The power involved with holding a world championship can be quite real in the world of pro wrestling. Even though the results are scripted, a champion usually has the leverage to call their own shots if they are a big enough name or want to risk their reputation. History has shown a few wrestlers going out of their way to make it known they weren’t agreeing to a plan of dropping the belt.
Promotions will have to adjust by either putting the pressure on the talent to change their mind or finding a way to adapt to new plans. Wrestlers have been blacklisted and criticized for such mindsets, but some would see the company adhering to their ideals. Some world champions simply refused to drop their gold for one reason or another.
10 Ric Flair
The end of Ric Flair’s run with WCW in the early ‘90s saw him having a huge dispute with Jim Herd. Flair refused to change his look and adopt a foolish gimmick leading to him making the move to jump ship for a main event run in WWE.
The WCW Championship was held by Flair when WCW wanted him to drop it to Lex Luger. Flair refused since he paid $25,000 of his own money as a deposit for the title and never received it back. The tension saw Flair leaving with the title while WCW vacated the championship on their program.
9 Tessa Blanchard
The most recent instance of a wrestler declining to drop a world title saw Tessa Blanchard’s run with Impact Wrestling end poorly. Blanchard had a lot of buzz when becoming the worst woman to win the Impact World Championship.
However, allegations about Tessa saying and doing terrible things behind the scenes hurt her reputation. Impact saw Blanchard not appearing to their shows due to being in Mexico during the pandemic. Tessa had the option to return to lose the belt but reportedly demanded huge money that Impact declined to give her. Impact vacated the title and Blanchard is a free agent who'll hopefully be picked up by WWE.
8 Stan Hansen
One of the wildest stories in wrestling featured Stan Hansen having a falling out with Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association. Hansen was working for both the AWA and All Japan Pro Wrestling with AJPW becoming a better source of income.
Gagne was livid when Hansen prioritized bookings in Japan and didn’t fly back out to drop the title to Nick Bockwinkel. AWA ran segments calling Hansen a coward and he responded by running the title over with his truck and mailing it back to him.
7 Triple H
The rumors of Triple H never wanting to do jobs saw a few controversial stories break in his career. Triple H’s infamous reign of terror featured him dominating the World Heavyweight Championship picture on Raw with victories over most top stars.
Rob Van Dam and Booker T were the rumored names who Triple H requested to go over when management considered having them end his run. Both faces had strong momentum and failed to ever get to the top during their hottest runs due to Triple H beating them.
6 Bruno Sammartino
Bruno Sammartino was the first legendary WWE Champion and the first top star to refuse to lose matches. The long reigns of Sammartino were by design, but he also was extremely picky about which stars he’d drop the title to.
Sammartino became a massive draw to the WWE market and was essentially irreplaceable during his time as the face of the company. It resulted in Vince McMahon Sr. having to agree to his requests when coming up with the moments for him to drop the title.
5 Bret Hart
Bret Hart made his voice heard when reaching the end of his WWE run in 1997. The contract of Bret ending early had a stipulation that gave him creative control for his final appearances, which was extremely specific at the time.
Vince McMahon’s plan of Shawn Michaels defeating Hart to win the WWE Championship was shut down by Bret feeling disrespected by Michaels. The infamous Montreal Screwjob played out by having the referee ringing the bell with Bret not tapping out to the Sharpshooter. This was the worst-case scenario for a wrestler not wanting to drop the belt.
4 Shawn Michaels
The New Generation Era saw Shawn Michaels refusing to lose the WWE Championship before Bret Hart refused to lose it to him. Michaels had a noteworthy feud with Vader in 1996 for the title in the story of underdog vs big man.
WWE was undecided on the finish with rumblings of Vader being favored to take the title. Michaels refused to drop the title and won the match with a controversial finish. Sycho Sid eventually ended Michaels’ championship reign to confirm the belief that WWE wanted a big man to defeat him.
3 Mike Awesome
The ECW Championship reign of Mike Awesome was going well until he decided to leave for WCW. Many of the frustrating financial elements of working for ECW saw Awesome jumping ship to work for a more secure company.
WCW reportedly wanted Awesome to throw the title into a trash can. Paul Heyman blocked that with a lawsuit, but Awesome didn’t want to work for the company again following the controversial exit. The lawyer forced Awesome to make one final appearance, losing the belt to Taz before walking out through the crowd and driving away in his car.
2 Hulk Hogan
The entire career of Hulk Hogan after his rise saw him rumored to have demands over his booking. Hogan was the top WWE star for about a decade before his time was running out due to mutual unhappiness with Vince McMahon.
Bret Hart was informed he was the one planned to defeat Hogan since Bret lost the title to Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX who lost it to Hogan minutes later. Hogan refused to drop the title to a smaller wrestler and instead lost to Yokozuna.
1 Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar is known for not doing things he doesn’t want to since he has a lot of star power leaning to his advantage. WWE isn’t even the place for his most controversial moment of refusing to drop a world title.
Lesnar won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to become the top dog in New Japan. However, the plans for him to put over a young Shinsuke Nakamura saw Brock downright refusing to lose the gold. Kurt Angle ended up being the person Lesnar agreed to lose to when TNA developed a working relationship with NJPW.