10 Wrestlers Who Stole Championships

The ultimate aim in professional wrestling is to win championships and they are traditionally won by pinfall or submission. At times, however, wrestlers have opted to capture a title through nefarious means and simply steal the championship. 

This is 10 Wrestlers Who Stole Championships.

10. Daniel Garcia - AEW Dynamite Diamond Ring

During MJF’s reign as the AEW American Champion (AEW International Champion), Maxwell Jacob Friedman had his Dynamite Diamond Ring stolen from him while he was in the United Kingdom. This prompted Friedman to use a pair of brass knuckles as his weapon of choice, including at All In 2024 during his title match against Will Ospreay inside Wembley Stadium.

Before MJF could use the weapon, however, he was stopped by a returning Daniel Garcia, who later revealed that he had stolen the Dynamite Diamond Ring and pawned it in Buffalo, New York. 

In reality, the ring had legitimately gone missing, so AEW thought on their feet and came up with a tried and true robbery angle. Granted, it didn’t make sense that Garcia stole it in England to fund a trip to England, but it was at least something. 

The Dynamite Diamond Ring would return later in the year, once AEW had a new one made, and MJF became a six-time Dynamite Diamond Ring holder at Worlds End 2024 when he defeated Adam Cole. MJF remains the only AEW talent to have ever held the ring since it was created in 20219. 

9. Jim Duggan - WCW World Television Championship

During the Vince Russo era of WCW, Jim Duggan was working on screen as a janitor for some reason. Whilst doing his janitorial rounds backstage in February of 2000, Hacksaw found the WCW World Television Championship in a bin, having been tossed in the trash three months earlier and 1700 miles away in Denver by Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.

Logic was already out of the window, so rather than give the belt back to Hall, or hand it over to WCW management, Duggan instead kept it for himself and defended the title regularly on WCW TV.

As champion, Duggan beat the likes of Steven Regal, Fit Finlay, and The Barbarian. Duggan then never dropped the title as WCW deactivated the belt during the Eric Bischoff/Vince Russo-led WCW reboot on April 10, 2000. 

8. Everyone - WWE Intercontinental Title before WrestleMania 31

Absolutely everybody wanted Bad News Barrett’s Intercontinental Title ahead of WrestleMania 31 despite none of the wrestlers actually winning the championship from the former Wade Barrett. Across episodes of SmackDown and Raw, R-Truth, Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper, Stardust, and even Daniel Bryan stole the belt for themselves.

The competitors were then rewarded, being added to the Intercontinental Title Ladder Match at WrestleMania 31. The widely-panned storyline did end with a feel-good moment as Daniel Bryan, who had returned from a serious neck injury only a couple of months earlier, scaled the ladder to win the Intercontinental Championship. 

Bryan’s reign would unfortunately end only a few weeks later due to concussion issues and he would retire soon after. After making a comeback in 2018, Bryan Danielson continued to wrestle, performing for WWE and then AEW until his current-last match at WrestleDream 2024. 

7. Cryme Tyme - World Tag Team Championships

In a spot that surprised few, the tag team Cryme Time committed a crime and stole Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr’s World Tag Team Titles in 2008. This ultimately earned JTG and Shad Gaspard a shot at the belts against Legacy at Unforgiven 2008.

In an 11-minute match, Cryme Tyme spent much of their time on the defensive but they did come close down the stretch after JTG trapped Cody Rhodes in an inside cradle. Shad Gaspard accidentally pushed Ted DiBiase onto Rhodes, though, reversing the pin attempt and allowing Rhodes to score the 1-2-3. 

Cryme Tyme earned title shots when not stealing championship belts as they became the number one contenders for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam 2009 courtesy of their win over the Hart Dynasty. Once again, though, Cryme Tyme failed to win the big one and they were defeated by champions Chris Jericho and Big Show (AKA Jeri-Show). 

6. Mr. Perfect & The Genius - WWE Championship

Amongst the many legitimate reasons that some wrestling fans hold Hulk Hogan in contempt, one is that the Hulkster wasn’t keen on losing. Hogan himself often scoffs at the accusation, however, mentioning that he lost to The Genius of all people in WWE.

Hogan lost to Lanny Poffo via count-out after Mr. Perfect ran down to attack Hulk Hogan during a November 1989 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event. Not only did Hogan lose, though, but The Genius and Mr. Perfect stole Hogan’s winged eagle WWE Title belt, and they proceeded to destroy it with a hammer.

Hogan would get his revenge by receiving a brand-new winged eagle belt and he routinely trounced Perfect on the house show loop, whilst WWE would seemingly take inspiration from the ramshackle strap when introducing the Hardcore Title nearly a decade later.

5. Jake Roberts - WWE Million Dollar Championship

Beyond his love of money, Ted DiBiase loved his Million Dollar Championship and the diamond-encrusted title was firmly around the Million Dollar Man’s waist when he was in his WWE pomp.

Jake Roberts grew tired of DiBiase’s pomposity, though, and how he made others grovel and beg for his money. Roberts took matters into his own hands and nabbed the title for himself, placing the gold with Damian the snake for safekeeping in 1990. Ted was apoplectic as Jake would somehow keep hold of the belt for several months, until the two eventually clashed for the unsanctioned strap at WrestleMania 6.

Jake was hoping to make DiBiase wallow in the mud of avarice at ‘Mania, but unfortunately for Roberts, DiBiase’s bodyguard Virgil hopped on his back to earn a count-out win for the Million Dollar Man.

Ted got his belt back, whilst Jake and Damian ended up sparring with ‘The Model’ Rick Martel, with Martel stealing Jake’s eyesight.

4. The Rock - WWE Intercontinental Championship

A few years before Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock became generational rivals, they were embroiled in a feud over the Intercontinental Championship which began when Rocky stole Austin’s IC belt only days after Stone Cold had won the belt from Owen Hart at Survivor Series 1997. 

With the belt in hand, The Rock declared himself the ‘best damn Intercontinental Champion ever’ as Austin became increasingly irritated. Fuelled by pure anger and with a personalised truck, Austin overcame the Nation of Domination and defeated The Rock to regain the belt at December’s D-Generation X: In Your House.

This only drew the ire of Vince McMahon who ordered Austin to defend the belt against The Rock the next night on Raw. In an act of defiance towards Mr. McMahon, Austin forfeited the Intercontinental Title and launched the belt into the Piscataqua River.

3. Stan Hansen - AWA World Heavyweight Championship

Stan Hansen is one of the most feared in-ring competitors in professional wrestling history, with the legendary brawler known for smashing his opponent’s jaws into pieces with his vicious Lariat. In his career, Hansen broke Bruno Sammartino’s neck, dislodged Vader’s eye out of its socket, and left countless challengers wishing they’d never crossed his path. 

The AWA ended up annoying Hansen whilst he was the reigning AWA World Heavyweight Champion in the mid-1980s. There are different accounts about what exactly happened, including that Hansen either wanted to be adequately paid by AWA, didn’t want to job to perennial champ Nick Bockwinkel, or was not permitted to lose by All Japan head Giant Baba, so he left the building ahead of his planned defence against Bockwinkel in June of 1986.

The AWA board stripped Hansen of the title but he remained in possession of the actual belt and just kept it, defending the strap in Japan. Nick Bockwinkel was named champion by AWA President Verne Gagne with one of the AWA World Tag Team Title belts being used as a stand-in for the world championship while Gagne threatened Hansen with legal action if he didn’t return the title. 

Hansen did return the championship but only after he drove over it several times with his truck and mailed it back to them with mud tracks still on the belt. Hansen would admit decades later that he regretted how he handled the situation. 

2. CM Punk - WWE Championship

The elevation of CM Punk in 2011 was one of the biggest moments in WWE for years, with the real-world implications of Punk potentially winning the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank as his contract ticked down making for genuinely must-see TV.

That’s exactly what CM Punk did in front of a rabid Chicago crowd, with Punk winning following a 30-minute epic, during which Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis called for a repeat of the Montreal Screwjob, only for Cena to relinquish the STF and say he didn’t want to win that way. Cena spilled to the outside to admonish McMahon and Laurinaitis and upon getting back into the ring, CM Punk caught Cena with a Go To Sleep out of nowhere to capture the WWE Championship.

A terrified Vince McMahon then called for Alberto Del Rio to cash in his Money in the Bank contract and Del Rio ran straight into a roundhouse kick from Punk. One iconic blow of a kiss to Vince McMahon later and CM Punk hightailed it out of Chicago with the WWE Title under his arm. 

The storyline had so much potential as CM Punk could appear anywhere with the WWE Title. All he did, though, was pop up at San Diego Comic-Con before returning to Raw eight days later, only moments after John Cena had won a new version of the WWE Championship. 

On the real-life side of things, CM Punk had been rejecting WWE contract offers for around a year until he re-signed with WWE one hour before his Money in the Bank match. Punk wouldn’t become much happier, though, and he walked out of WWE in 2014, not returning to the company until Survivor Series 2023.  

1. Ric Flair - WCW World Heavyweight Championship

After Jim Crockett Promotions became World Championship Wrestling, Ric Flair remained with WCW and his participation was seen as paramount by Ted Turner before he purchased the company in late 1988. However, Flair’s value wasn’t appreciated by WCW President Jim Herd in 1991, with Flair told to change his gimmick to Spartacus, cut his hair, wear an earring, drop the world title, and take an around 50 per cent pay cut.

Flair, unsurprisingly, rejected WCW’s contract offer and he was promptly fired by Jim Herd two weeks before he was scheduled to face Lex Luger at the Great American Bash. Flair was still in possession of the big gold belt and he promptly signed with WWE and mailed the title to Vince McMahon's company, with Bobby Heenan parading around on TV with the strap as he promised the ‘real world’s champion’ would be arriving in the promotion. Flair then showed up with the belt on WWE TV soon after in a famous moment.

Flair was owed around $25,000 after paying an insurance retainer on the title belt and he wasn’t prepared to send the belt back to WCW until he was refunded the money. The NWA originally recognised Flair as champ, but refused to pay him back due to his termination, whilst WCW were furious and threatened to sue.

There was later a lawsuit between WWE and WCW that was dropped but Flair eventually got his money back and WCW received the belt. Flair would then become WWE Champion in the legendary 1992 Royal Rumble match.