.
  • The match was given a rare 5 Star Match rating by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

[edit] Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels

[edit] Shawn Michaels vs Mankind

[edit] Shawn Michaels vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

  • WrestleMania XIV match fought March 29, 1998 at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Austin won the title when special guest referee Mike Tyson counted a quick three on Michaels.
  • This was the first of Austin's six WWF Championship reigns, and Michaels' last match until 2002.
  • Voted first runner up in Pro Wrestling Illustrated "Match Of The Year" voting.

[edit] Disc 3 Matches

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Triple H vs Cactus Jack

  • Street Fight fought January 23, 2000 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, as part of the Royal Rumble.
  • Triple H pins Cactus Jack (following a Pedigree onto a pile of thumbtacks) to retain the title. During the match, Triple H was suplexed onto a wooden board and a piece of it became lodged in his leg; it was later removed.
  • This was one of the last pay-per-view matches Mick Foley (here as Cactus Jack) would wrestle prior to his first retirement.

[edit] The Rock vs Kurt Angle vs Triple H

  • Triple Threat Match fought August 27, 2000 at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina as part of SummerSlam.
  • The Rock retained the title after pinning Triple H. The finish: Kurt Angle struck Triple H with a sledgehammer and the Rock — after throwing Angle out of the ring — hit a prone Triple H with a People's Elbow.
  • In his book "It's True! It's True!" Angle wrote that, although everything that happened both before and during the match was written as a work, he did suffer a legit concussion that would affect him for weeks afterward.
  • The aftermath of the match, which saw Angle carry Stephanie McMahon backstage after Triple H accidentally struck her is not shown on the DVD.

[edit] The Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

  • No Disqualification Match fought at WrestleMania X-Seven, held April 1, 2001 at the Reliant Astrodome in Houston, Texas.
  • Austin — with outside help from Vince McMahon — defeats The Rock to win his fifth WWE Championship.
  • Until Austin turned heel toward the end of the match, the match marked only the fourth face vs face confrontation in WrestleMania history joining Hulk Hogan vs the Ultimate Warrior (WrestleMania VI), Bret Hart vs "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (WrestleMania VIII), and Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels (WrestleMania XII).
  • Total time of match was 28 minutes and 8 seconds.
  • WrestleMania X-Seven marked the last for The Rock as a full time wrestler. Following this title loss, The Rock would wrestle only part time from August 2001 to March 2004, when he retired to concentrate on acting full time.

[edit] Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Chris Jericho

[edit] The Undertaker vs The Rock vs Kurt Angle

  • Triple Threat Match at Vengeance 2002 fought July 21, 2002 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.
  • The Rock pins Kurt Angle to win his record seventh championship; the Undertaker — even though he was not pinned — lost the championship.
  • This match also saw each wrestler use one of the opponents signature moves. One example would be the Rock giving the Undertaker a Chokeslam.

[edit] The Rock vs Brock Lesnar

[edit] Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit

  • Fought as part of the 2003 Royal Rumble, January 19, 2003 at the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Angle retains via Ankle Lock in a technical wrestling match that would become very highly regarded in WWE history.
  • This marked Benoit's first WWE Championship opprortunity since the 2001 King Of The Ring.
  • Despite the fact that he lost, Benoit received a standing ovation from the crowd. While it is not included on the History Of The WWE Championship DVD, it is shown for a short time and talked about by Benoit on his DVD.

[edit] John Cena vs Chris Jericho vs Christian

  • Triple Threat Match fought at Vengeance 2005, held June 26, 2005 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
  • Cena retains the title by pinning Christian.
  • This was Cena's first title defense on pay per view as a member of the Raw brand.
  • This match marked the third WWE Championship Triple Threat Match in the history of the Vengeance pay per view, joining the match already mentioned in this article as well as Vengeance 2003 when Kurt Angle defeated Brock Lesnar and the Big Show to win the title.

[edit] Extra feature

[edit] Timeline

Disc 1 includes a Championship timeline. Because film/video footage has either been lost or otherwise unavailable for inclusion on the DVD, summaries are given for the following title changes:

  • Buddy Rogers vs Bruno Sammartino (Sammartino wins the title, forcing Rogers to submit in a backbreaker).
  • Bruno Sammartino vs Ivan Koloff (Koloff won the title, and the result was not announced to the stunned MSG crowd).
  • Pedro Morales vs Stan "The Man" Stasiak (Stasiak wins the title, much in the same way Morales won the title).
  • Stan "The Man" Stasiak vs Bruno Sammartino (Sammartino regains the title).

Starting with the Sammartino-"Superstar" Billy Graham title match (where Graham won the title), the closing moments of every title change is included up to Edge's title victory on July 3, 2006.

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