10 Reversed WWE Title Changes
Not every WWE title change is permanent
3. Greg Valentine - WWE Championship (1981)
Was there any WWE star surlier than Greg Valentine? Short and stocky with a face cut from granite, The Hammer is, quite frankly, the sort of bloke who’s not afraid to eat a packet of crisps while sitting on the toilet.
In his day, Valentine was typically in the championship mix and held both the WWE Tag Team and Intercontinental titles.
He never held the WWE Title, but in a fleeting moment of confusion, it appeared that he had done it in one of the strangest ways possible.
Valentine was throwing down with then-champion Bob Backlund on the October 19, 1981, Madison Square Garden house show, when he took Backlund for a ride with the airplane spin.
Bob’s legs hit the official, knocking him down, before Backlund then fell on top of Valentine, with the groggy ref counting the pin.
The Hammer then jumped up and began celebrating as if he had made the cover and the ref (still shaking those cobwebs loose) went along with it and awarded him the title.
It was promptly taken away from him after a post-match inquisition and a rematch was booked for WWE’s next visit to the World’s Most Famous Arena (which Backlund won).
