10 Wrestlers You Forgot Challenged For The WWE Championship

7. Crash Holly – Raw (November 13, 2000)

We almost put Hardcore Holly on this list, but I reckon that most of our fans remember his incongruous match for the WWE Championship at the 2004 Royal Rumble, a fleeting main event promotion as a way of saying sorry about the whole Brock accidentally breaking your neck…thing.

It’s a fairly well-known little wrestling curio, but did you know that BOTH Holly cousins actually wrestled for the big belt too?

Yup, just over three years earlier on the November 13, 2000, episode of Raw, little Crash Holly had the opportunity to add a WWE Championship run to his 22 hardcore title reigns.

The show opened with current champ Kurt Angle declaring himself the most fightingest champion in WWE history, offering to fight a certain superstar who would have to have his arm tied behind his back, that superstar was Crash Holly, arm tied behind his back because damn gotta make this matchup fair somehow.

Despite stacking the deck against Angle by untying his arm, that wasn’t part of the deal, Crash, Angle was able to overcome the odds, survive a near fall, before locking in the ankle lock for a quick win.

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4. Eric Bischoff – Raw (October 3, 2005)

Good for you, Dad, you silly karate bastard.

On October 3, 2005, Raw made a special homecoming episode of Monday Night Raw, with the program returning to the USA network after five years with the channel then known as Spike TV.

How do you celebrate such a momentous occasion? First of all, bring back Steve Austin to stun every member of the McMahon family, that works, next have a Kurt Angle vs Shawn Michaels Iron Man match.

Yes please, I’ll take seconds. Third have Eric Bischoff wrestle John Cena for the WWE Championship in a no disqualification match with Kurt Angle sat at ringside like he’s front row of a stripclub.

My dad… look, he did his best, Angle accidentally hit himself in the head with a chair, one FU later Bischoff was done, hilariously as someone held up a sign saying, Cena, Kill him 4 Nitro fans.

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5. Fabulous Moolah SD (November 26, 2002)

By accounts Fabulous Moolah was the worst, with heaps of allegations against her for ripping off her trainees, trainees that she would allegedly pimp out to other promoters, she helped screw Wendi Richter back in the 80s, she sounds terrible.

Moolah famously beat Ivory to become WWF Women’s champion in 1999 at the ripe old age of 76.

However, three years later, on the November 28 episode of SmackDown in 2002, Moolah came to the ring, 79 years old, in her hometown to wrestle a mystery opponent.

What would Thanksgiving be without the destruction of an old turkey, as that opponent turned out to be WWE Champion The Big Show in a match that Stephanie explicitly stated was for the WWE Championship.

The match never really got going as Brock Lesnar came out to kill The Big Show, but it’s in the books. If that doesn’t satisfy you, first of all, bite me, but also on April 10, 2000, Triple H defended the WWF title against Taka Michinoku, which is also very silly.

Although thinking about how good taka was, it really shouldn’t be. Got a hell of a nearfall on Trips as well.

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4. Faarooq – King of the Ring 1997

It shouldn’t really be a surprise that Ron Simmons got a WWF Championship match at some point in his career, after all the man became the first African-American to win the WCW World Heavyweight title, but in WWE he would always be remembered as a midcarder, his most famous run being one half of the APA.

However, before he was always pounding ass he used to be the leader of the Nation of Domination, a faction that helped usher in the Attitude Era throughout the late 90s, peaking with Farooq receiving a WWF Championship match, on f**king pay-per-view no less.

At King of the Ring 1997, Faarooq, accompanied by members of the nation, took on reigning champion the Undertaker, including Crush, lol Crush what are you doing there, in a 13-minute match that was really quite boring indeed, which goes some way towards explaining why it’s so easily forgotten.

After the match, Ahmed Johnson beat up The Undertaker. Did Ahmed Johnson get a WWF Championship match? He did not.

• brian kendrick
• Adam Blampied
• wwe championship
• wwe

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