Wrestling is a scripted sport of course, but to the superstars who are booked to win championships, it’s very real. Being scripted to win gold is the equivalent of a job promotion - the company believes enough in you and your abilities to put a title on you, therefore making you one of the top representatives of your company. That’s why being a wrestling champion is so important.
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That’s also why some superstars don’t necessarily want to give up that promotion in WWE or elsewhere in the industry. Whether they have their own best interests (re: paychecks) or the company’s or both in mind, sometimes these superstars refuse to drop their titles to a proposed opponent.
9 Bret Hart
For The Hitman, the respect of his peers was everything. Once Shawn Michaels started disrespecting not only Bret but in his opinion the entire system of putting over guys and helping to make new stars, he decided he wanted nothing to do with dropping the title to HBK.
The powder keg that became known as The Montreal Screwjob happened due to this very reason. Once Bret was leaving for WCW, it was his duty to drop the belt and Vince McMahon refused any other idea besides dropping the title to Shawn.
8 Honky Tonk Man
Over the years, this story hasn’t been refuted - no matter how farfetched it would seem. While serving as the Intercontinental Champion, The Honky Tonk Man was advised that should he agree to drop the title back to Randy Savage that his career would be toast.
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So he took that advice and rather than screw him out of the title, Vince went with it and crowned The Macho Man the undisputed WWE Champion at WrestleMania 4 instead. As for Honky, his record as the longest reigning IC Champion was only recently ended by Gunther.
7 Shawn Michaels
If getting suspended didn’t cause HBK to give up a title, why would a little thing like being asked to return the favor to Bret Hart be any different?! After getting dinged with a positive drug test in the early nineties, Shawn Michaels was suspended. But he opted to take the IC Title with him, leading into the big WrestleMania 10 ladder match with Razor Ramon.
Several years later as the story goes, the reason he decided to take off for a knee injury and “lose his smile” was because he didn’t want to do the favors for Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13.
6 Ric Flair
Ric Flair has won far more than just 16 World Titles throughout his career when you factor in secondary belts and tag team titles. That also means he has lost a ton of titles too and is perfectly fine putting the right guy over at the right time.
In the mid-1990s, the right guy was Sting, but the right time got ruined by a knee injury. Jim Herd tried to get Flair to put over Lex Luger instead. But Naitch vehemently refused. Not because he had heat with Luger, but because he felt The Stinger was the guy. Flair’s decision didn’t do anything to quell his issues with Herd on his way out the door to WWE - and with the Big Gold Belt in tow.
5 Hulk Hogan
Of course, when you’re the number one guy in the entire wrestling industry, you’re allowed to write your own ticket every now and again. Whether you were a Hulkamaniac or not, The Hulkster is the reason a lot of wrestling fans became fans in the first place.
He didn’t always want to do business, however. In the aftermath of WrestleMania 9, after he stole the WWE Title from Yokozuna, he didn’t want to put Bret over and wound up just giving it back to Yoke’ instead.
4 Sable
While there are some Hogan apologists out there who could try and defend his actions over the years, Sable was an interesting case. Yes, she was to the Attitude Era Divas what Hogan was to all of wrestling, but she got way too big for her britches when it came time to put over Luna Vachon.
Luna, a second-generation wrestler was the reason that Sable had come as far as she did as a worker. But the Blonde Bombshell balked at putting her over. Evidently, she had claimed that she simply forgot to bring the belt with her and the issue didn’t come back up.
3 Stan Hansen
As one of Japan’s most beloved Gaijin superstars, Stan Hansen felt loyalty towards All Japan president Giant Baba. That fealty even extended to advice on what to do with the AWA World Title (which Baba had zero to do with).
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After Baba had informed The Lariat of future AWA defenses he had Hansen booked for in AJPW, Hansen would refuse to do the favors for Nick Bockwinkel, or give Verne Gagne his title back. After threatening legal action to get his belt back, the ornery Texan ran it over with his truck and mailed the pieces back.
2 Mike Awesome
Had Paul Heyman’s quick legal thinking not put a stop to Mike Awesome’s not wanting to drop the ECW Title, there’s a good chance the promotion would’ve completely died on the vine. The Gladiator had opted to sign with WCW. Reportedly, Eric Bischoff wanted Awesome to pull a Madusa with the ECW Title.
Heyman’s legal team got involved real quick to put a stop to it. We fans instead got a unique forbidden door moment when a WCW-contracted wrestler (Awesome) defended the ECW Title against a WWE-contracted superstar (Taz).
1 Brock Lesnar
Never let it be said that Brock Lesnar doesn’t know how to do big business when called upon. But at least once during his career, he didn’t agree that dropping the IWGP title to a then-young boy Shinsuke Nakamura was a good idea.
In his autobiography, The King Of Strong Style spoke about the 2006 January 4 Tokyo Dome main event.
I lost the match, and that was the first time I cried at pro wrestling after a match. It was the main event at the Tokyo Dome. This was a pretty hallowed stage, and I knew I hadn't fought the way I imagined I would. And there was, like, this temperature difference between Lesnar and me. I didn't get the sense he felt any love for pro wrestling. It felt like he was just doing his job.
